Ethiopia’s PM gives reason for accepting border ruling
Excerpt from
report in English by Ethiopian TV on 26 November
Addis Ababa, Nov 26, 2004 - [Presenter] Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
urged the international community to welcome Ethiopia's new peace initiative to
end the deadlock on the peace process with Eritrea.
Meles made the
remarks today while briefing diplomats in Ethiopia on the new peace initiative.
Meanwhile, African countries welcomed Ethiopia's peace initiative. Zekarias
Weldemariam reports:
[Zekarias] Meles
told hundreds of diplomats who gathered in his office this afternoon that
various alternatives for peace were set up at the table by different parties.
[Passage omitted]
Responding to
questions as to what accepting the resolution in principle means, Meles gave
both its legal and political interpretations. He said, legally Ethiopia had
stopped paying its dues and sending liaison officers as the [Eritrea-Ethiopia]
Boundary Commission disqualified itself by passing illegal and unjust decision.
But now, Meles said, Ethiopia would resume paying dues and sending the
officers.
Politically,
Meles noted, accepting the decision, in principle, means coming down from high
moral of rejecting the decision to less moral of accepting it by way of
choosing between bad and worse. In both cases, he added, Ethiopia accepted the
resolution, believing that it could be a basis for whatever would happen in the
future.
[Meles in
English] We are coming down from the high immoral position, as you would have
described it, of rejecting something that we consider illegal and unjust, into
a less moralistic, more pragmatic position of accepting that a decision which
is bad is better than a situation which is very bad. [Passage omitted]
Source: Ethiopian TV, Addis Ababa, via BBC Monitoring in English
1930 gmt 26 Nov 04