It is now an open secret that since the genesis of the Eritreo-Ethiopian border clash, the Tigrean minority government in Ethiopia has feverishly and successfully been engaged in a deliberate hinderance of any peace facilitating efforts exerted by the OAU and its partners. The entire strategy of the TPLF, in this conflict, is based not on protecting Ethiopian national or territorial interests but solely on frustrating the mediators in their search of trust-creating measures. That's why, in spite of the waste of valuable time, none of the mediating parts has been able to address the core issues of the demarcation process.

Archives of recorded cases of global inter-mural conflicts glaringly witness the absurdity of the current conflict which doesn't clearly lend itself to closer scrutiny. The conflict, not only lacks the characteristics that distinguish any initial "traditional" border conflicts but also it has so far been handled in a horrendously careless manner.

The fact that the OAU and its partners have been able to present a relatively sane peace-package for itself is quite an achievement and pieces were beginning to fall into right places hadn't the rulers in Ethiopia, once again blackmailed the mediators forcing them to amend the unamendable TA thereby contradict their earlier position. The cardinal idea of presenting an unamendable peace proposal lies in the guarantee it provides for the surge of the peace process.

The mediators can't keep on rewriting proposals if at the at end, following acceptance, they are anyway going to amend them to satisfy the other part of the dispute. Once a contender is allowed to dictate the progress of the facilitation process, which is the sole task of the mediators as it is clearly outlined in the OAU documents, the whole process is rendered non-starter. This is what the Ethiopian rulers in Addis Ababa, with their instant access to the OAU secretariat, have been allowed to do. They are conscious that they can manipulate the OAU and its partners to serve their interests; hence their total opposition to the participation of any other global organization in this conflict. Especially the UN.

The magnitude of the bloody border conflict and the fact that it has been allowed to continue to such an obscenely long period of time whilst the horror of a chronic famine threatens the lives of millions of Ethiopians clearly begs for swift measures. It can't be denied that, as a continental organization, the OAU has been able to accomplish some progress owing to the scarce resources it houses. But one can't either oversee its inadequacy to firmly safeguard the positions taken in the peace package.

If another round of war in the region is to be avoided and in order to encourage the process of demarcation an impetus to the stalled peace process should be sought without delay somewhere else. A preferable alternative is the UN which has the mandate and better means to speed up the peace process. The OAU can, if needed , jointly cooperate with the UN. It goes without saying that the only way of solving this border conflict is though applying legal and political means. War can't and never will solve anything for any part.

Abraham Berhe