The Foreign Minister took you for a ride and, two years later, you haven't disembarked from the wagon of lies and deception.

The Foreign Minister knew that the reasons for the incidents of May 12, 1998 were known not only to the Eritrean authorities but to the Ethiopian authorities. That the conflict was provoked by a series of Ethiopian acts including the incidents of May 6, 1998 (Badme) when Eritrean officers were shot dead; the unilateral moving of border markers by Ethiopian authorities and the deportation of Eritrean farmers that went on since 1995; the incidents of July 1997 (Adi Murug) when Ethiopia, using "hot pursuit of terrorists" as a pretext occupied Eritrean territory and, despite two letters of protest from the Eritrean president, would not withdraw its troops; the issuing of a map by the State of Tigray prepared for "administrative and fiscal purposes" but was, for all intents and purposes, a political map that contradicts internationally recognized maps of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

You dismissed all the provocations as irrelevant because in none of the above incidents did Ethiopia use tanks. Ethiopians have a point, you said, aggression must be reversed.

Between May 19, 1998 and June 3, 1998, the Ethiopian Government launched a series of military offensives to regain Badme. In the process, it lost Zalambesa and was checked at Bada and Burie. Meanwhile, you offered and took bets that Assab would fall within days. "Ethiopia needs a port: why should a population of 60 million have no port when a population of 3 million has two?" asked the Ethiopian media. Good question, you said.

When, on June 4 and June 5, 1998, Ethiopia, escalated the conflict and bombed Asmara Airport and hit a Zambian cargo plane, and warned the world to steer clear of Eritrean airpspace or risk death and injury, your only outrage was that Ethiopia did not give Western nations sufficient notice to evacuate their citizens. Serves the arrogant Eritreans right, you said.

When, beginning June 13, 1998, Ethiopia started deporting tens of thousands of Ethiopians of Eritrean ancestry-your colleagues at the UN and the OAU, your Eritrean neighbors, the children who played with your children-you said nothing. Worse, when the UN Commissioner for Human Rights highlighted Ethiopia's violation of human rights, you criticized her. When "Human Rights Watch" and "Amnesty International" wrote scathing reports on Ethiopia's inhumane policy of deportation, you were nowhere to be found. Probably spies and infiltirators endangering Ethiopian security, you rationalized.

The Second Address by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister: November 11, 1998

On November 11, 1998, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister told you that Ethiopia has accepted the OAU Framework Agreement with the understanding that the reference to "Badme and its environs is meant to be understood as the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from all occupied Ethiopian territory and their return to positions held before May 6, 1998" and that " the return of the Ethiopian Civilian Administration includes the restoration of the Administration with its law enforcement organs minus regular troops" and that Ethiopia was prepared to resolve the dispute "on the basis of the pertinent Colonial Treaties and applicable international law."

What you know now or should know: the OAU was silent on the definition of "Badme Town and its environs." That Ethiopia rejected the Technical Arrangements because, despite its claim that it agrees to having "law enforcement organs minus regular troops" once civilian administration was restored, it saw any limits on its capacity to enforce law as it saw fit as a violation of its sovereignty. You now know, or should know, that Ethiopia is not committed to returning to positions held before May 6, 1998. You now know, or should know, that Ethiopia is NOT prepared to resolve the dispute "on the basis of pertinent Colonial Treaties and applicable international law."

In December 1998 when, according to the Boston Globe (5/28/00), Ethiopia asked donors (WFP, EU, USAID and ICRC)to provide assistance based not on actually displaced Ethiopians but on number of people that will be potentially displaced if Ethiopia goes on with its war policy, and that it wanted to be the sole distributor of the AID, all donores except for the ICRC said yes to this request even as they knew that the AID funds could be diverted.

Why? You rationalized it by saying that the leaders of Ethiopia are the "good guys" who should be supported--even when declaring war. Shortly thereafter, the Ethiopian Foreign Minister stated: "I don't see how war can be interrupted."

When, on February 6, 1999, Ethiopia broke the air raid moratorium brokered by the United States using transparently false statements-that Adi Grat had been bombed. None of you (with the except of the German mission) bothered to check, or offered to check, whether Ethiopia's violation of the moratorium was for valid or invalid reasons.

When, in late February 1999, Ethiopia forced Eritrea out of Badme, you lined up to congratulate the Ethiopian Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister. Champagne bottles everywhere.

When, in July 1999, Ethiopia accepted the OAU modalities-but would not commit to cessation of hostilities or cease-fire because "Aggression must not be rewarded", you said: sounds reasonable to me.

When, between August 1999 - April 2000, Ethiopia went on a massive war toy-shopping spree as the drought in Southeast Ethiopia approached famine proportions; when it told the OAU it hadn't rejected the Technical Arrangements even as it proposed changes to gut the OAU proposal and render it toothless; when it demanded AID and set pre-conditions on how the help would be distributed; when it opened a new war front in the West: in Europe, against the German Government; in North America, against Congressman Benjamin Gilman; when, belligerent and mad as hell, it said that its war preparations are complete and it would launch the offensive any day now, you said nothing other than counting to doomsday.

May 2000 has come and gone. Ethiopia occupies large areas of uncontested Eritrean territories in the West and in the Center. The Ethiopian Government intimates that its goal not only includes restoring May 6, 1998 status quo ante but also "decimating" the Eritrean Defense Forces. And, wink, wink, the overthrow of the Eritrean Government is not bad, either. It bombs the Hrgigo Power Plant (a civilian target), it loots Barentu (the capital of Gash-Setit province) and it bombs the Assab water reservoir. It has torched villages. When it is done with its mayhem that results in the displacement of nearly one-third of the Eritrean population, it says that it is no longer interested just in the restoration of status-quo-ante, but that it would like a buffer zone inside Eritrea-just like the one Israel had--to protect itself from Eritrea's "decimated" army. A week after it claimed to have withdrawn its troops from Western Eritrea, we are told that Ethiopian armed forces are engaged in battles deep inside Western Eritrea and on two other fronts in the Center and the East. Ethiopia also intimates that it may not settle for demarcating the border on the basis of colonial treaties and international law but that other factors-such as facts on the ground-have to be considered as well.

What do you have to say now? Could you entertain the thought, just for a nanosecond, that the Ethiopian Government is not made up of "good guys"? That the Ethiopian Government never wanted to resolve the issue peacefully because it would mean permanent loss of the territories and an Eritrea with an "over-sized" military and with "Shaabia" still in charge? Have you ever heard of a border conflict where the alleged victim refuses to give the totality of his claims? Have you ever heard of a border conflict where the alleged victim cannot produce a map to make his case? Have you ever heard of a border dispute where the alleged victim drags his feet on the demarcation of the border?

How bloody do your hands have to be before you wash them off?