Can Ethiopia and Eritrea, two impoverished nations that went through a bloody two-and-a-half-year-old war and now sagging beneath the devastations of famine, AIDS and other social maladies, afford to roar their tanks, fly their MiGs, and bomb out each other’s human settlements and their sordidly meager resources?
Are the Ethiopian and Eritrean youths condemned, like their predecessors, to avoid colleges and perish in the killing fields of Ethiopia and Eritrea?
Many Ethiopian political observers had repeatedly warned throughout the conduct of the last war that any agreement based on Eritrea’s request of the defunct colonial treaties of the 1900s would spark another round of conflict because such agreement would cede sovereign Ethiopian territories to Eritrea, and that would be a potential recipe for the flare-up of another conflict.
Now the inevitable has arrived. Eritrea is poised to retake Badme, parts of Irobland, and the entire Red Sea Afar homeland, and no Ethiopian people condemned by the April 13 verdict of the Hague-based Boundary Commission would see with indifference when they are forced to fall under Eritrean rule. Fear of public outrage in Ethiopia has forced the Meles regime to demand the Boundary Commission to reconsider its decision which sits as a time bomb over the future of the two countries.
Since he joined TPLF twenty-seven years ago from Asmara along with Shaebia activists like Mussie Mehari and Yemane Kidane (Jamaica), Meles has been consistent as an Eritrean activist. Undoubtedly, his loyalists have tried and will continue to try to trivialize creating the link between Meles and Eritrea. Nonetheless, he sits on a mountain of overt and covert pro-Eritrean activities, such as, to cite but only a few instances from the recent war:
(a) – Abruptly ending the victorious war while deceiving the Ethiopian public that Eritrea has surrendered to Ethiopia’s demands; demands that sound to include even war crimes charges against Eritrean leaders;
(b) – Paving the way for the setting up of the Hague-based Boundary Commission, and forwarding the defunct 1900 colonial treaties as the basis of negotiations despite the huge historical and legal documents that support Ethiopia and disprove of Eritrea’s claim over the sovereign territory of the Red Sea coast, with the Port of Assab at its heart, leave alone Eritrea’s baseless claim over parts of Badme and Irobland.
(c) – Sending “Ethiopian” delegates to The Hague to represent and defend Ethiopian interests. Actually, Meles Zenaw’s “Ethiopian” delegates ended up surprising the five jurists by arguing that places like Tserona, eastern Bada and from the Assab Front were Eritrea’s, and Ethiopia had no claim over them. What to accomplish did the Meles men go to the Hague then?
(d) Once the Court has passed its verdict decidedly in favor of Eritrea, Meles and Seyoum Mesfin deceived the Ethiopian public by declaring Ethiopia has not only been victorious in the battlefield but also a winner in the Court of Law, which declared the disputed territories were Ethiopian. The disguised Eritrean agents in Addis thought the court proceedings and the testimonials the “con artists” Meles men gave to the Hague Court would remain secret to the Ethiopian people, and the people would never know the “leaders” were lying.
People are now aware, more than ever before, that the Meles group has not backtracked even an inch from serving the cause it set out to accomplish almost three decades ago, i.e. the Eritrean cause. Any war of words between Meles and Isaias of Eritrea may be misconstrued as if Meles were defending Ethiopian interests. In fact, the reverse is true.
The Meles regime is only “attempting” to regain the small town of Badme, and cede other sovereign Ethiopian territories to Eritrea. This means Meles would live masquerading as an Ethiopian leader and yet continue to weaken Ethiopia in deeds with the kind of savage vengeance only known to ones own sworn enemy.
All said, future conflict with Eritrea is inevitable because Ethiopia’s underlying national interest would not remain crushed under the weight of two conflicting Eritrean groups in power.
To blur the development of such concept in the public mind, however, Meles is dragging the country along the road of war, death and destruction, as if he would fight until Ethiopia regains her lost territories. By his own choice, Meles cannot accomplish that task.
On this occasion, Ethiopian and Eritrean democrats who seek lasting solution to the threat of war in the Horn of Africa would fare better if they work together to prevent another outbreak of war designed to rebuilding the shattered images and wounded egos of the troubled leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Tyrants thrive in an environment of conflict, and are known in history to be incompatible with the virtues of peacefully resolving difference due to their conflicting interests. Above all, it is not the two tyrants – Meles and Isaias – who do bear the consequences of war and destruction. It is only the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea who are still heard wailing from the deep wounds the last war left in its wake.
