Eritrea/Ethiopia: Talks long over Gen. Smith, verdict out 4/13/02
Commentary
By TED
11 Feb 2005
In a “Special
Defense Department Briefing” he held yesterday, 9 Feb 2005, CENTCOM Deputy
Commander Lieutenant General Lance Smith said “There are some
tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia right now as far as the border control
and who owns Bodme and some of the other areas up there, and that is yet to be
resolved. And we are hoping that they will sit down and talk and come to
some resolution on that, but we don't see anything, any immediate action” (sic). http://www.dod.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050209-1564.html
With all due respect General, unless you want
to negate, disregard, and ignore the Peace Accord Eritrea and Ethiopia signed
in Algiers annum 2000 and agreed to only abide by, Eritrea and Ethiopia have
long sat down and talked about “who
owns Bodme and some of the other areas up there”(sic) and the resolution on
that has long been out and exists in the form of the decision of the
Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission of 13 April 2002 and there is nothing
“that is yet to be resolved”. By treaty of Algiers, the decision of the
boundary commission is final, binding, without appeal or recourse and cannot be
talked about in whatever form or shape once it has been rendered.
The United States, the UN/UNSC, and other
international organizations stand by and firmly support the Boundary commission
and its decision. The latest US stance on the decision of the EEBC has been a
call for strict adherence to the Algiers peace accord: (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/28294.htm
)
General Smith, your above statement, though,
clearly departs from the official stance of the US Department because you refer
to the border issue as something “that is yet to be resolved” and hope that
“they will sit down and talk and come to some resolution”. That would mean
reopening a legally settled matter, which can only happen by depriving it of
its legal basis: The Algiers peace accord. Though that is possible, it is not a
formula for peace but a patented recipe to the contrary, which one would
seriously doubt that is really what the US wants?
With all due respect again, General Smith, if
your statement takes root, then that could be a cause for a major uneasiness in
the region, God forbid.