Eritrea/Ethiopia: Govt., detractors
join to renege on Algiers peace accord
Analysis
3 January 2005, EDnews - Yesterday, the detractors
of the government in Ethiopia (aka opposition groups) joined the government in
its attempt to renege on the binding agreement for peace with Eritrea it signed
in Algiers by rallying reportedly 50,000 people behind them on the streets of
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
It is egregious and has absolutely no basis,
whatsoever, for the media to report that as a demonstration against the
government’s plan/initiative/move for peace with Eritrea.
There isn’t and there can’t be a
plan/initiative/move for peace with Eritrea but the Algiers peace agreement
that stands firmly even to this minute that Ethiopia accepted as the only
mechanism for peace with Eritrea and to which Ethiopia has committed itself in
writing and under the witness of the int’l community to only abide by. Ethiopia
even demanded and was granted the guarantee of the major powers that the
Algiers peace accord will be strictly adhered to whereby Ethiopia also agreed
and accepted as well that non-compliance will have severely tangible
consequences.
Let there be no mistake, when
it comes to the Algiers peace agreement and the ruling that settled the border
dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia accordingly, the government and its
detractors in Ethiopia are and have all along been on the same page: They are
all in denial of the Algiers peace accord and in defiance of the border ruling
even as we speak, the only difference being the way how each side manipulates
that to serve its own political interests.
While the opposition is
blunt about it, the government in Ethiopia goes about its attempts to renege on
Algiers deceptively: It labels its actions as plan, initiative, or move for
peace with Eritrea knowing that no one can be against that, when in reality
there can’t be any thing but the Algiers peace agreement for that purpose, runs
around restating the obvious like “there is no alternative to resolving
disputes via dialogue/negotiation” or “ proposal to resolve dispute with
Eritrea via dialogue/negotiation instead of war” again knowing that nothing can
beat that, when in reality there is no dispute but Ethiopia’s defiance of the
ruing that settled the dispute the way Ethiopia wanted it but didn’t turn out
in Ethiopia’s favor.
For all that, there is no
better example than that what Ethiopia recently put out with the label “5-point
point peace initiative to resolve the dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea”.
Again, no one can be against that. But right there, the title already negates
that the dispute has already been settled in flagrant defiance of the Algiers
peace agreement. The rest of the “peace initiative/plan/move” consists of a
2-point plan that manifestly and even by Ethiopia’s own admission violates
cardinal tenets of the Algiers peace agreement in the name of peace on two
counts sugar-coated with 3 items from the Algiers agreement, which are treaty
obligations that Ethiopia must have long met.
Knowing that the only
standard for peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia is the long established and
accepted Algiers peace agreement, there can’t be then any talk of “peace
initiative/plan/move” when referring to what Ethiopia offered on X-mas Day 2004
but a 2-point plan to destroy the Algiers peace accord in disguise, and that is
exactly what the government in Ethiopia wanted it to be. It is a shame for the
international media to sell that for its disguise instead of exposing the
underlying evil.
It’s “election” year in
Ethiopia, they say, and Eritrea is the trump card.
The opposition groups got
the government’s disguised ant-Algiers message, but they are not going to take
the diplomatic trickery surrounding it lying down. So, they attacked the
government’s message for its disguise by blasting the government’s move for not
going far enough to annihilate Algiers peace agreement completely while at the
same time remaining on the same page with the government in reneging on Algiers
peace agreement, which the government doesn’t necessarily object but won’t do
it for fear of international repercussions- hence rather letting the detractors
do it; and that explains why the demo was so large (by some media account and
Ethiopian claims now up to 150, 000) and was conducted incident-free. With that
and as far as the “elections” are concerned, the government and its detractors
are on the same page in Eritrea-politics, which is what the government wanted
to achieve in the first place; therefore, advantage government.
Contrary to media
reports, that is all there is to the weekend demo in Ethiopia and not something
against “peace plan/initiative/move” with Eritrea because as explained above
what the government put out on 25 Nov04 was not that but something clearly
designed to destroy that, which in turn the detractors didn’t object but wanted
to maximize - Team EritreaDaily
(TED) on this 3rd Day of Y2K5