Mereja Forum

The people of Eritrea struggled for half a century to regain their fundamental human & national rights and who, despite the outright military victory that they won, took the unprecedented step of organizing a free and fair referendum, so as to join the community of independent states on the basis of their freely expressed wish and on solid legal grounds.

When the UN passed a Resolution to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia, the Resolution became an international instrument which the UNGA could be seized of at any time. But for the next 41 years, as a brutal war of aggression was conducted against the Eritrean people.

Formidable as our problems are, we are confident that we can and will rebuild our devastated country and provide a decent life for ourselves. It is our firm conviction that outside assistance, no matter how generous, cannot of itself, solve our problems.

The advent of the new State of Eritrea happily coincided with the end of the cold war, that era of super-power rivalry that caused so much human misery & led to the virtual paralysis of the UN. Like the rest of humanity, we place much hope on the new era, on the prospects of an enhanced role for the United Nations, a role that would make it truly representative of "We the peoples of the world." And yet, we have no illusions that a new, just and equitable world order has dawned on us.

We see too many old habits & practices, to entertain any illusions inside the UN & outside it. In as much as we hope for successes, we see that the failures of UN initiatives far outnumber any of its successes. Injustice endures, within nations and between nations.