Eritrea
ever present in Ethiopia’s imperial politics, election or not
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(Editors note: Katie Nguyen is a Reuters correspondent
based in Nairobi. When just a baby, she became a Vietnamese boat refugee when
her parents fled the country, settling in Britain, four years after the April
30, 1975 end of the Vietnam War and reunification of the country under
communist rule.)
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15 May 2005, EDnews- In a report to Reuters yesterday, Katie
Nguyen bemoaned “Eritrea
slips off Ethiopia's election agenda”. No panic Ms. Katie. Ethiopians will
stay on top of Eritrea around the clock, 7 days a week, 365/6 a year.
Eritrea is ever present in Ethiopia’s expansionist radar and
imperial politics, election or no election. It is not on the agenda of
Ethiopia’s election simply because there is no disagreement over Ethiopia’s
expansionist claims over Eritrea among and between all Ethiopians. Would it
then make sense to you to have an election agenda that includes an issue over
which there is no disagreement, whatsoever? Not hard to figure that out,
Mademoiselle Katie?
Journalistic arguments and hearsay won’t do it, Ms. Katie.
You need to have sound and pertinent academic background to explain/report why
you see Eritrea and Ethiopia the way you see them. On the one hand you
acknowledge Ethiopia’s annexation (forceful occupation) of the territory of
Eritrea and on the other hand you speak of Eritrea as a “former province of
Ethiopia”. How do you turn a forcefully occupied territory into a province of
the annexing power unless you want to justify and validate Eritrea’s annexation
in 1962, Mademoiselle Katie?
The boundary ruling must be accepted unequivocally and in
its entirety, Mlle. Katie. Neither Meles nor the opposition accepts the
boundary ruling unequivocally. The opposition’s squabble with Meles over the
boundary ruling, therefore, is merely of tactical nature for they all reject
the ruling but each in a way that serves its political purpose.
Eritrea’s national independence has neither been a political
charitable act nor a matter of Ethiopia’s blessing, Ms. Katie. Indeed, Eritrea
shot its way into independence in 1991 the same way it was annexed in 1962 and
emerged as politically independent and self-governing political entity de facto
and de jure unless you want to tell the world what laws Eritrea would have
violated then?
Your statement “Eritrea, then Ethiopia's northernmost province, voted for and won
independence two years later with Addis Ababa's blessing to become Africa's
youngest sovereign state” is ludicrous and disrespectful of the tens of
thousands of Eritreans that lost their lives in the struggle for Eritrea’s
independence. For what sense does it make voting over an issue whose outcome
has been known in advance to foes and friends of Eritrea? By the way, what do
you think Eritreans were celebrating in May 1992, Ms. Katie? A national
independence that may or may not have materialized a year later (1993)?
Ms. Katie, no one declared 1993 Eritrea’s independence Day
nor was Eritrea “Ethiopia’s northernmost province” until then or ever before.
“Meles defends the independence of Eritrea, saying it ended
a 30-year uprising that had devastated Ethiopia.” Writes Katie Nguyen. That is
rubbish. How does one defend the independence of Eritrea and at the same time
dispute Eritrea ‘s territorial sovereignty even after it has been legally and
conclusively ascertained? You are not making sense Mademoiselle Katie?
“But with
a day to go before Ethiopians head to the polls, Eritrea appears to have faded
from the electoral agenda,” laments Katie Nguyen further. Don’t worry Miss
Katie. Rest assured that Ethiopia’s claim over Eritrea will not even remotely
fade away because Eritrea is in every Ethiopian’s mind not only every
time there is election but on daily basis for Ethiopia is the only country that
is in chronic denial of the irreversible geopolitical consequences of
colonialism.
