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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.

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