Right from the start Ethiopia did not have truth on its side. Not when it declared war on Eritrea seven months ago, and not during the elaborate edifice of lies and deceptions it has built since. The superstructure of lies Ethiopia had meticulously built with the help of the US Embassy in Addis and some friends in Washington, has met the fate of a House of Cards facing a strong gale of wind. The wind that swept away Ethiopia's House of Cards face in came in the form of TRUTH and FACTS. We knew Ethiopia had neither TRUTH nor FACTS, but the world would not listen to us. Then came Ouagadougou. Finally the World discovered what we had known all along. The expose came in the form of the five page and 25 point "AIDE MEMOIRE" and the speech that Meles followed it up with. Meles' speech is now being spinned as an impromptu speech. Impromptu or not, the speech for the most part was based on the AIDE MEMOIRE he had prepared and distributed at the meeting. It is on this, prepared speech, I want to focus.

The AIDE MEMOIRE was the official Ethiopian response to the OAU High-Level Delegation's Proposal for Framework Agreement for settling the Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute. The MEMOIRE is a bizarre document. It's a psychobabble one associates with loony university professors who can't give a coherent explanation in understandable English. The document talks darkly about what "afflicts" Eritrea; about Eritrean sense of "invincibility"; about Eritrean "mentality", and how well Ethiopia knows Eritrea when the rest of the world does not. These are the same guys who brag they "know" Eritrea and on that basis try to send an army to invade Eritrea believing that the Eritrean people would receive them as "liberators." These are the same guys who are telling each other that they are totally dumbfounded that Eritreans in and out of the country are solidly behind the Eritrean government. And they say they understand Eritrea and Eritreans ! They have no shame. They can no longer play the same old and tired game. Yes they can run but can't hide. Once you overlook all the psychoanalytic mambo jumbo, what you have is a leadership scared witless that it bit more than it could possibly chew, and is now screaming for help from the international community.

Ordinarily one would expect Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to provide facts and evidence why his country's position on the dispute is correct, and Eritrea's false. Especially in a diplomatic note to be circulated to the OAU Assembly Heads of State, one would expect the Prime Minister to be careful with the facts and his language. He was careless with the former, and utterly irresponsible with the later.

People would expect the PM to highlight the facts and evidences his country has. May be facts on "how Badme and its environs, the Akran region, Altiena and its environs, and the Badda area are all Ethiopian and Eritrea is illegally occupying them". Evidence on how "Ethiopia respects the OAU charter", facts on "how Ethiopia, the founding member and host of the OAU, adheres to the sanctity of colonial borders and how it remains true to them". Evidence on how "Ethiopia has respect for international law and international institutions". Facts on how "Ethiopia, the land of Sheba, a country whose children are descendants of Israel, not Africa, and its Kings and Prime Ministers are elected, not by people but by God, respects the human rights of people who were created in the image of God".

Unfortunately on all the above counts Ethiopia has NO facts but myths, NO evidence but lies. Thus the PM couldn't write anything on issues relating to the conflict. Quite to the contrary, all the facts and evidence are those that incriminate Ethiopia and exonerate Eritrea. If the MEMOIRE was to discuss on the basis of facts then Ethiopia would have to come to terms with ADI MURUG, the 1997 Tigray Map, the deportation of innocent farmers from Badme and its environs, its state sanctioned robbery of the property of innocent Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, ... all these, according to the MEMOIRE, were non events. They could not be faced because Ethiopia has never been in the habit of facing TRUTH.

Up to this moment Ethiopia had tried to mislead the world and misrepresent the facts. Up to last weekend Ethiopia had been running away from talking about issues and was dodging questions. To date Meles and Seyuom couldn't produce a map that shows Ethiopian areas occupied by Eritrea and there was nothing new they could come up with at Ouagadougou. Presenting evidence and especially when Eritreans are in the audience and listening was what Meles was trying to avoid at all cost. Especially facing his one time comrade, Isaias.

Last week the dreaded moment came. The Prime Minister could no longer hide. He was placed in the most uncomfortable position of facing Isaias, having to look his one time mentor in the eye. The poor Prime Minister blinked. He failed his Foreign Minister Seyuom, for he forgot all the lines of lies Seyuom coached him the previous seven months. His presentation embarrassed the OAU, given Isais's stellar presentation. The OAU, after all, went out of its way to favor him, responding to his incessant pleas to help him secure his political base by pressuring Eritrea to get out of Badme. It even made the unheard of request of asking Eritrea to relinquish a part of its territory as a "good will gesture" to the OAU. MelesU presentation was a disgrace unheard of in the annals of diplomatic history.

What took almost 80 years (since Ethiopia joined the League of Nations) to mask Ethiopia's congenital art of diplomatic deception, Meles unmasked it in a day and few pages. Meles, bless his heart, showed the world the naked Ethiopian diplomatic deception and misrepresentation of facts. Aklilu might have gotten away with it at the UN in the 40s, Ketema Yifru might have masked it in the halls of the OAU, and Menghistu in the corridors of the Soviet Block, but Meles, was generous enough to expose the true color of Ethiopia: lies and deception. If there were members of the Central Organ of the OAU who hadn't laughed at Ethiopian diplomacy last week, they have to be those who were snoring at the meeting or those who hadn't read Meles' Memoire.

The distinguished Prime Minister, his Excellency Meles Zienawi's "AIDE MEMOIRE" was not in fact an "AIDE MEMOIRE" on facts and evidences, rather it was, in the words of President Isaias Afeworki, "shrill and offensive language designed to drown the facts in a sea of accusations. It is the classical case of a thief crying ,"thief!" at the top of his voice."

The 25 points of the Aide Memoire totally avoid the real issues and instead talk "On the Source of Eritrean Conduct", "On Eritrea's Track Record", "On Eritrea's Lack of Civility and Rudeness", and on "Enough is enough is what Eritrea needs to be told now--Any Less Will Be a Recipe for Disaster".

In his AIDE MEMOIRE, Meles brought in Yemen into the picture to illustrate Eritrea's "aggressive" tendency. This attempt to draw a link between the Hanish islands and Badme has been a staple of Ethiopian diplomacy since the decision was rendered a few weeks ago. Surely the Tribunal awarded the bulk of the Hanish Archipelago to Yemen, but not for the reasons Ethiopia has been propagandizing. Leaving aside for the moment that the evidence Eritrea presented to the Tribunal came from Ethiopian archives, indeed if there was a weakness in Eritrea's claim the fault should lie principally with the quality of evidence Ethiopia had accumulated when the islands were in its possession. Even then the Tribunal's decision was not because Yemen's evidence was any better. In fact the Tribunal made it clear that neither country made persuasive arguments justifying its jurisdiction over the islands. The decision went Yemen's way because in the words of the Tribunal, "as a matter of relative weight." The Tribunal concluded :

"As neither Party has in the opinion of the Tribunal made a convincing case to these islands on the basis of an ancient title in the case of Yemen, or, of a succession title in the case of Eritrea, the Tribunal's decision on sovereignty must be based to an important extent upon what seems to have been the position in Zuqar and Hanish and their adjoining islets and rocks in the last decade or so leading up to the present arbitration. Anything approaching what might be called a settlement, or the continuous display of governmental and presence, of the kind found in some classical cases even for inhospitable territory, is hardly to be expected."

This is the basis of the Hanish ruling. Yemen got a title to the islands because it showed more activity in them in the 80s. The reason is clear. Eritreans could not show activity there because they were trying to fend off the archenemy, Ethiopia, in mainland Eritrea. Ethiopia didn't show much activity there because it was afraid of loosing the whole of Eritrea and was fighting for survival.

Ethiopia cannot use the Hanish decision to show a relationship between Badme and Hanish. There's no relationship. What's more Ethiopia herself had claimed the islands in the eighties. And as I said before, Eritrea used the materials Ethiopia had collected to show its sovereignty over the islands. If Eritrea did not have a case in the nineties, then may be Ethiopia didn't in the eighties. But Ethiopia cannot have it both ways.

Sudan is another country Ethiopia loves to cite, as a country with whom Eritrea is at loggerheads. There also Ethiopia knows very well it was also at loggerheads with the Sudan, except it was not as forthcoming as Eritrea was. If the NIF had a fight it was with Ethiopia first. Wasn't it in Ethiopia that the NIF supported terrorists tried to assassinate Husseini Mubarek of Egypt, right in the eyes of many African leaders? Wasn't the EPRDF, in Meles' own admission, that had accused the Sudan in the Security Council and was calling for sanction against Sudan? WasnUt Ethiopia's call for sanction against the Sudan aimed at harming the Sudanese people more than the NIF?

Then there is the Djibouti incident. As the investigative reporter, Jean Louis Peniunu revealed Eritrea had never invaded Djibouti. All the noise of 1996 was the making of Djibouti's Foreign Minister, Mussa Chechem. He had to make those fabrications for his own power struggle. All this is a matter of record. As Reuters reported it at the time Djibouti and its Foreign Minister had publicly apologized for their false claim. As for Eritrea drawing a map taking a big chunk of Djibouti's land, it is a lie the Meles-Seyum style. First of all it was not Eritrea that drew the said map. It was a map drawn when the French and Italians made a pact in 1934 to cede the strip of French Somaliland territory between Der Eloua and Ras Dumiera to Italy. To this effect a treaty was signed on January 7, 1937, but the French Senate refused to ratify it. This was an issue Eritrea never raised. In fact throughout Eritrea's struggle, Eritrea's territory was known to be from Ras Kasar to Ras Dumiera and Karora to Zalambessa. Except in the maps that have their roots in the above mentioned semi-ratified treaty Eritrea never made a big deal of this strip north of Der Eloua. The issue of dispute between Libya and Chad on the Ouzzuzu strip was on the same French-Italian non-ratified treaty issue. If we are going to talk of track record of bullying neighbors then it is Ethiopia that has to face its past demons. Who would forget Ethiopia's claim and taking of the Gadaduma wells that it couldn't take when Kenya was a British colony. Unfortunately newly independent Kenya, had to make concessions because it was more interested in saving its NFD (Northern Frontier District) from Somalia's claim. What about EthiopiaUs repeated claim on Djibouti, let alone its 29 years of illegal occupation of Eritrea. IMO, wedi Afeworki's statement "a thief crying,'thief!'" hit the nail right on the head.

I could go on refuting all Ethiopian lies, but I don't want to take the readers time more than what I already have done. But more importantly what does all these have to do with the issue of Badme and other areas? Is it Ethiopia who is accusing Eritrea of drawing a map taking Djibouti's land? What does it has to say about its illegal new map that is all over Ethiopia's embassy web-sites and every EthiopianUs wallets and purses? At least those, not Eritreans, who drew the faulty map of Eritrea have a signed, though not ratified treaty, to back their map. What about Ethiopia? What legal basis did its Mapping Authority have when it drew the new map of Ethiopia? What good reason, other than aggression and expansion, does it have to unilaterally do away international border that was a result of treaties that were signed and ratified by past Ethiopian governments?

Any person who reads this "AIDE MEMOIRE" on the above topics, topics that have nothing to do with the issues at hand, could discover Ethiopia's bankrupt policy and should ask "what does Ethiopia want?" What is the aim of Ethiopia? Where does Ethiopia want to take Africa? By trying to take the OAU Central Organ away from the main issue what is the objective of talking about Eritrea's relation with Yemen, the Sudan and Djibouti? What does it want to achieve? Is it trying for a diplomatic encirclement of Eritrea? If that is the goal that is futile. As long as Eritrea, unlike Ethiopia, is true to its facts and evidence, it can stay its course.

Finally, Meles told the OAU that " 1) that colonial boundaries are sacrosanct, 2) that border dispute cannot and must not be resolved by force." Aren't these lies. If he believes the first then why is he claiming that Badme is Ethiopian and Eritrean agression has to be reversed? Don't we all know, beyond any doubt, that Badme and its environs is Eritrean? If he believes the second, then why did he invade Adi Murug and shot and killed at Eritrean officers that came to talk about border issues? The OAU and the World should know that Meles and company can not tell the TRUTH.

Ethiopia can not live to lie and deceive Africa and the world. It should have known that sooner or later it was going to be asked to present the facts. When the true moment came and when the world was listening, it failed miserably. When it came to a crucial moment of presenting evidence and showing civility, Ethiopia exposed itself. Now thanks to Meles what Eritreans knew for years, the true colors of Ethiopia, is coming out in the open.