The duplicitous regime in Ethiopia is telling the international community that it has accepted the decision on one hand, while it is promoting anarchy with total disregard for international law and norms of acceptable behavior on the other. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of incursions into the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) by the regime’s armed personnel, as noted by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his latest report to the UN Security Council:

“… the recent increase in local incidents is a source of concern. Since my last report, the number of Ethiopian herdsmen and livestock entering the Zone on a daily basis in some areas in Sector Centre has increased even more…During the month of August, several more serious incidents occurred in the Aromo area of the Zone (Sector Centre)”.

On two separate occasions on 5 August, Ethiopian militia pointed their weapons at UNMEE patrols in response to advice not to enter the Zone. On 9, 10 and 12 August, a total of 102 personnel, most of them in the Ethiopian Armed Forces uniforms, entered the Zone in the Drum Drum Stream area in the same sector, refusing to leave despite repeated protests by UNMEE at the sector level. Subsequently, UNMEE lodged strong protests with the Ethiopian authorities, including with the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs”.

The minority regime is also behind the belligerent statements made by its Tigrayan officials such as Dr. Solomon Unquai and other narrow-nationalist Tigrayan expansionists such as Father Tesfamariam Beraki and Professor Tecola Hagos who have openly stated their refusal to abide by the final and binding EEBC decision. As if that were not enough, today the regime has commissioned its envoys at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC to target and undermine the US Congressmen who sponsored the Bill(H.R. 2760) falsely labeling it as a legislation that undermines Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, knowing full well that the Bill only calls on BOTH Eritrea and Ethiopia to abide by agreements they have signed, namely the Algiers Peace Agreement.

On the Tigrayan regime financed Amharic language radio program, broadcast on Sunday September 21st, 2003, Dr. Brook Hailu, a former member of the communist party in Menghistu’s notorious regime, and now serving as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC, called on all Ethiopians living in the USA to protest against H.R. 2760. He told his listeners that the bill was prejudiced against Ethiopia and that if it were to be passed in the US Congress, he cautioned that Ethiopia had more to loose than Eritrea.

Noting that Ethiopia is a beneficiary of a significant amount of foreign aid and Eritrea was not, he went on to describe the Eritrean economic development policy of “we want trade, not aid” as being “idealist”, while calling the Tigrayan led regimes economic policy that is based on “beggar mentality” as being “realist”. He explained that Eritreans are determined to “go it alone”, whilst Ethiopians must accept their dependency on aid for survival.

Well, he is right about that; every one knows that 65% of Ethiopia’s national budget is covered by foreign aid and that it cannot afford to loose the handouts it gets from the USA. What he purposely neglected to tell his listeners is that the Bill only affected the party that was belligerent and the party that refused to implement the Algiers Peace Agreement. Obviously, he is indirectly telling his listeners that the minority regime in Addis today has absolutely no intention of abiding by the final and binding EEBC decision and that it also expects the guarantors of the Algiers Agreement , the UN, US, EU and AU to stand by and allow its continued intransigence.

Unabashed, this representative of the apartheid regime in Addis, gave his audience detailed information to help them with their campaign against H.R. 2760. He listed the nine subcommittee members by name and told his listeners to concentrate on them first. He proceeded to tell them that five of the nine were Republicans, that four were Democrats, that two were women and two were black. I am not sure what the detailed breakdown was for, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were to use that information to hurl racial and sexist remarks at those honorable men and women, just as Melles Zenawi’s Tigrayan agents Professor Tecola Hagos and his likes, have done several times since the introduction of the Bill.

The refusal by the minority regime in Addis to implement the final and binding verdict and refusing to follow the EEBC’s directions on demarcation signals the further whittling down of the rule of law in Ethiopia today, and is a prelude to state-sponsored anarchy in the Horn of Africa. The Algiers Agreement is clear on the consequences of failure of either party to comply with the terms of the treaty. Article 14 of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement states inter alia:

“…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 , a) measure 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 Charter of the United Nations by the UN Security Council.”