"In terms of active hostilities, fighting, we believe we will not give them the opportunity to fight us. We are not going to occupy Eritrean territory. Much as they wish, we will not give them that pleasure. As soon as our mission is completed, we will evacuate every inch of Eritrean territory that we may be occupying now, every bloody inch of it." - Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's Briefing to the diplomatic community in Addis, May 23, 2000

That was on May 23, 2000. Since then, the Ethiopian Prime Minister has given another 'briefing' (given the rambling nature of these "wild monologues" of the PM, shouldn't they be called 'lengthening' instead of 'briefing'?) where he states that he has found new reasons to extend his stay in a few more inches of our 'bloody' land. Said the Prime Minister on May 31, 2000:

…we are willing to redeploy to the May 6 positions without too much fuss. What we need is an agreement, cease-fire, cessation of hostilities agreement, which would guarantee that when we redeploy, the Eritrean army will not fill the vacuum left for the purpose of mounting attacks on our army.

A reasonable request.

But why wasn't this request for reassurance reasonable when Eritrea asked it for two long years? The prime minister also states that he would consider having face-to-face discussions and, presumably, come to an agreement with the "street gangs" of Asmara. Why would he expect "thugs" and "street gangs" to honor a peace treaty? The ever-generous Prime Minister is also willing-at no cost to the international community-to carry out the task of a neutral peacekeeper between Eritrea and Ethiopia. His army would-if asked by the international community and in the interest of peace-grudgingly accept the task of occupying the high grounds between Zalambesa and Senafe, and that of Shilalo. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Meanwhile, the "remnants" of the Eritrean Defense Forces, who haven't been told that the war is over, mounted a counter-offensive in Ksad-Ika [the central front] "beginning last evening and continuing until 11:00 am this morning." So says the Ethiopian Spokesperson. The brigade came all the way from Bure (on the Asab front). Why all the way from Bure? Because the other divisions have been totally decimated, don't you remember? But hadn't General Tsadkan told us that the Eritreans are so decimated they cannot possibly wage a counter offensive? Yes, but these are a different kind of "remnants"; they are from the Bure front who had "abandoned their trenches and are retreating out of fear that the army could sustain another devastating defeat like those suffered at the other two fronts."

A few days ago, I talked about "Operation Quagmire." Its fruits are evident in the Ethios withdrawal from the West (after some bombardment) and the hurried Ethiopian reversal of its objectives from the rah-rah week of onward marching (checked between Senafe and Adikeyh) to declaring victory and calling it quits. As always though, the Ethio Government is harboring twin goals. This time it is trying to achieve diplomatically what it couldn't do militarily and economically.

For two years, we have maintained that all negotiations should be conducted in an atmosphere of cessation of hostilities and ceasefire. Just because the guy who just recently was bragging about "we shall fight while we negotiate; we shall negotiate while we fight" is asking for ceasefire; just because the man who told the world--including the OAU which he gives lip-service to--that he is not interested in its call for cessation of hostilities is now begging for it; it doesn't mean we should reverse our positions and stick it to him. Just because the Ethiopian Government is not principled, we should not be. Just because they are irrational, we need not be. We should avoid the temptation of saying "get out the same way you came in"-although, I admit, it would be delicious to say so. But not if it means one more drop of Eritrean blood.

That is EXACTLY what he is looking for to prolong his stay in undisputedly and densely populated parts of Eritrea. This would enable him to prolong his "wild monologue". The longer the argument of when and how he gets out, the longer it takes to achieve Eritrea's only bottom line: demarcation in accordance to colonial treaties and international law. That WILL be the TPLF's comeuppance.