This is in response to "The New and Improved Dr. Tekie" written by one "Dr. Aklilu" at Walta's page.

Dear Dr Aklilu,

I am flattered that you find my articles interesting enough that you are taking time from your busy schedule to write me letters. Or perhaps, as it may very well be the case, part of your assignment may be to monitor articles like mine, in which case you are simply doing your job.

Last time we met, you came to me through the Government of Ethiopia Spokesperson's web page. This time I see you are with Walta. Not that the two web pages are different but as they say, where you are from says a lot of who you are. Now that I know who you are, one of Walta's Electronic Alulas, to borrow a phrase from a friend, my ardor in corresponding with you cooled considerably. You see, Dr Aklilu, we Eritreans do not have a fond memory of Ras Alula the archbetrayer, the man whose exploits Walta's cyber-warriors are trying to emulate.

You and I have never met, but I am glad that has not prevented you from writing me. I believe in communication, and if possible academic discourse to build bridges. In fact had your letters not read like rewrites from Ms Salome's office, I could very well imagine the beginning of a fruitful intellectual exchange. In my initial fantasy, I even imagined you and I doing a book, each of us doing his interpretation of the origin of the border dispute. But I am afraid, that's too much to ask at this time. After your second letter, I don't see any of that happening. We lack a common frame of reference, a common vocabulary.

The fundamental difference between you and us, meaning Walta's Electronic Alulas, and Eritreans writing about the war, is that while almost all Eritreans have a close blood relative, or a friend in the war, it's unlikely that you have any acquaintance, let alone relatives in the front. Surely you may know some of the officers, some may even be your drinking buddies. But that's not what I have in mind. I'm talking about people in the trenches, dying in the thousands. We know the people in the trenches; and I dare say , you don't. If you have been wandering why we Eritrean are so united, look no further, Dr Aklilu. We know what's at stake.

A part of the problem is, I suspect, your population is so large compared to ours, that you may think you can afford to lose a thousand here, a thousand there. We don't have that luxury. We are so few that we cannot afford to lose ten here , another ten there. We wish to see the war end today. You want to see it continue. Your political agenda is nothing short of the subjugation of Eritrea for which you are prepared to pay price in the lives thousands upon thousands of people, people who are no more than abstract numbers to you.

I hope my country and yours find peace. If you and I can't agree on anything, let's at least agree that the war has been a colossal waste. I hope Algiers is the first step towards the long journey to peace. It was in this light that I was happy to see your government change its mind and agree with Eritrea on unconditional cease fire. I will not belabor the point why your government changed its mind. Perhaps there will be an appropriate forum for this. However I can't help but harbor a chagrin: If only your Prime Minister had agreed to this most commonsensical term when Eritrea first offered it fourteen months ago, all that bloodshed, yours and ours, could have been avoided. Should Eritreans gloat because the Ethiopian government finally came around? Hardly. Given our blood socked border, we, that's you and us, have nothing to gloat about.

Now that we have come this far, at least in thinking about the possibilities of peace, let's not blow it. If your government has truly accepted the Modalities, then it should not try to wiggle out of it by resorting to lame excuses. If you have read the modalities you know there are steps that must be followed before the question of civil administration is raised. And the first requirement is something your government had been resisting until two weeks ago: formal agreement on a cease fire--unconditional cease fire, that is. When your government gave in on this point, everything else follows, without much hassle. You know as well as I do that all along the sticking point had been your government's refusal to agree on an unconditional ceasefire. Everything else has been a smoke-screen.

Eritrea has accepted the terms unconditionally. You know this as well as I do. In accepting the modalities, President Isaias reminded his peers that the problem of compensation for material loss of the deportees should not be forgotten. Everyone, including the OAU and the international community understood what he was saying. The Ethiopian government pretended not to have understood President Isaias because Addis desperately wants to renege on the terms without antagonizing the donor community. The war has served your government a political purpose, and it's not about to let go.

A couple of points before I close.

Let me get one thing straight, Dr Aklilu. Please don't use that Walta language again--the "Eritrean debacle" at Badme. It was no "debacle" to temporarily leave an enclave you know you will get after demarcation; it was the height of stupidity, a debacle of monumental proportion, to lose somewhere around 45,000 of your own citizens to temporarily capture a place you know you will lose after demarcation. This is the real tragedy of your military "geniuses." They sacrificed so much for so little. In some countries they would have been court marshaled for gross incompetence. And one more thing, Dr Aklilu, before you gloat about the souped up "victory" at Badme, have the decency to mourn the ghastly carnage at Tserona. I know. I know. In any ethnicity crazed state like yours, it may be hard to mourn people of a different ethnic group, but remember the Oromos, your military planners have been using as cannon fodders, are Ethiopians like you. Before you celebrate a victory that never was, remember this Dr Aklilu : your dead and maimed, like our dead and maimed, have mothers who love them dearly. They will forever mourn the loss of their loved ones.

There's a simple rule of letter writing that I subscribe. When someone writes me a letter, I try to reply as soon as possible. If the letter writer from the other side responds, and I think there's something worth elaborating, I write again. If I don't hear from the other side, then I consider the case closed. While I am more than happy to answer your second letter, I have to ask you, Dr Aklilu, to return to my first letter. It is possible that you have misplaced my letter, in which case I will reprint the relevant portion. Please let me know by return e-mail. If I don't hear from you about my first letter, I will assume our correspondence is over for good.

Nice knowing you.

Please give my regards to my friends at Walta.

With best wishes, Tekie Fessehatzion