After the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities five years ago, Min. Haile Woldetensae in effect said, let us get back to running our country; let us build institutions; let us build strong diplomatic relations; let us build our resources; because a strong Eritrea is the only way to ensure both its short- and long-term stability and viability. Where are we today? Why did we fail to heed Min. Haile’s words and his wisdom?
Every Eritrean has a couple simple questions pertaining to demarcation,
1. When will the demarcation and, generally, the border decision be fully implemented?
2. If the border is not to be demarcated any time soon, will Eritrea continue to live under a state of siege that has destroyed Eritrea economically and socially?
Just for the record, the border decision is final and binding, and that the decision must be implemented to its last dot without any tinkering with it.
PIA and Mr. Yemane Gebreab have stated that Eritrea will not allow foreign power to occupy its sovereign territory indefinitely. What does this mean? Are PIA and Mr. Yemane contemplating occupying by force the disputed territories awarded to Eritrea.
What are the options available to PIA and company to finalize the border decision?
1. PFDJ could have persuaded nations that guaranteed the Algiers Agreement to put pressure on Ethiopia to implement the 2002 border decision.
But PFDJ has shown its utter incompetence in its international diplomatic dealings. As the latest events clearly illustrate, although Eritrea could have amicably asked foreign NGOs to leave the country, expelling USAID was preceded by venomous propaganda against NGOs on Eritrean media. That is foolhardy, and with major consequence for Eritrea and its people, while Higdefawiyans bathe in Johnnie Walker during the last few days of their power tenure. PFDJ’s international relations have been so disastrous that PIA is unable to travel to the West. A Head of State is lame duck leader if he can’t travel to foreign nations, and meet face-to-face to persuade influential heads of states.
G8 Meeting in July 2005 with PM Meles standing on last row third from left
It is time to wake up and smell the coffee - a couple of trips to Libya and Pakistan won’t yield results. Eritrea can’t enforce its claim when our antagonist is standing one and two rows behind the World Superpowers. [Above is Picture from G8 Meeting in July 2005 with PM Meles standing on last row third from left] Looking at the picture, does it look like that the West will put pressure on PM Meles anytime soon to finalize the border? It should not escape Eritreans that without instituting the rule-of-law in Eritrea, the West will continue to shun PIA. No ifs, no buts, no maybes! The latest episode with USAID will have implications far beyond emergency and development assistance, and will play a pivotal role in obstructing PIA’s efforts to finalize the border demarcation. The bottom line is that PFDJ can’t seek international assistance to resolve the border impasse. So what comes next?
2. As PIA and Mr. Yemane stated, PFDJ will not allow foreign, specifically Ethiopian, power to occupy sovereign Eritrean territory indefinitely. This is called teeth rattling, which is to threaten to take actions but nothing follows. PFDJ will not forcefully occupy disputed territory awarded to Eritrea because the rest of the world will immediately condemn Eritrea and even possibly assist Ethiopia politically [esp. PM Meles as their darling] , at the very least. The second factor is that the Western World will dig up some obscure legal document and bring charges against PIA in the International Court of Justice for Crimes Against Humanity or some other charges for launching a war. Unlike during the Cold War when dictators could find refuge in the Superpower country they once supported, in the New World Order, there is no hiding place in the World. For instance, Libya may not accept PIA because it just paid over $ 3.5 billion USD to end its devastating 10 years of isolation from the world community.
If PIA resorts to using force to settle the border dispute, then another nagging question will be answered. PIA will only add credence to those who argue that PIA resorts to force to resolve impasses – supporting their case as to what happened in the week of May 6, 1998. PIA’s claim, which many of us had believed, during the height of the conflict that the border issue can only be resolved through legal avenues becomes hollow words.
Needless to say, the economic and social destruction on Eritrea will be enormous – should PIA pursue force.
3. The third option is to wait until PM Meles is removed from power and hope the next government will honor the Algiers Agreement. As our forefathers wisely said, ‘Kab seb zitetsebeye bdewu beleye’. First, it is only pure speculation to guess how long PM Meles will stay in power. Second, even after PM Meles, there is no guarantee that the next government will honor the Algiers Agreement. Eritrea can’t wait for external factors to work themselves out before it begins its own life. Here, we must only heed to Minister Haile Woldetensae’s wise words, once the UNMEE troops have been deployed in the buffer zone, the Eritrean government should return to the business of running a country.
If we are to learn from our mistakes we must ask, where would Eritrea be in these past five years if we had heeded Min. Haile’s words? More likely than not, a country with a rule-of-law, with its first free elections, highly persuasive with the international communities to resolve the border dispute, achieved higher food security, and youth and general population engaged in its normal day-to-day life.
The bottom line is the border will remain un-demarcated for many months, if not for years. The reasons are very simple,
1. If PM Meles and PIA do loath each other, as we are led to believe, then neither side wants to give any victory to the other. Simple human nature as confirmed by history!
2. PM Meles can’t relinquish critical territories without severe consequences to his power grip.
3. The guarantors to the Algiers Agreement, unfortunately, have not shown any inclination to enforcing the agreement. The PFDJ regime has bungled up its international diplomatic efforts.
VICTORY in WAR and CONFLICT … is not simply about who kills the most. Rather, it is about who can drain the other’s resources – financial, diplomatic, human will, etc… - at a faster rate than one’s own. The Cold War was lost without firing a single shot between the main antagonists.
America engaged the Soviet Union in an arm’s race that the Soviet Union couldn’t afford. The higdefawiyans of Soviet Union and its satellite nations said, ‘Look, Soviet Union is making progress … our policies are working … Soviet Union sent the first man into space showing how fast our great nation is advancing in technology.’ And the higdefawiyans of Eastern Bloc told us, ‘look at the roads, buildings, and factories we built.’ In reality, while they were pouring concrete and steel, the higdefawiyans of Eastern bloc were busy destroying their people; built the Wall of Shame and started shooting those who tried to climb the Wall Shame and escape from a hell hole called Eastern Bloc. But the writing was on the wall - the first man they shot trying to escape climbing over the Wall of Shame brought the entire Eastern bloc down to its knees. Shooting is never a solution! Instead Higdefawiyans of Eastern Bloc should have found pragmatic ways of resolving the most basic issues than shooting their own people. Higdefawiyans of Soviet had their basics wrong, and upside down. While higdefawiyans of Eastern Bloc were congratulating themselves over Champaign for sending the first man into space, for their advanced technology, and for their concrete and steel mentality, their people couldn’t simply make ends meet – to put food on the table, and unable to breath the fresh air of freedom. The rest is history! The Soviet Union was brought down to its knees. In overnight, the bubble built by the higdefawiyans of the once mighty Soviet Union burst exposing its hollowness.
When Min. Haile Woldetensae’s said let us return to the business of running our nation, he meant, ‘let us rebuild our resources.’ Min. Haile Woldetensae was telling us that if we are strong economically and socially that no one will dare threaten our existence because our antagonists will know we have the resources – financial, economic, social, legal, diplomatic - to meet any external challenges. Our antagonists must have constipated for few months after Min. Haile’s speech. The Woyanes must have been scared of Min. of Haile Woldetensae and his likes. Fortunately for Woyanes, and they must have drank very expensive Champaign to celebrate - because they didn’t have to eliminate their real threats themselves.
On Related Thoughts
USAID and the Eritrean government will not be able to reconcile their differences. The US government is bound by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscious, and religion or belief, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of Sate and the Congress. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. government agency.
“IRFA [International Religious Freedom Act of 1998] requires the President to take action to oppose religious freedom violations in CPC [Country of Particular Concern] countries through flexible menu of options provided in the statute. Such action must be taken within 180 days of CPC designation. In February 2005, the Commission recommended specific steps that the President should take, Recommendations 1 and 6 below. When the deadline to take action passed on March 15, 2005, the State Department announced that it would be asking Congress for additional time to finalize required actions under IRFA. The
Commission believes that delays in the process serve only to signal that the U.S. government does not take seriously its stated, and mandated, commitments to promote religious freedom and other human rights throughout the world.”
[Emphasis added]
“Policy Focus, Eritrea”, Spring 2005, page 6
PFDJ’s latest farce will not allow it to wiggle out of this one!
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The Times, August 25, 2005
The leader now outlaws lip-synching
From Jeremy Page in Moscow
HE HAS already renamed months of the year after himself and his mother, banned car radios, opera and ballet and been declared President for Life. Now Turkmenistan’s eccentric leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has banned the playing of recorded music during national holidays, on television and even at private weddings.
Mr. Niyazov — also known as Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) the Great — issued the ban to protect traditional musicians from “negative influences” such as performers who lip-synch, according to state media.
State television showed him telling his Cabinet: “Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs. Don’t kill talents by using lip-synching . . . create our new culture.”
Turkmen singers and composers were shown unanimously approving the move and thanking the President for his “parental care” at a meeting in the capital, Ashgabat.
One singer, identified as M. Bayramgeldiyev, said: “It is impossible to express one’s deep love of the homeland, people and native land when there is a sound recording instead of live voice and live sound.”
But critics said that the ban was the latest sign of President Niyazov’s increasingly arbitrary and authoritarian rule, and said it could herald a wave of repression.
“It’s a ludicrous statement for a head of state, but it’s not unusual for Turkmenistan. This is typical of the arbitrary rule and micromanagement of President Niyazov,” Erika Dailey, the head of the Turkmenistan Project at the Open Society Institute, said.
Mr. Niyazov has led his former Soviet republic, a largely desert nation with the world’s fifth-largest natural gas reserves, since becoming the local Communist Party chief in 1985. Elected President after the Soviet collapse, he has clung to power by banning all political opposition, maintaining tight control over gas revenues and fostering an often bizarre personality cult.
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Saturday, 8 January, 2005, 13:47 GMT BBC NEWS
N Korea wages war on long hair
Men's hairstyles reflect their 'ideological spirit'
North Korea has launched an intensive media assault on its latest arch enemy - the wrong haircut.
A campaign exhorting men to get a proper short-back-and-sides has been aired by state-run Pyongyang television.
The series is entitled Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle.
While the campaign has been carried out primarily on television, reports have appeared in North Korean press and radio, urging tidy hairstyles and proper attire.
It is the strongest media campaign against men's sloppy appearances mounted in the reclusive and impoverished Communist state in recent years.
The propaganda drive on grooming standards has gone a stage further than previous attempts. This time television identifies specific individuals deemed too shoddy.
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Finally, it makes one wonder … and time to reflect …where are the last torch bearers in a relay race to the finishing line?
On September 1 - 1961 to 2005
Berhan Hagos
August 25, 2005
