Implementation of the EEBC Ruling is Inevitable
By Shabait Staff
November 6, 2003

It is to be noted that since the time the TPLF regime in Ethiopia declared and waged war on Eritrea under the pretext of border claims, the many complications that have been overcome until now have amply demonstrated to the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia as well as the international community a clear and obvious reality, i.e. the Ethiopian regime would not have accepted a peaceful resolution of the border conflict which it caused, and was not ready to respond and comply with the rule of law. For no invading aggressive force is governed by law.

When the TPLF started beating the war drums on 13 May 1998, the mediators moved fast as did the Eritrean Government in an attempt to resolve the crisis if it was really a mere border dispute as there were actually many options at hand for reaching a solution far from the logic of war. Different peace proposals were then forwarded but the TPLF regime, for obvious reasons, was not ready to accept all these proposed peace plans. Why was that?

It was simply because those peace plans had been advocating a peaceful and legal solution to the problem based on international law. Since law stands against aggression and does not support aggressors, the TPLF regime refused any solution based on law. This explains why the regime rejects all the peace plans, and why it launched a major military offensive and invasion against Eritrea in the months of February and March 1999. This military adventure of the TPLF regime led to the routing of the Ethiopian forces in a manner that touched the world’s conscience. However, when the regime was put to shame and its schemes utterly frustrated, it accepted officially the Framework Agreement proposed by the OAU, which it had been rejecting arrogantly for so long.

This acceptance, however, had been for another purpose. It was for gaining time for preparing another round of aggression. The regime’s acceptance of the framework Agreement had never been genuine. This was demonstrated in the fact that the regime kept on asking for further clarifications about the framework when it thought that it had finalized its war preparations, and again by calling for explanations on the about the technical arrangements document, which ensued from the main peace plan. At that moment the TPLF regime waged its third round invasion on Eritrea.
That round of aggression was crushed by the Eritrean Defense Forces even though the regime continued boasting saying: “we have put in place all preparations and this is known by friend and foe alike. We negotiate while fighting, and we fight while negotiating.” Despite this however, the TPLF regime was forced to sign the comprehensive Algiers Peace Agreement, and before it the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. The Algiers Agreement stipulated the delimitation and demarcation of the common border on the basis of colonial treaties and applicable international law. It came to be known then that the regime had not been satisfied also with this agreement, and this was revealed by the many obstacles it put for preventing the establishment of the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). When the EEBC declared its Delimitation Decision on 13 April 2002, the regime described it as a “just decision”. But as usual it subsequently submitted a 21-page so- called clarification paper asking for changing the Commission’s decision. Since then it embarked on steps and acts with a view to obstructing the demarcation of the common border. And at last the TPLF regime came out with outright rejection of the Delimitation Decision.

Nevertheless, in the same manner that the regime was compelled to stand before the Eritrea –Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), it will equally be compelled to implement the EEBC ruling. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the aggressor TPLF regime, whether it wills it or otherwise, will withdraw from the sovereign Eritrean territories which it occupied by force.