Eritrea: Outgunned No More
Tue, 22 Dec 1998
By Saleh AA Younis [email protected]
The OAU is slowly wising up to the fact that when Ms
Susan Rice asked them to open their mouth and say Aaaaah, the strange elixir she poured was more poison than medicine. When we protested about Ms. Rice's inexperienced and requested more seasoned rice, we were lectured. When we questioned the likelihood of getting a fair deal given that her sidekick and assigned expert, Ms.
Gåyle Smith is a confirmed TPLF groupie, we were outgunned by the smith.
What do we know now? In their two-week Africa tour, Ms. Rice and Ms. Smith, went to Angola: the president, Mr.
Eduardo dos Santos, refused to see them. They went to Zimbabwe to visit the Host of Tyrants, Mr.
Robert Mugabe. He kept them waiting in the lobby for so long Zimbabwe's inflation rate jumped up by another ten points. They went on a visit to the Congo; Mr.
Kabila was not very nice. In fact, the only remotely nice person was their co-author in the abomination known as US-Rwanda plan, Mr.
Kagame who, at least, had the decency to disassociate himself from the monster he helped create.
In one form or another, the OAU has, since June 10th, 1998, issued five reports on the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict.. Of course, institutions being what they are, it is next to impossible for them to say,
My God! What were we thinking when we adopted the US Rwanda plan?
But they have been doing its equivalent: with each succeeding report, they have been edging closer and closer to neutrality.
The Ethiopian government doesn't quite see it that way. To them, what matters is that the OAU still insists that Eritrea withdraw from Badme and that the previous Ethiopian administration be installed. Never mind that the same OAU has called for the cessation of hostilities--which they have rejected despite their claim that they have "fully" accepted the OAU plan.
Never mind that the OAU has called for an investigation into their invasion of Ad Murug in July 1997--which will expose their stealth occupation plan. Never mind that they have yet to submit a map that supports their loud claim on May 19, 1998 that such a map exists. Never mind that the call on Eritrea to withdraw is only a sign "of goodwill to our continental congress"--not a validation of their assertions.
To them, each OAU announcement is a welcome one since it has a ripple effect and is quickly endorsed by the EU and the UN. In the mind of the PM (and by PM I don't mean Prime Minister, I mean his former title, Propaganda Minister), what matters most is winning public opinion. It doesn't matter whether you do this by employing falsehood, lies and deceit, what is important is that you win in the endorsement game. What the PM will discover is what
Dukakis and
Mondale and
Dole discovered here in the US: the endorsements you get from the "
Fraternal Brotherhood of Parole Officers" and the "
Association of The Faint- Hearted" is nice but absolutely meaningless unless it is coupled with support from the general population. What this means, dear PM, is that Eritreans are perfectly willing to play the diplomatic game but, in the end, we are not going to kiss off our sovereignty to win world opinion. Least of all to the OAU which is, A to Z, Algeria to Zimbabwe, composed of governments that year- in and year-out slit the throats of their citizens during the holy month of Ramadan (Algeria) or host murderous butchers and squander the state treasury (Zimbabwe). Thanks but no thanks.
A private citizen unconstrained by the straightjacket of diplomacy, I get to say what's on my mind. The Eritrean president cannot. Facing a motley assembly who, collectively, is probably responsible for more agony than any other group in God's green earth, he has to play the diplomacy game. And this time, we did well.
Having been a frequent critic of our diplomatic gaffes in the past, I must:
(
a) Compliment the Eritrean Embassy staff for disseminating the information promptly. Usually, we hear about Eritrea's position from our good friend
Seyoum Mesfin who, probably thinking he is teaching us a lecture in "
Ye Ethiopia Tarik'' feels a patriotic obligation to supply a good dose of tall tales, exaggerations and flat out lies to any story. By the time Seyoum and the Ethio spokesperson are done spinning the Eritrean position dizzy across several time zones and forums, we generally have a hard time recognizing the pitiful mess we are asked to evaluate. But not this time.
(
b)Compliment the president and the foreign ministers for taking the gloves off and pulling no punches and delivering speeches that were right on the Nakfa. Drue's was the equivalent of
I'll see your Ougadougou and raise you ten.
You asked for our response? Here's our response. Redeployment: acceptable but unnecessary.
Investigation into the Bada incident: what is the point if you won't use that to modify your recommendations? Administration: Convince us as to why that makes sense. You think Ethiopia has accepted your proposal? Think again:
Ethiopia has not accepted the Framework Agreement but its own amended version.
AND THEN THE BOMBSHELL
<< On the humanitarian issue, as the Report that has been submitted to this Summit of the Central Organ makes clear that it is only Ethiopia that has committed gross violation of the human rights of Eritrean nationals in Ethiopia; while, on Eritrea's part, there is no
systematic or official action directed against Ethiopians in Eritrea,
Recommendation 8 must read to reflect this fact by dropping the clause "put an end to measures directed against the civilian population" and in
8 b) the word compensate must be added so that the last few words read
to compensate those persons who have been deported.
It's good to know that, when it comes to the abuse and misuse of civilian citizens, the OAU has come to the same conclusion that UNDP, the UN Commission for Human Rights and the EU have: it is Ethiopia and only Ethiopia that is committing these crimes. Generally, reports like these are issued and quickly buried so as not to embarrass Ethiopia. By shrewdly reading part of the contents-
Drue- has now challenged the world media to report it. By now, there are only two westerners left who still tow the TPLF line: an AFP journalist assigned to Ethiopia (soon to be displaced) and an NGO bottom feeder and a
Woodrow Wilson exiled assigned to Mekele (
Witten).
After listing various clarifications and recommendations, Drue concluded his remarks as follows:
The remaining recommendations are positive and acceptable to Eritrea.
By Ethiopian standards, we now get to say,
Eritrea has accepted the OAU plan.
President
Isaias, who no longer feels compelled to save Comrade
Meles now that he has seen the Comrade's new friends, was even more blunt. If you want a formula for lasting peace, he told the OAU, get an unwavering commitment from Ethiopia that it respects Eritrea's colonial boundaries in a
precise, legal language that will require the opinion of legal experts and ensure a speedy resolution, instead of leading to differing interpretations and endless controversy.
Bingo. In my opinion, this is the only position we should not compromise on: Ethiopia MUST accept Eritrea's sovereignty once and for all. "Ye Ethiopia Tarik" tends to produce myth-intoxicated suprapatriots who want to make their mark by going north, young man. To spare future generations from the straying
Alulas and
Meneliks, we need a tight-proof border agreement.
Holding out on agreeing to Ethiopian "administration" of Badme, to me, is a good negotiation tool but, by the time the OAU is done implementing a demilitarized zone guarded by third parties for a limited time period, the administration will mean nothing more than a face-saving opportunity to give the Ethiopian government. It will be a six month opportunity to tell its hard core constituency that it has emerged triumphant and liberated Badme from the "arrogrant Shabbiyah." "Izi Dimtsi Hara Badme iyu" Another chapter in "Ye Ethiopia Tarik."
The president effectively demolished the Eritrea Is
A Neighborhood Bully argument. This is patently silly when it comes from comrade PM Meles. Eritrea's dispute with Yemen? Funny you should mention that, comrade, but wasn't it your government who provided us with all the documents that support our case? Eritrea's dispute with Sudan? I seem to recall you having the same dispute with Sudan, comrade. And if we are so vile and you've been our closest partner for 20 years, what does that say about you?
The Eritrean prez made some recommendations to strengthen the Framework and make it more palatable to Eritrea: all, in my opinion, sensible. He asked the OAU not to fall for the same tricks poor Susan Rice fell for: the huff and puff of the Ethiopian War Machine. And he concluded as follows:
I am confident that the OAU, which through the tireless efforts of President Compaore and his colleagues in the High-Level Delegation has come closer than any other party to bridging the gap between the parties, will stay the course and help us achieve peace.
And what was the OAU's response. Officially, we are told by Ethiopia that they didn't accept our recommendations but read their statement and judge for yourself:
<< The Central Organ wishes to commend the two Parties for the confidence which they have placed in the OAU and for the cooperation they have extended to the OAU High Level Delegation in the performance of its mandate and for the restraint that they have shown.
<< The Central Organ urges the OAU High Level Delegation to remain seized with the dispute and calls on the two Parties to continue to cooperate with the Delegation with a view to creating the necessary conditions for the speedy implementation of the Framework Agreement. The Central Organ further urges both Parties to continue to exercise restraint.>>
The momentum in diplomacy has shifted. We are outgunned no more. Ethiopia's human rights record has been found wanting even by the standards of the abysmal OAU. All you folks in a hurry for peace, remember, Eritrea can have peace tomorrow morning; all we need to do is to surrender to the Ethiopian government's every little request. But lasting peace requires negotiation skills and scrupulous attention to detail. It, unfortunately, also requires a standing army and massive arms.
Which is why I was so sad when I first heard that Eritrea is purchasing MIG 29s. No, I wasn't sad that we are "wasting resources". Frankly, the people who feel we don't need fighter planes and heavy weapons must live in an imaginary world of rainbows and unicorns and harp music. I can tolerate this in little girls clutching teddy bears and fuzzy bearded academics at ivory towers but I simply don't understand it coming from people of my generation who lived the terror of helplessness of being outgunned. I am sad that we didn't have the MIGs much earlier: if we did, the Ethiopian government would never have dared bomb our capital.
I am elated that we finally have them. Outgunned no more. Finally, the distance from Addis to Asmara is exactly the same as the distance from Asmara to Addis.
Saleh AAY
SF Bay Area, CA USA 
Buhahahaha..f-n fa66ot, get the fück outta here. 
