Ethiopia begs for more aid for famine victims. (See Addis Tribune report, 'The [Ethiopian] Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) "Says 700 Thousand Tonnes Of Relief Food Urgently Needed" By Our Staff Reporter, May 12, 2000). At the same time, literally speaking, Ethiopia launches a massive military offensive against Eritrea. You know how big this offensive was. Ethiopia claimed destroying eight (that is right, eight (8)) Eritrean army divisions over the weekend. That is, according to the Ethiopian statement, more than forty (40) thousand troops. Of course, we Eritreans know the claim was rubbish because the Ethiopians have been lying about everything regarding the conflict for the last two years.

But don't take our word for it. Here is what the AP reported exposing Ethiopia's lie:

"When journalists toured the area Tuesday _ accompanied by Ethiopian officers and a government representative _ they saw the ...bodies of 15 Eritrean troops, far fewer than expected after the Ethiopian claim to have killed thousands." (WIRE:05/16/2000 18:52:00 ET, Ethiopians continue push into Eritrea; war of words heats up ON THE ETHIOPIAN-ERITREAN BORDER (AP)"

Historically, these people lied about everything. They lied about who started every one of the offensives they themselves launched (except this
one time), they denied a battle was raging at Tserona a year ago, where thousands of their soldiers became cannon fodder. They lied about Eritrean casualties - they love to give fantastic numbers, such as the one in June of 1998 at Burie of 'killing' 10,998 Eritrean! They lied about accepting the peace plan - the so-called OAU-sponsored Framework Agreement and Modalities for Implementation, and then when requested to sign them last week at Algiers, they refused to do so.

Well, let's give the Ethiopians some credit, this time they are telling us some of the truth. They didn't deny that they have reignited the war in a
massive all out war. PM Meles Zenawi wants "a fast return on his investment." Why? Incredible as it sounds, because he spent hundreds of
millions of dollars buying sophisticated military hardware, that is why!

Last week, Meles, told the UNSC delegation led by Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, that "he had already paid for this war" and that "he had already moved up 250,000 troops, delivered plasma and other supplies to the front and basically written off his own people who are starving. Meanwhile, food is piling up on the docks at Djibouti because there are no means available to take it to the famine areas." (See Karl Vick, Washington Post Foreign Service, Saturday, May 13, 2000; Page A14)

What is mysterious and leaves many of us and other observers incredulous is this: Why are the powers that be, the U.N., EU, Britain, U.S., etc.. continue to be shy about confronting Meles and his rogue government? The powers that be should not have simply requested both sides to stop fighting, instead of clearly condemning the aggressor, Ethiopia. How do you stop fighting when the other person is punching you on the nose? Do they expect one side to simply flee to avoid being bombed? That would be stopping the fighting unilaterally, all right! Even fleeing in this case would not save one, would it? Eritreans will fight to the finish of course.

It's simply cynical on the part of the U.N. security council to simply call on both sides to stop fighting. It should have gone further and condemn
Ethiopia for starting the latest war, and impose meaningful sanctions on it.   Instead the UNSC has simply treated both sides equally and has imposed an arms embargo. In the short time, this is not going to make much of a difference.

Here is another example that reinforces the view and exposes the West's double standards:

'Repeatedly in the last decade, the West has failed to follow through on peacekeeping missions or failed to intervene in time, said Herman Cohen, former assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1989 to 1993.

"The signal to Africa is we will never clamp down on the bad guys there like we did on Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia. It's up to the Africans to do it themselves," Mr Cohen said.' (Boston Globe, by John Donnelly in Washington, May 15, 2000)

We will prevail!