Empty Slogans of the Ethiopian Regime
By: Naizghi Zekarias
December 16, 2004

Is the Ethiopian regime now looking for a new delaying buzzword so the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia do not have peace? And is the international community ready to fall for, yet again, one of this regime’s empty slogans?

For more than six years this regime has told the world that its reason for war on Eritrea was simply a border dispute. It now appears that the reason might actually be something else from what Meles is saying these days. Meles is asking for dialogue to figure out why he declared war on Eritrea. Who is to know how many reasons they are going to pull out of their hat? In other words they want to dialogue about anything but the border. The border dispute is a hostage in and on itself just like everyone and everything else such as, peace, development, the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia, the region, and every peace loving human being from around the world.

Members of the International community are only muddying the waters by repeating the Ethiopian regime’s false claim of commitment to peaceful resolution of demarcation while at the same time that same regime continues to occupy Eritrean lands, violating not only the final and binding agreement but also ignoring all the Security Council resolutions regarding those same violations. The Ethiopian regime has no intention in complying with anything as long as the international community continues to finance, through massive food aid and debt cancellations, its occupation of Eritrean lands and its breaking of international laws.

Everybody should know by now that the TPLF regime has no intention of complying unless it is made to do so by the guarantors of the agreement as it is stipulated in the Algiers Agreement. The international community seems to repeat whatever this regime says hopping that may be this time around the TPLF regime might say what it actually means to say. The Ethiopian regime told the guarantors in Algiers that it will honor the peace agreement. It now appears that it really did not mean it when it signed it. It also told everybody that it accepted the EEBC decision with fan fair only to come back and say it did not mean it. The international community yet again seems to believe this regime when it say it accepts the decision “in principle” although it clearly also says that it doesn’t accept it.

Is the patience of the international community limitless when it comes to the Ethiopian regime’s gross violations of international laws or is the suffering of the Eritrean people not important enough to warranty some action? All the indications are that the Ethiopian regime is itching to start another war against Eritrea. The regime intends to accomplish that by continuing to occupy Eritrean lands and refusing to cooperate in the demarcation process. This it hopes will push the government of Eritrea to actually start another war on the assumption that no country will let its land be occupied forever.

It is clear that Eritrea is without a partner in the quest for peace at the present. All the TPLF regime wants is for the international community to actually blame the victim, in this case
Eritrea, rather than confront the law breaker, in this case the Ethiopian regime. The Ethiopian regime is convinced that sooner or later the international community will blame Eritrea for Ethiopia’s transgressions. The silence or inaction of the international community seems to confirm that.