THE EEBC DECISION TEN YEARS LATER AND ETHIOPIA'S ILLEGAL OCCUPATION:
IMPLEMENT EEBC'S APRIL 13, 2002 DECISION NOW!
By Berhane Alazar
So, here we are witnessing another day, which should have been a day
of honor, just whiz by instead as a day of infamy because of the
inept and corrupt organization, the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC), which has become, sadly, the playground of the only
Superpower in town! Yes, a day that should have been heralding a
brighter future for the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia, has become
another causality of the political machinations of the United States
coupled with the international communities' nonchalant attitude when
it comes to the interest and wellbeing of small nations like Eritrea.
The historical jurisdiction that was handed down by some of the most
esteemed international judges of the Eritrea Ethiopia Border
Commission (EEBC) 10 years to the day was meant to put an end to the
needless pain and agony the peoples of the two countries had suffered
by a war that was neither wise nor necessary. The so called "Border"
war of 1998, which was instigated by the Ethiopians, was
appropriately termed, by some political observers, as "Senseless" for
it defies logic in both its sudden occurrence and the magnitude of
helpless souls it had consumed mostly on the Ethiopian side.
After the dust of Weyane arrogance settled, the Eritrean and
Ethiopian governments agreed to let an independent, impartial and
transparent juror, EEBC, to look into the matter and abide by the
jurists decision as final and binding. That decision was handed down
on April 13, 2002. In spite of the false bravado (and wishful
thinking) that Ethiopia sounded immediately after the verdict by
publicly stating that it was "More than satisfied" by the landmark
decision, since then, Ethiopia has refused to abide by the same
ruling to which it had agreed to respect its outcome and continues to
play with fire as can be seen with its hit and run terrorist activity
of March 15, 2012!
If the ill will that continues to be hatched against Eritrea was
coming only from the disgruntled Ethiopians, one could've dismissed
it as an unlucky coincidence to have such an
irresponsible neighbor. But when the UNSC decides to not shoulder its
legal and moral responsibility repeatedly when it comes to Eritrea,
then the "International" conspiracy and the double standard applied
against Eritrea becomes crystal clear.
The UNSC led by the US could not continue to flaunt the rule of law
so contemptuously by calling on "Both sides" for restraint when the
infraction is being carried out by Ethiopia and Ethiopia alone. This
is an insult to our intelligence and no Eritrean (or anyone else with
some sense of fairness) is going to buy such nonsense. The UNSC
should be embarrassed to call on Eritrea to "Withdraw" from its own
territory bordering Djibouti when it conveniently ignores a 12 year
illegal occupation of our land by Ethiopia! If that is not double
standard of justice, I don't know what is!
The Eritrean people had not, are not now, and probably will never in
the future ask anything out of the ordinary of the UNSC or anybody
else for that is not in our nature. What we are asking the UNSC is to
help implement an international verdict which it helped setup and
finance. To that end, it must unequivocally direct the occupying
Ethiopian forces to vacate Eritrean sovereign territory, thereby
allowing for the UN cartographers to place the border markers as
delimited by EEBC in 2007 with no ifs ands or buts. That is all we
are demanding the UNSC do. By doing so, it would dispose its
responsibility of acting for a cause of peace and justice for a
change. Is that asking too much? We don't think so. Otherwise, it
does not take a person with more than an average intelligence to see
the undesirable consequences that is inevitable if the UNSC chooses
its deafening silence by ignoring the volatile Eritrea Ethiopia
border situation, which could easily be engulfed by another full
fledged warfare.
Berhane Alazar
----[Mailing List for Eritrea Related News ]----
Received on Fri Apr 13 2012 - 19:12:03 EDT
