THE EEBC DECISION TEN YEARS LATER AND ETHIOPIA'S ILLEGAL OCCUPATION:
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
By Kidan Eyob
The Final and Binding ruling of The Hague based EEBC was delivered
ten years ago on 13th April 2002. Initially, both Eritrea and
Ethiopia accepted the ruling, and the TPLF regime even celebrated
claiming how big chunks of land were awarded to Ethiopia. However,
few days later, the flip-flopping TPLF regime was instructed by its
masters to reject the ruling and take the physical demarcation of the
boundaries hostage.
Within days, the TPLF regime that lacks self-confidence and self-
esteem, rejected the ruling calling the EEBC irresponsible and later
accepted the ruling in principle but insisted on dialogue in order to
systematically undermine the Final and Binding ruling of the EEBC in
violation of international law.
On the other hand, the Eritrean government in its wisdom accepted the
ruling and called for the physical demarcation to take place without
any precondition. Ten years on, the Eritrean government persistently
maintains the same principled position and vehemently rejects
dialogue before the physical demarcation is carried out as this will
automatically undermine the Final and Binding ruling of the EEBC.
For the last ten years, the International community under the
misguided leadership of the US government has done nothing to
implement the rule of law by putting pressure on the TPLF regime. To
the contrary, Western governments and their NGOs have been providing
financial and material support to the regime. But why does the TPLF
regime violates international law and not only gets away with murder
but gets rewarded for it?
Although the TPLF regime, in its lack of sense of direction and
ownership of its decision making process, has not been forthcoming
with information regarding what the dialogue is all about, there is
speculation that it is about access to the Red Sea and the Port of
Assab in particular. Additionally, this dialogue is believed to be
about providing their masters with a military base in the Dahlak
Islands so they can control the traffic of the strategic commodity
OIL via the Red Sea. Djibouti is happy to provide this service at a
price, however, their preferred strategic location is the Dahlak
Islands where they can do what they like in isolation and unnoticed
by the local population and government.
In an article I read on a well-established and a prestigious magazine
in London, few years before the border conflict was ignited by the
TPLF regime the US was planning to invest hundreds of millions of
dollars in Dahlak Islands constructing all sorts of infrastructures
including an international airport, modern port facilities, hotels
and staff accommodation as well as a casino establishing what I
believed at the time was a perfect tourist island. However, what they
really wanted was to construct all sorts of infrastructures that
their army needs as a base abroad similar to the military base they
had in Eritrea until the 1970s.
However, Eritrean government was not willing to compromise the hard
earned independence at any cost and rejected their demand for a
military base in Dahlak Islands, this rejection frustrated them and
they tried every trick in their book to force the Eritrean government
into submission. The first was for Yemen to attack Eritrea in Hanish
Islands, but the Yemeni government has more sense than the TPLF
regime. After some battles they chose to adhere to international law
and accepted the ruling and the demarcation of the waters on the Red
Sea. This further frustrated the US and decided to experiment with
plan B. This plan was for the TPLF regime to ignite a border conflict
over Badme followed by a full-fledged war with a strategy given to
them by their masters to carry out a regime change and "to have lunch
in Asmara and dinner in Massawa".
This plan failed to materialise and they then had Djibouti do their
dirty work for them which also failed miserably. Then came the
sanctions which were meant to isolate Eritrea, weaken its economy and
force the Eritrean government into submission but to their shock,
Eritrea prevailed and its economy is said to be growing at a fast
rate. What would be their next course of action? Could it be the
weapons of mass destruction conspiracy as they did in Iraq or saving
the civilians conspiracy as they did in Libya?
Eritreans were denied their rights to self-determination in the 1950s
and 60s by the International Community under the misguided leadership
of the US but after 30 years of protracted military struggle for
independence and heavy sacrifice, the rule of law prevailed in a
referendum that took place in 1993. Likewise, the rule of law will
eventually prevail when the physical demarcation takes place and the
brotherly peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia will live side by side in
peace and cooperation while healing their wounds.
The rule of law will prevail over the rule of the jungle
kidaneyob_at_yahoo.co.uk
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Received on Fri Apr 13 2012 - 19:01:57 EDT
