Mr. Girma Asmerom lays bare allegations by TPLF regime’s Ambassador in Washington in TV debate
By: Shabait staff
May 29, 2004

Eritrea’s Ambassador to the US and Canada, Mr. Girma Asmerom, in a TV debate with Ethiopia’s Ambassador in Washington that was broadcast over American television, exposed the TPLF regime’s anti-peace stance with concrete evidences and valid arguments.

During the debate, the TPLF regime’s Ambassador claimed that the decision of the Boundary Commission separates people and that the Commission has “committed mistakes.” He also came out with other hollow arguments.

In the debate, Ambassador Girma underlined that the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict can only be resolved on the basis of respect for international law. Noting that the two counties have signed the Algiers Peace Agreement under the umbrella of the international community asserting that the Boundary Commission’s ruling is final and binding, Mr. Girma Asmerom stressed that no party including the two countries has any legal or moral justification at all to look for any alternative mechanism to undo the Commission’s decision. He further underscored that lasting peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia could only be achieved through the speedy implementation of the EEBC ruling. Ambassador Girma called on the international community to shoulder its responsibility as regards full implementation of the Boundary Commission’s ruling.

On the TPLF regime’s baseless allegation that the Boundary Commission committed errors, Mr. Girma noted that although the issue is for the Commission to handle , such an allegation clearly contradicts with the statement made by the Ethiopian administration at the time of the Commission’s announcement of its decision on 13 April 2002, in which the TPLF regime publicly announced that “not only is Ethiopia rewarded with the land up on which it laid claim but also got other land over which it did not lay claim.”

In answer to the question if the cause of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict has to do with the sea, Ambassador Girma explained that more that a quarter of the African countries do not possess sea ports, and that neither international law nor the UN Charter gives them any legal justification to commit aggression against those countries that posses sea ports. On the contrary, both international law and the UN Charter dictate that every country should respect the sovereignty of other states.

On a previous occasion, Ambassador Girma Asmerom, in a statement he gave to journalists of the National Press Club in Washington on 26 May, 2004, regarding the issue of terrorism, pointed out that Eritrea has been fighting terrorism since 1989 when this phenomenon was not given due attention in the international arena and has now become a target of different terrorist groups in this region.

Highlighting the fact that Eritrea is actively combating terrorism, the Ambassador said that the international community should put up joint effort to fight global terrorism.