Is the International Community financing the Ethiopian
regime to both occupy and create fact on the ground by bringing in new settlers
into sovereign Eritrean territory?
By: Naizghi Zekarias
October 29, 2004
The international community should not be surprised if the Ethiopian regime
comes up with yet another fictitious position on the implementation of the EEBC’s
decision. Right from the start of the conflict, this regime has been shifting
its positions in order to avoid any peaceful solution to the problem it created.
It is no secret that it financed the war through the money it received as food
aid from the international community. It is also an open secret that this regime
is not interested in peace unless the international community explicitly demands
that it complies with the agreement it signed as final and binding. The guarantors
of the peace agreement have been sending mixed messages to this regime that
it does not even believe the seriousness of their demands anymore. This has
become like a lion that is always ready to mount an attack at a group of impalas
but the impalas don’t even bother to flee because they know that the lion hates
running after them. In fact it considers their silence as a green light for
it to do what ever it pleases. And that is why we hear that it is bringing in
more settlers into Badme. It should now be clear to all the skeptics that the
current Ethiopian regime was never interested in any peaceful solution to the
situation and that it is not about to change its behavior now.
It is becoming clear that the TPLF’s major agenda is to try and destroy the
economy of Eritrea by denying peace to the Eritrean people. This, it hopes,
will bring the Eritrean government down so it can have a veto power on the Eritrean
people. The main objective of continuing to occupy Eritrean land by refusing
to cooperate with the EEBC decision is to guarantee perpetual conflict between
the Eritrean and Ethiopian peoples. The question is how long the international
community will tolerate this kind of behavior. This regime is getting hundreds
of millions of dollars in the name of food aid, which it is using not only to
buy more weapons but also to occupy land that the international court has said
does not belong to it. It is imperative for the international community to take
concrete actions not only for the sake of the Eritrean people who have suffered
injustices under successive Ethiopian regimes for half a century, but also for
the sake of peace in the whole region.