I read the transcript of the 21 October 2004 press
briefing held by the UNMEE Spokesperson and Chief of Public Information,
Gail Bindley-Taylor-Sainte in Asmara and appreciated her candor. At least
this UNMEE employee is calling a spade a spade and advocating for the
rule of law is not trying to cover up for Ethiopia’s intransigence and
defiance of the rule of law. When one of the participants at the 21 October 2004 press briefing asked the following question:
“I
have heard that in the Badme region Ethiopia
is continually bringing more and more Ethiopian settlers in Badme.
Do you confirm that and are you not worried by this because the Commission
[EEBC] said that Badme is in Eritrea?”
The
Spokesperson responded by saying:
“What
I can say is that we are aware of what is happening in the Badme
area. As you know long before you came here, this was an issue raised
at the level of the Security Council and there was a recommendation made
to the Ethiopian Government. What we have to wait to see is to what extent
they will adhere to what has been said by the Security Council on this”
When
another participant further asked the spokesperson “when the Security
Council recommendation was made to Ethiopia
concerning Badme”, the Spokesperson
recalled and confirmed that:
“Security
Council resolution/1466 of 14 March 2003,
operative paragraph 10, “calls on the Parties to refrain from unilateral
troop or population movements, including establishment of any new settlements
in areas near the border until demarcation and orderly transfer of territorial
control has been accomplished, in accordance with article 4.16 of the
Comprehensive Peace agreement.”
Thank you Ms. Gail
Bindley-Taylor-Sainte for your factual and candid answer. I would
however like to refresh everyone’s memory and call to attention the fact
that the above Security Council resolution was not passed as a general
guideline or as a means of deterrence. It is a product and result of Ethiopia’s
continued violation of the Algiers Agreement, Eritrea Ethiopia Border
Commission’s final and binding decision, its demarcation directives and
previous Security Council resolutions.
I would also like to remind UNMEE’s
Spokesperson and all others that are following the developments of the
Eritrea Ethiopia border final and binding verdict as closely as I am,
that this very topic of Ethiopia’s new resettlements of Ethiopians on
sovereign Eritrean territories have been raised at various UN Security
meetings. The UN Security Council has passed numerous resolutions urging
Ethiopia
to refrain from such provocative and dangerous activities. For example,
Resolution 1430 (2002) Adopted by the Security Council on 14 August 2002 called on the two parties:
“to refrain from unilateral
troop or population movements, including establishment of any new settlements
in areas near the border, until demarcation and orderly transfer of territorial
control has been accomplished, in accordance with article 4.16 of the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement”
There
may be some innocent or uninformed or misinformed individuals that may
be wondering why the UN Security Council is constantly introducing and
passing such resolutions. The reason is simple and straightforward, it
is because the Tigrayan minority regime in Ethiopia,
rejecting the letter and spirit of the Algiers Agreement and in violation
of the Border Commissions demarcation directives and orders, is continuously
and constantly defying the rule of law, by resettling Tigrayans
in sovereign Eritrean territories.
In its 26 August 2002, 6th Report to the Security Council, the
Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) has clearly articulated the
Ethiopian regimes’ provocative and defiant attitudes and actions. In this
report the EEBC says:
“ On 7 June, Eritrea requested that the Commission
adopt an interim order instructing Ethiopia that it must immediately cease
the settlement of its nationals into territory that had been determined
by the decision of 13 April 2002 to fall within Eritrean sovereignty.
Ethiopia filed a response on 14 June 2002. In order to ascertain the facts for itself, the Commission
appointed a field investigation team, consisting of the Registrar, the
Special Consultant, the Deputy Chief Surveyor and the deputy to the Secretary
of the Commission, to visit the area and gather the necessary information.
The team returned to The Hague and reported on 15 July 2002.
A hearing was held with the parties
on 16 July, following which the Commission issued an Order on 17 July,
pursuant to article 20 and article 27 (1) of its rules of procedure, in
which, although it rejected the Eritrean request for interim measures,
the Commission found that any Ethiopian Government-sponsored resettlement
of Ethiopian nationals in Dembe Mengul after 13 April 2002
should not have taken place and required Ethiopia to arrange for the return
from there to Ethiopian territory of those persons who had gone there
from Ethiopia pursuant to an Ethiopian resettlement programme since 13
April 2002.
The Commission also required
that each party should ensure that no further population resettlement
take place across the delimitation line established by the decision of
13 April 2002”
Two
years after the Eritrea Ethiopia border has been legally delimited and
in spite of numerous UN resolutions urging Ethiopia to return its citizens
to their Ethiopian villages, and to refrain from unilateral resettlement
of its people, with a law of the jungle mentality and might is right attitude,
the regime in Ethiopia is aggressively continuing its provocative and
adventurous activities against the law abiding and peace loving people
of Eritrea.
The
regime in Ethiopia neither has the capacity,
nor the resources to pursue this provocative and dangerous road. It is
doing so only because the world has not taken appropriate punitive actions
against its belligerent, intransigent and lawless behavior. As a matter of fact, under the cover of debt
cancellation, budgetary support, combating famine and HIV-AIDs
etc. etc. the international community is pampering the Tigrayan
minority regime in Addis that is squandering Ethiopia’s human and material wealth.
As an Eritrean American taxpayer, I would prefer that my money was instead
utilized for the eradication of poverty in Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The
issue is no longer an issue of demarcation or resettlement of Ethiopians
in Eritrea, but a very serious issue
of occupation of a sovereign territory of one country by another neighboring
country.
Therefore,
the UN Security Council under Article 14 of the Agreement on Cessation
of Hostilities as well as Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter has the
legal right and obligation to invoke Chapter 7 against Ethiopia
which is violating the rule of law and threatening regional and international
peace and security.
Article
14 of the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities says:
“The OAU and the United
Nations commit themselves to guarantee the respect for this commitment of the
two Parties until the determination of the common border on the basis of
pertinent colonial treaties and applicable international law…This guarantee
shall be comprised of…measures to be taken by the international community
should one or both of the Parties violate this commitment, including
appropriate measures to be taken under Chapter VII of the United Nations
Charter by the UN Security Council;”
And
Article 41 of the UN Charter states:
“The Security Council may
decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to
give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United
Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial
interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic,
radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations”
And Article 42 of the UN Charter states:
“Should the Security Council
consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have
proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as
may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such
action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea,
or land forces of Members of the United Nations.”
The
rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle