Beyond the refusal to sign the Technical Agreement of the OAU's framework for peaceful negotiations, Ethiopia is now openly and proudly engaged on a mission of high campaign to explain and justify why it should and will be going on an all offensive war against Eritrea. This, in the face of international condemnation of violence, repeated calls for cease-fire and a strong urging by the international community for Ethiopia to sign the Technical Agreement.

One would think that Ethiopia, one of the poorest nations in the world, would have a vested interest to seek peace in the face of the drought induced crisis that have put 7 million people at risk of starving to death and over 3 million infected with the rampant aids virus, just to name two of its overwhelming crisis. Indeed, it should have a vested interest in peace so that its precious young is not spent as cannon fodder in a war that will have no winners at the end nor would bring a lasting solution to the border dispute. From a military point of view, the two major battles it has engaged Eritrea, Badme and Tsorona, have been at a tremendous cost in human as well as material resources that it should be apparent to the ruling regime in Addis Ababa that there is much more to gain from a negotiated settlement than the destruction of war.

Could it be the will to restore a self-perceived inferiority complex of the ruling party (Woyane) in the Ethiopian Government that feeds this horrendous and shameless appetite for war and destruction? Could it be that it is a cleverly designed policy for the Eritrean Government's material and human resources, its people-their will and resolve-for nationhood, to systematically and slowly bleed to death? Could the dream of great Tigray be responsible for this, "only an all out war will do", policy?

Whatever the reason and logic behind Ethiopia's policy of war should matter very little to the international community and all peace loving people of the world. The most important thing is that Ethiopia, and Ethiopia alone, has a policy of shamelessly expressed appetite for war and destruction. Ethiopia has consistently pressed on its will for war, its desire for destruction and its contempt for international law and human rights, defying even its own signature on the OAU's Framework of Peace agreement and Modalities, in pursuit to satisfy its appetite for war.

In its latest acts of lawless aggression, Ethiopia again deported 1,300 innocent civilian Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin through a dangerous war zone; as of last week it has rounded up and put away in detention camps an additional 486 Eritreans. Ethiopia has set free some Derg era remnant soldiers so that they could participate in the war it is planning to unleash upon Eritrea any day now; it has further sought and secured China and North Korea's military experts to resurrect and run its Derg era military hardware factories.

While the young nation of Eritrea who have made so many concessions to secure peace is the primary victim of Ethiopia's aggressive and often unpredictably cruel war policies, the UN and OAU should be equally alarmed enough at the depth of defiance, disregard and contempt Ethiopia has shown toward their relentless effort at mediation.

The international community also have an obligation to act expeditiously and send a firm message to Ethiopia that all international laws must be upheld and peace must be secured. The ethnicity based, cruel and inhumane, deportations of innocent civilians; the employment of, imprisoned for crimes against humanity of Derg era, pilots and soldiers to repeat the atrocities they once had committed upon the Eritrean people should send shivers down the spines of any peace loving people of the world.

Ethiopia should not be allowed to play the bully of the Horn of Africa, at the expense of its neighbors, so that it could assert its position as a super power of the region.

The Eritrean people having registered their voices in clear and consistent manner through out this conflict that they wish to resolve the border dispute through negotiated and legal settlement, deserve to celebrate the much sought peace and stability they have earned through one of the longest armed struggle in Africa. They deserve to appreciate a peaceful developmental stage where they could concentrate in making up for the lost times due to the successive Ethiopian occupation of the past decades. The Horn and the rest of Africa as well deserve to turn their attention towards development in the 21st century.

Ethiopia's shameless appetite for war and destruction is not a positive statement of its civilized and proud history, as it often claims, rather it has become a reflection of backward mentality of unlearned and undisciplined mind that should have no place in the history of mankind at the end of the 20th century. Ethiopia's wielding of the sword is not about its self-respect, sovereignty or military muscle, but it has become Africa's shame and darkest spot for lacking the maturity and skill to sit down at the negotiating table.

The world bodies and the international community, having done their utmost to resolve the crisis through mutually agreed upon peaceful negotiation, should condemn Ethiopia in the strongest terms possible. Nothing short of economic and trade sanctions, arms embargo and the suspension of its aid packages would bring Ethiopia to seek a peaceful negotiation and legal settlement of the border crisis.