Eritrea: Any One Listening To What Tyrant Afewerki Has To Say?

Commentary

Banking on its worldwide reach, Eritrea tyrant Afewerki gave an interview to Al Jazeera TV covering local, regional, and international issues some couple of week ago, 18 April 2008. Yet, the interview didn’t get the desired international attention at all. This got me wondering whether any one cares about or even listens to what tyrant Afewerki has to say at all?

The answer to my own question is: No more; because whatever Eritrea tyrant Isaias Afewerki has to say has become synonymous with the definition of insanity: Doing/saying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result/response. This may work in quantum physics but not in the real world. Some one needs to inculcate this into the tyrant’s brain, if at all possible.

The most recent proof of such insanity was provided last week when the UN Security Council in a presidential statement restated unequivocally “The Security Council stresses, in accordance with its repeated statements, that the primary responsibility for achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the border dispute and normalizing their relations rests with the parties themselves.” Same response for the umpteenth time to tyrant Afewerki’s same fanciful attempts for the umpteenth time to turn the UN into Enforcement Agency of the Boundary Commission.

This is the case of tyrant Afewerki trying to have it his way and the international community letting him know in no uncertain terms and yes for the umpteenth time too that he can’t have it his way. Certainly, the international community will prevail because the world does not spin according to the whims and dictates of tyrants like Afewerki.

That is not all there is to Afewetki’s tyrannical modus operandi, though. In the said televised interview with Aljazeera TV, Eritrea tyrant Afewerki unveiled yet another insane tyrannical modus operandi: He presented himself as the plaintiff, the law, and the judge in matters pertaining to the border issue and his dispute with UN Security Council over UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE). Translation: Tyrant Afewerki presented himself as the sole and ultimate authority over those matters.

Right at the start of the said interview, tyrant Afewerki correctly invoked the Algiers Agreement as the basis of his argument during the following Q & A session. Indeed, but the international community including the UN go about international agreements by the words, letters, and text contained therein in black & white not by what others, like tyrant Afewerki, willfully read into such agreements, want them to mean, would like to construe them to mean, fantasies or wishful thinking after the fact.

In matters of UNMEE, Afewerki said “The (Algiers) Agreement also provides that upon the issuance of the final and binding ruling of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, UNMEE’s mission automatically ends. And the ruling was announced on 13 April 2002.” Says who? Afewerki the law! Other than that there is no such stipulation in the Algiers Agreement. As a matter of fact, UNMEE’s mandate goes past the date of the delimitation decision (13 Apr 2002) over the completion of the demarcation and beyond [Article 5 & 12 of Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and subsequent adjustment according to UNSC resolution 1430 (2002) of 14 August 2002].

“However, the United Nations has failed to fulfill its duty of implementing the final and binding EEBC ruling on border delimitation.” Says who? Me, I, and myself replies Afewerki the judge! Well, you are utterly wrong judge Afewerki. Where did you get it? You are hallucinating, your honor! There is no such provision in the Algiers Agreement that would make “implementing the final and binding EEBC ruling” the duty of the UN? Your honor, remember we go by the letters and text of Algiers Agreement, not what you willfully read into it?

“The UN, AU and the international community are equally bound by the decision.” Says who again? For a change, I am going to let you guess this time. You are absolutely right, so says Afewerki the plaintiff, the law, and the judge! Your honor, FYU, the Algiers accord carries the title ‘Agreement between the Government of the State of Eritrea and the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (the parties)’. How on earth does, then, an agreement they never entered into/are party to or a court’s decision they never sought bind people/organizations, your honor? Snap out of your celestial dreams, your honor?

“the Commission decided to virtually demarcate the border on the map, thus leading to the culmination of the border issue.” Declared judge Afewerki. Oh, yeah? The Commission indeed decided to virtually demarcate the border, but it never termed such demarcation as the culmination of the border issue, that is your wishful thinking, sir, pardon me I mean your honor. To the contrary, the commission ‘greatly regretted that it could not take its work through to its full conclusion’ as clearly stated in its concluding remarks following the last meeting with the parties on 6-7 September 2007 in the Hague that read as follows: “Needless to say we greatly regret that we could not take our work through to its full conclusion, but at least we leave you with a line that is operable. It is up to you to work out how to implement it. It is up to you to consider such devices as open boundaries so that some of what you identify as manifest absurdities because a line cuts a village or a road several times can be overcome by allowing the boundary to be open and nationals to pass freely from one side to the other or even to cultivate their fields on the other side. ¶30 EEBC 28 Sep 2007” (emphasis mine).

With that, the Commission didn’t leave the border issue at that- the ‘virtual demarcation’- but made it up to the two parties “to work out how to implement it” and bring the border issue to its culmination. Your wishful thinking aside, case is not closed yet, your honor, tyrant-turned-judge Afewerki.

“the Algiers Peace Agreement has reached legal conclusion. And after virtual demarcation, there is nothing to be discussed as regards the Eritrean-Ethiopian border issue, because virtual demarcation on the map has taken place. So what legal justification is there for a peacekeeping mission to be deployed along the border?” Says who? Almighty tyrant Afewerki!

With all due respect, your honor, that is an utterly perverted understanding of the Algiers Agreement. Your honor, unless your cognitive functions have been impaired, the Algiers Agreement has never been, was not, is not and never has been so designed and crafted by ‘the wisemen’, to use your own words, to be a one-line agreement that begins and ends with ‘virtual demarcation’ of the border. Read it again, sir, it is a comprehensive agreement that goes well beyond the decision of the Commission.

Your Highness tyrant Afewerki, after virtual demarcation, there is the issue of implementing it that needs to be worked out between you and your nemesis south of the border, as the Commission clearly stated?

As to UNMEE, your honor, they have the same legal justification that got them there in the first place- it is called something like ‘Cessation of Hostilities Agreement’ that is an integral part of the Algiers Agreement? Sorry, your honor has long unilaterally declared that agreement moot, good luck. Well, just for the record, for the rest of the world that agreement is still intact, regardless.

“…..the Commission decided to virtually demarcate the border on the map, As such, there exists no other border demarcation in Africa as clearly defined as that of the Eritrean-Ethiopian boundary.” Wow, tyrant Afewerki, gloating over a piece of paper? Yes, your honor, the map is paper and only paper just like our Eritrean national constitution that you dismissed as “paper and only paper. I don't want to cheat everyone with this paper. I don't want to mislead everyone that this paper is a panacea.” Is your memory still intact, your honor? By the same token, how does your honor “want to cheat everyone with this new paper called map or want to mislead everyone that this paper is a panacea” to the border issue?

Be it as it may, how do you go about this Wunder Map, your honor? May be make it mandatory for people to carry it with them in order to make sure they stay within the confines of sovereign Eritrean territory? Even then, how are the people supposed to figure that out if the border is not clearly marked on the ground?

“..we have asked the UN Secretary General and the Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces from sovereign Eritrean territories. This task is basically the responsibility of the UN Peacekeeping force and that of the Security Council. Nevertheless, they are not prepared to put it into effect.” Says now Afewerki the plaintiff.

Your honor, His Highness tyrant Afewerki, the UN Security Council does not adopt resolutions for whatever purpose and intent based on requests and assessments of tyrants of the world like you but based solely on its own assessments- just a humble pointer, sir. That is why they rightly didn’t defer to your tyrannical request in this matter.

The task of UN Peacekeeping force is that what its tag implies: keeping peace attained based on the Algiers Agreement in this case. It is neither the mandate nor the task of UNMEE to evict forces from one or the other territories, - just another elementary humble pointer. Your honor, we are all entitled to our wishful thinking, but it is not applicable here!

Now let me reverse my original question: Does tyrant Afewerki listen to whatever others have to say at all? Certainly not. It would be completely antithetical to his tyrannical ‘my way or the highway’ modus operandi.

Case in point, the current Djibouti/Eritrea border imbroglio. The international media is all over it, international organizations, Arab League, AU, are expressing their concerns, and the UN Security Council has been alerted in writing. Yet, to the tyrannical knowledge of dictator Afewerki, the issue doesn’t exist. As a matter of fact, the BBC today reported that tyrant afewerki’s sycophantic surrogate at the EU, Girma Asmerom, “was bemused by such accusations, and that "There is no such problem with Djibouti; we have never had a problem with Djibouti," he said. Never? 1991, 1996, 1999 never border problems? Does Eritrea share a border with Djibouti at all? May be not to the knowledge of tyrant Afewerki?

Your honor tyrant Afewerki, grant me the liberty to share this with you: If what you are doing over and over again is not working, try something else. Give it a shot, you never know. It might work. Otherwise, your ‘My way or the highway’ tyrannical modus operandi is suicidal.