Imagine the following conversation between a student and a teacher if you wish to understand Ethiopia's reaction to the OAU sponsored Technical Arrangements.

Student: I'm here to take my Final Exam.

Teacher: O.K. When do you want to take it. Let's set a date.

Student: I will tell you the date. If you tell me one thing.

Teacher: What do you want to know.

Student: I want you to guarantee me a passing grade before I tell you when I will take the exam.

Teacher: You mean you want me to pass you before you take the exam.

Student: Yes. Absolutely.

Teacher: But that's impossible. The Course Syllabus clearly states a final exam as a requirement. You have to take the Final if you want a passing grade. I have to see how well you have mastered the subject matter. I can't do what you are asking.

Student: I'm afraid you will have to. You have no choice.

Teacher: No choice, did you say ?

Student: You heard me right. Teacher: What do you mean?

Student: Either you guarantee me a passing grade, Or...

Teacher: Or....

Student: I will blow up the building..,,

Ethiopia's most recent demand is very much like the student's. Either the OAU accedes to Ethiopia's demand of guaranteeing the result of the delimitation, demarcation, and arbitration to Ethiopia's liking, or Ethiopia will go to war.

Ethiopia's demand progressed incrementally. At first it was for Eritrean forces to return to their May 6 position in the Badme area with the proviso that Eritrea's decision would be a goodwill gesture and that the move would not prejudge the final status of the area. When Eritrea said OK after obtaining clarification from the OAU that Badme and its environs meant just that--Badme and its immediate surrounding, Ethiopia escalated the demand. This time it demanded that Eritrean forces leave all the disputed territories. Again Eritrea was asked to make a concession to give peace a chance and move to the May 6 positions. Eritrea said fine.

Ethiopia's enhanced demand and Eritrea's compliance were incorporated into the Modalities that the two countries accepted at the Algiers Summit. A key article of the document says that Eritrean forces would move to their pre May 6 positions and a civilian administration would take over the area, without prejudging the final status of the disputed areas. The manner of the determination of the final status of the disputed territories remained the same throughout the entire peace process-- from US/Rwanda, to the Framework Agreement, to the Modalities, the Technical Arrangements, and Responses to the Clarifications. Everyone involved in the process -- including Ethiopia-- knew the steps for determining the final status of the disputed territories.

September 7, 1999, Ethiopia gave the first statement that it did not accept the Frameworks or Modalities provision for the determination on final status of the disputed territories. In fact, Ethiopia made a new and startling demand. If Ethiopia is to sign the OAU's Technical Arraignments, Ethiopia must be guaranteed a favorable decision in advance, without going through the steps outlined in each of the documents it had signed. The threat on the resumption of war if Ethiopia were not granted its wish was made by President Negasso Gidada in his New Year address to the people of Ethiopia.

The Technical Arrangements, like the Modalities, the Frameworks and US/Rwanda are OAU documents. Surely the US, at the invitation of the two parties, has been intimately involved in the process. In the final analysis, however, the Technical Arrangements belongs to the OAU. Saying No to the Technical Arrangements after accepting the Framework Agreement and the Modalities is a breach of faith that undermines the integrity of OAU sponsored peace plans. By saying No to the latest OAU document, after giving its word that it would abide by the peace package, Ethiopia is spitting in the face of the continental organization whose headquarters graces the Ethiopian capital. Those who say they speak for Ethiopia--the handful Politburo bosses in that shadowy Stalinist organization called MLLT -- are acting very much as hostage takers. Either the world community gives them what they want, or they will blow our brains is the essence of their threat. The world community should not ignore their threats. They have at their disposal a frightening amount of arsenal paid for with relief money. They are the poor man's Bin Ladens. They should be stopped. They will be stopped.

Fifty five million Ethiopians and three million Eritreans should not be held hostage by a handful of power crazed ideologues masquerading as patriots. These are no patriots. Nor are the bush league diplomats, and assorted would be Kissingers, the sophomoric strategic thinkers who provide intellectual justifications for the actions of the hostage takers. What they all have in common is that they are born again Ethiopians. They have become Ethiopians not out of conviction, but rather for convenience until they get their republic off the ground.