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| Ethiopia's
Ethnic Cleansing by Kidane Mengisteab July 22, 1999 The 1993 separation between Eritrea and Ethiopia was concluded rather amicably. As a result, many people of Eritrean origin, who even voted in the referendum for Eritrea's independence, were allowed to remain in Ethiopia and retain their Ethiopian citizenship. Likewise, many Ethiopians who were not members of Ethiopia's armed forces or security apparatus remained in Eritrea. In addition, in 1993 the two countries signed an agreement, which among other things, allowed the free mobility of people and capital across their borders allowing many Eritrean citizens to live and work in Ethiopia and for many Ethiopian citizens to work in Eritrea. |
"The government in Addis
Ababa represents one wing of the old TPLF, that which chose to pursue power within Ethiopia rather than pursuing national independence for a "greater Tigray" (possibly including part of Eritrea)." Craig Calhoun |
Ethiopia's
Ethnic Cleansing by Craig Calhoun FOR FIVE months, the Ethiopian government has been tracking down citizens of Eritrean descent and expelling them by the thousands. This is a peaceful and mild version of ethnic cleansing; so far without the mass murder and rape characteristic of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. It comes in the wake of fighting along the border between the two countries in May and June, and so is fueled by wartime anxieties. But it is nonetheless an effort to purge the population of country on criteria of ethnicity alone. As such it should disturb the international community much more than it has so far. |
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| What is the
war all about ? - By Tekie Fessehazion Definitely it's not about that obscure border town called Badme. It's not about economics or disputes about the introduction of Eritrea's national currency. It's not about the inflexibility of two proud former comrade in arms. Or it's not about that awful but clever cliche; the one about "two bald men fighting over a comb." No, the war has never been about any of these. Make no mistake. Regardless of what the learned scribes say, this is not a border war; this is not a conflict about economics. Something much larger, more fundamental is at stake. |
"To give credit to the
weyane, they may be smart enough to realize that their days of dominance of Ethiopian politics are numbered. They have no acceptance by the Ethiopian people, especially the Amharas or Oromo, the two dominant groups in the country." Berhe Habte-Giorgis |
End to the War Between Eritrea and the Weyane - By Berhe Habte-Giorgis Wars are easy to start, but difficult to stop. Once the logic of war is set loose, it becomes an uncontrollable monster. Survival in war time becomes a feat by itself, because unlike times of peace it cannot be undertaken for granted. It is not what you do or want to do as much as what the other party wants to do. In such situations, the only way to react to the enemy is in kind - return fire by fire. We have seen how the weyane grabbed Eritrean territory and when Eritrea took its land back called it an invasion. |
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| Ethiopia:
13 Months of Carnage - by saleh Yonnis February through June saw the death of thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians, the devastation of precious land and resources and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of innocent Eritreans and Ethiopians. Faced with the outrage of the world and its call for immediate and unconditional cease-fire, or, at the very least, the air raid moratorium it has signed, the Ethio Government bristled with mock indignation that the world is denying it a presumed right that all nations-rich and poor-enjoy. As if dropping bombs from a fighter plane on civilians were a birthright…. |
"To the Ethiopian
Government, the detention of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin and their deportation is the most effective way to exploit the Amhara elite's resentment of the "special privileges" enjoyed by "Tigre And Igre" and, thus, ensure that the war temperature stays at fever pitch." |
Has the OAU
been a fair, effective mediator ? - By Dr. Tekie
Fessehazion In a recent letter (June 14) to the UN Security Council, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin announced that the OAU had rendered an interpretation of a key clause in the Framework Agreements consistent with Ethiopia's. The Foreign Minister said that the OAU had advised Eritrea to "vacate" Ethiopian "territories" that it had been "occupying " since May 6, 1998. The announcement was startling for, if true, it meant that the OAU had discarded the Frameworks and replaced it with a new one without Eritrea's knowledge. |
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| Ethnic
Cleansing : The Ethiopian Way -By Alexander G.E. Tekie Most Americans, perhaps most of the world, do not know about the mass genocide that took place in Rwanda and the civil war in the Southern Sudan that has left more than a million and half people dead. And now we can add to this list, the recent border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that has emerged into a full-scale war despite a temporary lull. |
The Ethiopian Government is engaged in what Amnesty International in its 1/29/99-report call “cruelty of massive deportation” threatening “everyone of Eritrean origin in Ethiopia, causing untold suffering to thousands of families every week.” | Where
is the OAU clarification to Ethiopia? - by Kebire Abdu
Ahmed In an interview given to the Ethiopian Television (ETV) on
Saturday May 1, 1999, the Ethiopian |
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| Memories of Sawa - Eritrea Profile Vol. 6 No. 14 June 12, 1999 I was lucky to be grated permission to participate in the National Service. I was in Sawa during 7th round and in that 6-month training experienced something that has changed my outlook on many things. On first arriving in Sawa I experienced culture shock. A thought, or question, running through my mind was "how could people possibly survive with so little?" |
"The U.N. Security Council had issued a statement Wednesday
praising |
What next?
- by Sara Tekle (Eritrea Profile Vol. 6 No. 14 June 12,
1999) It is quite a while since both countries said they accepted the OAU Framework Agreement to solve the Eritrea-Ethiopia crisis. To get to this point however it took the mediation of many persons and organizations of goodwill. It took several meetings by the OAU and several resolutions by the UN urging both parties to resolve this issue peacefully. |
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| Facts
and fiction about the state of Ethiopian Economy - by
Berhane Melake The border conflict with Eritrea has created serious difficulties and an uncertain outlook for the Ethiopian economy. Ethiopia's structural adjustment program, which was supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, has been totally derailed. As a result, over the last twelve months, the Ethiopian economy has lapsed into a much deeper economic crisis, and has experienced severe balance of payments difficulties than the authorities are expected and are prepared to admit. |
"Ethiopia is one of the
heavily indebted, poor countries in the world. At the end of 1998, Ethiopia's external public debt was estimated at US$10 billion, about 160 percent of GDP." Berhane Melake |
The reality
behind the stories about the Eritrean Economy by John Weakliam* (Eritrea Profile May 8 ) Is the war destroying the Eritrean economy? The answer according to the assertions and evidence presented in this article is definitely NO. The Eritrean economy is in an early stage of reconstruction and development and before the onset of hostilities the economy consisted largely of infrastructure development and food security development with as yet little investment or export from a tentative private sector which focused on import and distribution. Certainly it would be untrue to deny that the Eritrean economy has been hard hit by the conflict. |
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| Ethiopia's
Whims and Wishes Hold a Young Nation "Hostage" - by
Hidaat G. Ephrem In the year long conflict between the two sisterly countries, Ethiopia has shifted its focus of dispute and the strategy it has employed to solve them so many times that the list has become dizzyingly long. The end result of such conflicting and often shifting focus of issues has rendered the young nation of Eritrea a "hostage" to the unpredictable wind of whims and wishes of Ethiopia's internal political climate. |
"Eritrea has become a hostage
of the TPLF's internal self-perceived crisis, unwillingly engaged in a costly and devastating war..." Hidaat G. Ephrem |
Unmasking The
Real Belligerent Nation - By: Dr. T. Yohannes
Ostensibly, Ethiopia's motive was peace in the area, nonetheless, in the last four
years, it invaded four out of its five neighbors: Sudan (1995), Eritrea (1997), Kenya
(1999), and just recently, |
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asmara, 23 April 1999 - As the UN special envoy, Ambassador Sahnun, prepares to return to the region in pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the regime in Addis Ababa is issuing a flurry of statements on the need not to "reward aggression". The TPLF regime attempts to portray itself as a "victim of Eritrean aggression" through the distortion of facts and omission of crucial events. It argues that the border conflict has its origins in early May of 1998.. |
Ethio-Eritrea |
Why Sahnoun may
not succeed: the definition of victory - by Mussie
Msghina April 29, 1999 To Eritrea peace and victory are almost synonymous. Victory means bringing about a peaceful resolution of the conflict and getting a clear-cut demarcation of the border area. One that leaves little room for confusion and future conflicts. To the Woyane, yeah the Woyane went into this war with an overly ambitious definition of victory; one that included the humiliation of Eritrea and destabilization of its system. |
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Q & A on the Border Conflict -
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The TPLF-Manifesto
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Insulting Intelligence: Habit of Image-Maker
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By Saleh AA Younis - April 09, 1999 In this essay, you will see that the Ethiopian Government's habit of:
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"Border delimitation should be
determined on the basis of established colonial treaties." |
Who Benefits from the Eritrean-Ethiopian War? By Benyam Solomon April 20, 1999- |
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| It is music to our ears
sing it TPLF, sing it please Eritrean
Profile March 20, 1999 by Habte Tesfamariam- In an attempt to discredit
the Eritrean Government, the minority Ethiopian TPLF regime resorted to calling the
Eritrean government as the "Shabiya" Government. But no harm was done as
"Shabiya" means literally "people", and at a |
"Environs
refer to the area surrounding Badme Town. " |
CAN ETHIOPIA
SUSTAIN A PROTRACTED WAR? Eritrean Profile February 20, 1999 by Gebremichael Mengistu (Lilo) - Ethiopia's decision to declare war on Eritrea last year was based on the illusion that the outcome of the war will be determined by the magnitude of the human and material resources, factors that certainly favour Ethiopia. Not only was it onfident of winning the war, but it thought it could finish it in a matter of weeks, if not days. Failing to realize its objective in the first round of fighting... |
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By Dan Connell Asmara, Eritrea 12 March, 1999 -The outbreak of renewed fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea last month marked the failure of a U.S.-brokered "peace process" that dragged on with no evident progress for eight fruitless months, after the conflict flared up over a long-simmering border dispute in May and June. |
"Both parties
should demilitarize the entire common border... " |
Super Race Mentality? Who is guilty of it? By Ghidewon Abay-Asmerom March 1999- I have been itching to write a response to the often repeated Tigrean complaint that Eritreans "feel superior" to Ethiopians in general but Tigreans in particular. In my opinion, this is an unfounded accusation. This bogus charge is being raised now as one tool of Ethiopia's misinformation campaign in order to divert the world's attention from the border conflict... |
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By Saleh AA Younis March 30, 1999 - With respect to the Eritrean- Ethiopian conflict, in the battle waged over the internet to win the hearts and minds of all rational people, it’s now become standard practice for Eritreans to present a "Fact vs. Fiction" only to be contradicted by Ethiopia's version of "Fact Vs Fiction." |
"From
day one of its dispute with Ethiopia, Eritrea has clearly stated that the border dispute
cannot be solved by staging a war;" |
Setting the Record Truly Straight
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by Ghidewon Abay Asmerom Abstract of a talk presented in Washington, DC on Sept. 27, 1998. – Almost all of Africa's modern boundaries are the result of the European scramble for Africa that followed the Berlin Conference of Nov. 1884. Taking this as the kick-off year, the next 20 years that followed it saw the drawing of borders by European countries lead by Britain and France. |
"Foreign diplomats in both
nations said they generally believed Eritrea's version of the battles, which began early
Sunday." |
The Cause of the Eritrean-Ethiopian Border Conflict PART I & II by Alemseged Tesfai– Two premises or assumptions have governed Ethio-Eritrean relations of the past sixty years. First is the notion carved into the minds of generations of Ethiopians by the Haileselassie regime that Eritrea is, by nature and logic, part of Ethiopia. The well known arguments of a common history, religion and culture is invoked here and Eritrea is defined as Ethiopia's natural "outlet to the sea". |
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| Genesis of the Border
Conflict By Tekie Fessehazion – Fri, 26 Jun 1998 To help us understand the genesis of the border war, I have compiled a chronological report of events and the steps that were taken to solve the disputes. This report should be read as one person's reading of what took place. At a later day, I hope to write a full interpretive account of why the border war occurred. For now, this bare outline should suffice. |
"NCN has now been
informed the Eritrean estimate [of Ethiopian casualties] is accurate." |
Do Ethiopia's
Recent Claims On Economic Relationship....Hold Water? By Gebremichael Mengist- Sept. 17, 1998 Since the eruption of the border conflict, Ethiopia has been making incredible claims regarding the economic relationship that existed between the two countries in the past seven years. Ethiopia's assertions and allegations include, inter alia: - Eritrea had unfair economic advantages in its relationship with Ethiopia; |
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| A Nakfa/Birr/LC
Analysis by Professor Tekie Fessehazion – Part I I have been itching to jump into the Nakfa exchange rate discussion for a while...It has been several weeks since a flurry of articles in Addis Tribune generated a discussion on the introduction of the Nakfa, as Eritrea's national currency, and the Brave New World of trade between Eritrea and Ethiopia. The Tribune has been uncharacteristically quiet since its initial forays into the matter. Perhaps this explains the lull in Dehai. The lull, however, is probably temporary. The Tribune will return with its usual mix of yellow journalism and xeno(ertro)phobia. |
"[Ethiopians] have
been prepared to accept |
TPLF: Sabotaging Another Peace Effort by Saleh AA Younis –Mon, 25 Jan 1999 If the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict deteriorates into a full-scale war, the responsibility will lie with one party. It is the same party that has, since May 13, 1998, chosen:
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