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From: Org_EritreanAmericans (org_eritreanamerican@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 20 2011 - 20:35:16 EDT
OEA Statement
Released July 17, 2011
Royce’s ill-advised campaign against a young African nation continues
The Organization of Eritrean Americans (OEA) once again expresses profound
dismay by Republican Congressman Ed Royce’s continued ill-advised campaign
against the young African nation of Eritrea based on groundless charges
fabricated, orchestrated and pushed by the Red Sea nation’s traditional enemy to
the south, Ethiopia.
Speaking at a hearing on Somalia sponsored by two House Foreign Affairs
subcommittees—subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, and the
subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade--on July 7, 2011,
Congressman Royce repeated all the baseless charges he has been throwing at
Eritrea for several years now in a misguided attempt to have this African nation
designed as a state sponsor of terrorism.
In fact, this has come to look like a summer ritual. In June 2009, he introduced
an amendment to a Houses bill seeking such a designation; however, the United
States House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected the effort. Then last
summer, he sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in yet another
attempt to tar Eritrea with such a label, claiming Eritrea supported insurgents
in Somalia.
We would like to think that the Congressman is uninformed or misinformed about
the facts on the ground in the Horn of Africa in general and Eritrea in
particular. Otherwise, it is preposterous to try to link Eritrea to terrorism.
For example, last year he continued to advance his campaign at a time when the
world, from the UN Secretary General on down, was commending Eritrea’s peaceful
efforts in the region; he continued his decade-old effort to tar this young
African nation which is trying to recover from 40-years of war with Ethiopia.
Last year, Eritrea and Djibouti signed a peace agreement negotiated by the
Government of Qatar to resolve their border dispute. Other organizations
praising Eritrea’s actions to bring about stability in the region were the
European Union and the African Union.
Congressman Royce is probably uninformed about the critical role Eritrea has
been playing to help stabilize the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Just this week,
as a result of Eritrea’s effort, the Sudanese Government and Movement for
Freedom and Justice of Darfur signed an agreement in Doha. Eritrea was highly
commended for its efforts in bringing the two sides together and its overall
contributions in trying to stabilize the troubled Horn of Africa region of
Africa.
In general, his is a campaign that fails to distinguish between those who fight
against terrorism and those who sponsor or support it. This young African
nation has been fighting terrorism since long before September 11, 2001—since
the mid 1990s when bin Laden set up shop in neighboring Sudan. Eritrea was in
fact his first target. It is still fighting against two of al Qaeda’s cells that
bin Laden created in the 1990s—the Eritrean Jihad Movement and the Eritrean
Islamic Salvation Movement—that Ethiopia has been coddling as part of the
so-called alliance it finances and trains to destabilize Eritrea.
Again, we urge Mr. Royce to travel to the region to see for himself the complex
issues that define this volatile part of Africa and, most importantly, to devise
ways to bring about peace in this strategic region at the southern flank of the
Middle East. The OEA, which has been diligently working to build US-Eritrea
relations, welcomes the opportunity to work with Mr. Royce to further enhance
the friendship of the two nations and thereby bring peace and stability for the
Horn of Africa region.
A sound US policy for the Horn of Africa requires a thorough understanding of
the complexity of the issues that define the crises that engulf the region. The
OEA believes that a short-sighted policy for the Horn is likely to jeopardize
long-term U.S. interests in the region, and even the rest of the continent.
Organization of Eritrean Americans (OEA)
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