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*A Great Eritrean Demo in a Fantastic Weather *
*By Kidane Eyob*
*May 04, 2012*
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In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the EEBC Final and Binding
verdict, the British Eritrean community in the UK and Friends of Eritrea
organised a peaceful demonstration in London. Initially, the plan was to
march from Hyde Park to Downing Street on a Saturday as we had done in the
past, but due to restrictions on the day, the Police would not grant us
permission to either conduct the demo on a Saturday or march as planned.
Instead, we were granted permission to conduct the demo on Monday
30/04/2012 between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm within a designated area outside
Downing Street.
This was a challenge to the community because it is during office hours,
however, as witnessed during the glorious occasion, people made
arrangements like booking annual leave in advance in order to join the
Demo. Some members of the community travelled from as far as Manchester,
Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and other parts of the UK to join the great
Demo. This shows how passionate and committed people are to the cause.
The weather during the weekend leading to Monday 30/04/2012 was generally
wet, windy and cold, however, to our delight, on Monday, the weather was
fantastic, generally sunny and warm. Someone I know said, “God is on our
side because all we ask for is for the rule of law and justice to prevail
and this, in principle puts us on the same side as the Almighty, after all
the rule of law was first introduced when God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments”.
In addition to the fantastic weather, there was another good reason why the
people were jubilant and cheerful. The rumours that had been spreading like
bushfire the previous week, regarding the state of health of the President
were proved to be false when Eri-TV conducted live interview on Saturday
evening. The timing of his interview was impeccable and a vital source of
energy with which those in the demo were fully charged.
I arrived at Downing Street shortly after 10 am and there were about 50
people there flying the Eritrean flag high, making it the centre of
attention for the passers-by including tourists and passengers travelling
through the main bus route.
Within an hour, there were hundreds of Eritreans gathered carrying Eritrean
and UK flags and placards as well as cheering slogans and at times dancing
to the tunes of the popular Eritrean songs particularly those by Weid
Tikabo and Jemal.
By midday, there were over a thousand Eritreans of all ages and calibre
from all over the UK chanting and cheering the slogans. Their noises were
heard loud and clear by passers-by and civil servants working in Downing
Street and in the nearby building of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(FCO).
At 12:30 pm, a delegation that represented the community went to Downing
Street to hand in a letter and the petitions that were signed by those in
the demo to the Office of the Prime Minister and shortly afterwards marched
back to cheering and jubilant crowd.
The Eritrean community delegation had also made arrangements in advance to
meet with the FCO officials responsible for the Horn of Africa. This
meeting was scheduled for 2:30 pm. The demo was peacefully concluded
following a traditional dance and speech by the organisers advising people
to disperse peacefully and go home in while the delegation walked towards
the FCO building for the meeting.
The delegation met with three FCO officials to convey the community’s grave
concerns, anger and frustration with the UK government’s lack of
impartiality as well as the handling of its moral and legal obligation
vis-a-vis the Final and Binding Verdict of the EEBC decision and its
support for the unjust sanctions 1907 and 2023 imposed on Eritrea which are
based on unsubstantiated accusations that lack hard evidence.
The delegation met with the FCO and discussed the aforementioned paramount
issues for over an hour. The delegation asserted that the UK government has
a moral and legal obligation to help implement the physical demarcation of
the boundaries which have been virtually marked by the EEBC in 2007 and to
put pressure on Ethiopia to vacate from occupied Eritrean territory.
Furthermore, the group with the help of various documented examples like
those statements made by US Ambassador in Ethiopia which were subsequently
disclosed by Wikileaks emphasised that the accusations made by the Somalia
Monitoring group are unsubstantiated and lack evidence. Also, valid reasons
were highlighted indicating that the Monitoring group is neither impartial
nor independent as it is claimed to be. The delegation reiterated that
Eritrea is innocent until proven guilty rather than guilty until proven
innocent as it seems to be in this case. The delegation emphasised that the
burden is on the Monitoring Group to prove that Eritrea is guilty but not
on Eritrea to prove its innocence.
The FCO officials listened carefully and made notes of the statements made
by the members of the delegation, however, their response was the same old
story which can be summarised as follows:-
1- The UK government recognises the Final and Binding verdict of the
EEBC, however, they made a point that an impasse is reached as the
Ethiopian Government is demanding engagement in order to address the border
dispute and allow demarcation to take place. (note: the term dialogue
repeatedly used by the State Department officials is morphed into
“engagement” )
2- The UK government will not use the aid money they give to Ethiopia as
leverage to put pressure on Ethiopia so it allows demarcation to take
place. Also, they reiterated that the aid money is not used to arm Ethiopia.
3- The UK government accepts the report produced by the Somalia
Monitoring Group as factual and impartial and supports the sanctions;
however, these sanctions are designed such that they do not have an adverse
impact on the economic hardship of the local population. Also, they have
rejected Ethiopian government’s repeated attempts to link the recent
abduction of European tourists in the Afar region to the Eritrean
government as they have not been able to provide any evidence. They have
also, rejected Kenya’s claims that planes travelled from Eritrea to make
deliveries to Somalia.
In response to the three points listed above, the delegation responded by
stating that:
*1- *After three rounds of conflict where over 70,000 people were killed
and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes, the two governments
chose to negotiate/dialogue/engage. Following negotiations that involved
the international community, the two governments agreed to sign a Final and
Binding Verdict in 2000. The legal experts in their wisdom knowingly
authored the Final and Binding Verdict for valid reasons and the EEBC
reached the Final and Binding Verdict on 13 April 2002. Ethiopia’s
continued rejection of the verdict hijacked the demarcation process;
however, after waiting patiently for 5 years, the EEBC in its capacity
legally and virtually demarcated the boundaries and issued copies of maps
to both countries, to the UNSC and to other relevant bodies for reference
purposes. *Therefore there is no longer border dispute as it was legally
settled and what we have is an occupation in violation of international law.
*
2- The delegation pointed out that when the UK government finances
Ethiopia’s badly needed social and economic expenditure with £330 M
annually , the regime in Ethiopia is directly enabled to splash its revenue
on buying arms, for example 200 tanks from Ukraine at a cost of $100 M in
2011. Furthermore, the delegation informed the officials that as disclosed
by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) it was disturbed to learn that
"between the beginning of 2008 and September 2011, the UK licensed military
and dual use equipment for export to Ethiopia.
3- On the subject of the Monitoring group, the delegation gave examples
of accusations including the fiasco when it was reported that Eritrea had
2000 soldiers in Somalia in December 2006 when Ethiopia and US invaded
Somalia. Furthermore, the delegation questioned the inappropriate sources
of information used by the Monitoring Group in gathering unsubstantiated
accusations. These sources are known to have their own motives and hidden
agendas. The delegation asserted that the Somalia monitoring group is
neither impartial nor independent by highlighting the political motives and
compromised position of the person leading the group and advised the
officials to review the report critically and with impartiality.
For some members of the delegation, these were the same old stories they
have been listening for the last ten years and for those who know the
Eritrean history and the cunning role played by successive UK governments
since 1940s, the pattern and behaviour is consistently that of injustice
and double standards perpetuated against peace loving, God fearing Eritrean
people who against all odds and the wishes of these governments prevailed
achieving their right to self-determination militarily and subsequently
gained international recognition in 1991 and 1993 respectively. And in
spite of the declared and undeclared sanctions and lack of foreign aid that
comes with strings attached, Eritrea is set to achieve food security and
the various Millennium Developmental Goals.
The statement below which was disclosed by Wikileaks is one of the examples
used by the delegation:-
*In conversation with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni held on 20
September 2009, Ambassador Rice: “… reminded Museveni that past experience
suggested that the UNSC would not block a resolution led by African members
and supported by the African Union. She shared the U.S. read that, if
Burkina Faso and Uganda co-sponsor this resolution, the British will
support, the French will “keep their heads down” and will not block…” *
Our peaceful struggle will continue until the rule of law prevails over the
rule of the jungle.
Kidaneyob_at_yahoo.co.uk
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Received on Fri May 04 2012 - 23:12:14 EDT
