tecolahagos.com - ethiopian related issues and commentary

A Bill, H.R. 2760, was introduced in the 108th Congress 1st Session in the House of Representatives by Rep. Tom Lantos (for himself and Rep. Donald Payne). The short title of the Bill is �Resolution of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Dispute Act of 2003." [H.R. 2760 of July 16, 2003 is attached here with at the end of this essay.] It might as well should have been titled as �Resolution for the Destruction of Ethiopia� and dispense with the pretentious reference to both Ethiopia and Eritrea as if they are being considered on equal footing. There is no question about the one sidedness of the Draft submitted by Lantos and Payne: the Bill stated in Section 5. (3) � Congress strongly condemns recent statements by senior Ethiopian officials criticizing the Boundary Commission's decision and calls on the Government of Ethiopia to immediately end its intransigence and fully cooperate with the Commission.�

What is ironic is the fact that Lantos, a first generation immigrant Jew, who hit it big in this country, participated a few months back in a Congressional hearing on Ethiopian human rights issues. Lantos showed through his sanctimonious introductory remarks about Mesfin Woldemariam, an invited witness at the hearing, a degree of concern about the human rights situation in Ethiopia. In less than six months, he had introduced a Bill that would penalize Ethiopians for standing for their human rights and citizenship as well as the territorial integrity of their country. The other co-sponsor of H.R. 2760 is Rep. Donald Payne, a black man from New Jersey, who was involved in July 1996 in a bill against the government of Sudan on alleged practice of slavery, which later was uncovered as a hoax perpetrated by the British Government intelligence and its alleged conduit TransAfrica to the Congressional Black Caucus. May I remind Lantos, Payne, and their colleagues in Congress that human rights include citizenship, territorial integrity, and respect of the heritages of culture and history?

It is quite shameful for the Congress of the United States to be a party in a scheme to defraud, blackmail, and force the ancient people of Ethiopia lose their sovereignty and territorial integrity through a boundary dispute settlement smock-screen. The hypocrisy that Lantos and company are playing out in this sickening drama is a reflection of what is going on in the Executive Branch. Especially an old man like Lantos who had survived Fascism and Nazism ought to appreciate the fact that Ethiopia was a victim of Fascism and survived by fighting against brutal imperial powers including the Arabs and Ottomans over centuries. If Lantos on account of his Jewish heritage has taken offense because of the treatment of Ethiopian Jews (Bete Israel), I must point out the larger fact that the oppression of Ethiopians by their brutal leaders was not limited to any one single group. Other Ethiopians have suffered even worse treatment than the Ethiopian Jews who made it to Israel.

I would like also to remind Payne that Ethiopians defended the rights and dignity of black people at all times through out history. They fought Arabs, Egyptians, Ottomans, Italians to maintain their freedom and independence for thousands of years. Such a fete is to be admired and respected and not begrudged by anyone. I hope Payne is not buying into the revisionist and utterly idiotic myth perpetuated by the enemies of Ethiopia that Ethiopians do not care for other black people in the World. [It is common knowledge that Hook of the NAACP had a beef with Emperor Haile Selassie on some silly misunderstanding of the Emperor�s answer from the 1960s.] It is to be recalled that over one hundred thousand askaris, recruited from local population in �Eritrea� (that was under Italian occupation at that time even though an Ethiopian territory), were engaged in the brutal murder and torture of black people, Ethiopian citizens, in the five years of occupation by Italy of the Ethiopian Capital City and areas adjacent to the two (through Gondar, Dessie) main highways between Addis Ababa and Asmara. My own Grandfather and a number of relations were victims of such brutality by such askaris�they were murdered by firing squads of askaris and Italians. [Rep. Lantos who had lost his family in the Holocaust understands the pain of such a lose.] By any standard those askaris and their Italian masters should have been tried for war crimes the same way the Germens were tried at Nuremberg.

I believe Lantos and Payne are misled and ill advised by Eritrean agents and functionaries as well as lobbied by the current Ethiopian government itself to come up with such blatantly anti-Ethiopian bill in order to force the patriotic people of Ethiopia, specially the frontline people of Tygraie and Afar, abandon their fierce and righteous resistance to an occupation by the United Nations, surrogates of the United States, and Arabs. At any rate, Lantos and Payne have displayed extremely poor judgment and biases against Ethiopians. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that Lantos and Payne�s crocodile tears shade on account of human rights violation of people in the Sudan, Ethiopia et cetera is symptomatic of a number of Americans in politics, in academia, in private practices et cetera. I have the least trust and respect for individual American politicians or intellectuals who in very real way have jeopardized the interest of Ethiopia with their moronic grasp of history and disrespect of the rights of Ethiopians. It is tragic to witness specially a man like Lantos who should understand what it means to suffer under Nazism, waging frontal attack against Ethiopians and against the sovereignty and the national integrity of Ethiopia.

To begin with the Algiers Agreement has no validity and will not be forced against the people of Ethiopia. What ever consent is ascribed to the Government of Meles Zenawi is invalid because of fraud, collusion, absence of arms length negotiation et cetera. In the alternative all understandings reached by Meles Zenawi and Issaias Afewerki are invalid and at the very least open for reconsideration and renegotiation. At any rate, the type of arm twisting that the officials of the Government of the United States have been engaged in renders all international agreements and understandings between the present Ethiopian government and anybody else null and void.

No nation and people could be held responsible under long dead international agreements. The agreements mentioned in HR 2760 i.e., the 1900 agreement is an international agreement but long defunct, the 1902 is an annex with questionable value; the 1908 draft instrument was never signed. At any rate, none of the agreements were implemented and Italy had renounced all and every interest it might have by the Treaty of Paris in 1947. The Boundary Commission itself has made it clear that it was not deciding on the validity or non-validity of the instruments themselves, but just applying what the instruments provide in their provisions consistent with international law. In other words Congress or anyone else could site the Algiers Agreement in order to resurrect long dead provisions in order to bottle up no less than seventy million Ethiopians without their coastal territories in Ethiopian Afar region. Thus, the approach is quite bizarre and reeks of fraudulent behavior by the leaders involved in the scheme including those third parties who were lookers on, and now who are flexing their muscles against Ethiopia. Thus, all such instruments were non-existent before they were resurrected by a collusion of two subversive �liberation� movements who came into power by force of arms and their patrons.

The scheme to deprive Ethiopia of its coastal territory is even more bitter for Ethiopians to swallow considering the fact that the main protagonist in the scheme, the United States, boasts about the great expanse of its territory and the blessing of not only of one but also of two coastal territories �From Sea to Shinning Sea.� And the Junior partner in all the schemes of the Executive, England is an island that treasures its sea outlets. I even suspect that there might be something more than meets the eye, why the United States is persisting on carrying out an unjust and illegal act of dismemberment of Ethiopia. I am also thinking about the United States harboring blatantly divisive liberation movements such as the OLF while at the same time professing its friendship to the people of Ethiopia. Something is seriously wrong with the foreign policy of the United States and the Congress that has become more and more a rubber-stamping totally subordinated institution to the Executive Branch of Government of the United States.

The problem is far too deep for Congress to jump out like kindergarten Jack-in-the-Box and assume the frontline offensive against the people of Ethiopia and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ethiopia. It would have been wise for Congress to keep its independence from the Executive Office rather than act as a rubber-stamping body for the Executive Branch of the United States Government allowing the Executive to do as it pleases. Democracy in America is becoming exceedingly the democracy of a �banana republic� where there is no check on the power of the President. When it comes to foreign relations, the Executive (in our case Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush) has been free of any accountability and doing anything it fancies [at times on the advice of very minor functionaries] without restraint. Even before Congress joined in the bashing of Ethiopia with its H.R.2760, the Executive Branch of the United States Government was following the worst type of misguided foreign relations where the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of a friendly nation of Ethiopia, a founding member of the United Nations itself, is systematically being destroyed on some sophomoric advice coming out of the State Department since 1974.

If the United States government continues to act in such irresponsible and juvenile manner, I suggest Ethiopians should seek other friends in Africa, Asia, and Europe and completely stop all relationship both with the United States and the United Nations. The Ethiopian people should start thinking in terms of protracted confrontation and conflict. I find the activities of the officials of the Government of the United States since 1974 the most bizarre and irrational. American bureaucrats and members of Congress often have acted out as each others support system in several incidents where a number of past and current United States Presidents had ordered violent actions against foreign nationals or their governments. Now they are threatening Ethiopians with their violent and brutal past actions elsewhere in the world if Ethiopia does not comply with their absurd demand that Ethiopians comply with some scheme designed by them that is totally against the interest of Ethiopia. The most moronic politician, lawyer, common man or woman from the street can tell if there is fraud, coercion, collusion in a contract or agreement, such agreement has no validity. Take the case of the Algiers Agreement and the circumstance of its signing and the past relationship of the leaders to the street and ask anyone the following simple question: What value is Ethiopia getting going through the exercise of going to a Commission set up under the Algiers Agreement?

It is common knowledge that the United States government had acted throughout most of its short history with brutal force to protect its interest in disregard to international law or custom. The United States went into the civil war against the South Confederacy to insure the union of the States as the United States. It is a puzzle to me that the Congress and the Executive of Branch of the United States Government are now so insanely set to dismember Ethiopia into ethnic enclaves when in its own history went to war where no less than six hundred thousand people died, and millions were maimed or wounded in order to preserve the territorial integrity of a country. It is in fact ironic that such a young nation as the United States, with less than two hundred fifty years history, is trying to judge and dismember Ethiopia, a nation over twenty times older than it. This hollow pride and arrogance of Congressmen and members of the Executive branch of government does not commensurate with the history of a people that have come out of such dark background and painful past. A word of caution for those officials and representatives, with their chests buffed to bursting, maybe they ought to humble themselves a little and read a book by America�s greatest philosopher and social scientist Howard Zinn, The People�s History of the United States, so that they may benefit from some rational thinking.

If Meles Zenawi has a single drop of loyalty to Ethiopia, he should do the following:

1. Immediately stop all contact with UNMEE.

2. Notify the United Nations that Ethiopia has withdrawn from all border negotiation.

3. Declare all agreements in connection with the Conflict with the �Eritrean� Government, including the Algiers Agreement null and void on the ground of coercion by the United States and England, and corruption of the Commissioners, clear conflict of interest violations.

4. Open secret negotiation with other Veto Power Governments for full cooperation.

5. Declare National Emergency. Inform the People of Ethiopia that the United States has sided with Eritrea. And prepare people for long sustained struggle for Ethiopia�s Sovereignty and Territorial integrity.

6. Call AU conference on the impending crises of Ethiopia�s Sovereignty. Strengthen relations with all Sub-Saharan African Countries.

8. Notify the United States Government to Recall its Diplomatic Mission to Ethiopia. And recall the Ethiopian Ambassador to the United States with his mission.

10. Resign and allow a New Military command structure to be established to lead Ethiopia in its confrontation with its enemies.

As a reminder lest we forget, Ethiopia is the only independent nation in the world that had survived with its own independent and unique government structure for over three thousand years. Ethiopians have a greatness and nobility of soul. Ethiopia is the only country in the world that has the least ideas on torture, or painful executions as practiced both in the West and the East. Ethiopia has been known as a country of justice and compassion because it did not prosecute or liquidated minorities on the basis of religion or race on the horrendous scale as Christians did in the Americas, Europe, and Asia; and Moslems in the Middle East and Africa. Ethiopia is a literate culture with its own original script dating to the time of pre-Christianity. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam found a home in Ethiopia longer than any other place on Earth except where those religions originated. Ethiopia is the most tolerant and diverse cultural mosaic in the world. In our own time Ethiopians have been oppressed by brutal leaders, but not on the basis of their race, religion, or culture. Ethiopia is the country of the origin of mankind and humanism.

It is time for all Ethiopians to consolidate and forge their legendary unity in the face of adversity. Ethiopia is being dismembered through the evil collusion of internal and external enemies. There has been no worse time than this ever facing Ethiopians. Know your enemies�they come in different colors and uniforms. Ethiopia is a sacred land. Defend it, and if need be die for it. Hands off Ethiopia!

Additional comment: On a careful consideration of the events surrounding the Lantos Bill and further discussion with concerned Ethiopians, even though every word I wrote in this article is the absolute fact and my heartfelt patriotic course of action, by cutting relationship with the United States Ethiopians may fall for the trap set by Issaias�s Government�to cause irreparable conflict between Ethiopia and the United States. Thus, Ethiopians, being fully aware of the facts as stated in this article, should concentrate on lobbying Congress and the Executive rather than agitate for breaking up diplomatic, economic, and friendly relationship with the United States Government and people. At the same time Ethiopians should lobby all members of the Security with veto power. This monumental problem facing us all not only requires courage and patriotic zeal, but also cunning and matching the moves of our enemies step by step.

To limit United States assistance for Ethiopia and Eritrea if those countries are not in compliance with the terms and conditions of agreements entered into by the two countries to end hostilities and provide for a demarcation of the border between the two countries, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

This Act may be cited as the `Resolution of the Ethiopa-Eritrea Border Dispute Act of 2003'.

(1) ALGIERS AGREEMENTS- The term `Algiers Agreements' means the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

(2) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES- The term `appropriate congressional committees' means the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.

(3) CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES AGREEMENT- The term `Cessation of Hostilities Agreement' means the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities signed on June 18, 2000, in Algiers, Algeria, by the Government of Ethiopia and the Government of Eritrea that established a temporary demilitarized security zone within Eritrea to be enforced by the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

(4) COMPREHENSIVE PEACE AGREEMENT- The term `Comprehensive Peace Agreement' means the agreement signed on December 12, 2000, in Algiers, Algeria, by the Government of Ethiopia and the Government of Eritrea, under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), that provided for an end to military hostilities between the two countries, assurances by the countries to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and established a neutral Boundary Commission to delimit and demarcate the border between the two countries.

(A) assistance under chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to development assistance); and

(B) assistance under chapter 4 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to economic support fund assistance).

(6) MILITARY ASSISTANCE AND ARMS TRANSFERS- The term `military assistance and arms transfers' means--

(A) assistance under chapter 2 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to military assistance), including the transfer of excess defense articles under section 516 of that Act;

(B) assistance under chapter 5 of part II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (relating to international military education and training or `IMET'), including military education and training for civilian personnel under section 541 of that Act (commonly referred to as `Expanded IMET'); and

(C) assistance under the `Foreign Military Financing' Program under section 23 of the Arms Export Control Act and the transfer of defense articles, defense services, design and construction services, or any other defense-related training under that Act.

(1) On May 6, 1998, a conflict erupted between Ethiopia and Eritrea, two of the world's poorest countries.

(2) The two-year war claimed 100,000 lives, displaced more than 1,000,000 people, cost Ethiopia more than $2,900,000,000, and caused a 62 percent decline in food production in Eritrea.

(3) Millions of dollars were diverted from much needed development projects into military activities and weapons procurements at a time when severe drought threatened a famine in both Ethiopia and Eritrea, as bad as the famine in 1984 in those countries, putting more than 13,000,000 lives at risk.

(4) On June 18, 2000, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and President Issaias Afewerki of the State of Eritrea signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Algiers, Algeria. On December 12, 2000, the two countries also signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Algiers under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and in the presence of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and President Abdel-Aziz Boutheflika of Algeria.

(5) Article 4.2 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement states the following: `The parties agree that a neutral Boundary Commission composed of five members shall be established with a mandate to delimit and demarcate the colonial treaty border [between the two countries] based on pertinent colonial treaties (1900, 1902 and 1908) and applicable international law.'.

(6) Article 4.15 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement states the following: `The parties agree that the delimitation and demarcation determinations

of the Commission shall be final and binding. Each party shall respect the border so determined, as well as territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other party.'.

(7)(A) The President of the United Nations Security Council, on behalf of the Security Council, confirmed the Security Council's endorsement of the terms and conditions of the Algiers Agreements, with special reference to the neutral Boundary Commission described in Article 4.2 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and its mandate.

(B) In addition, the Security Council reaffirmed its support for the Algiers Agreements in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1308 (July 17, 2000), 1312 (July 31, 2000), 1320 (September 15, 2000), 1344 (March 15, 2001), 1369 (September 14, 2001), 1398 (March 15, 2002), 1430 (August 14, 2002), 1434 (September 6, 2002), and 1466 (March 14, 2003).

(8) On April 13, 2002, the neutral Boundary Commission announced its `Delimitation Decision', reiterating that both parties had agreed that it would be `final and binding'.

(9) Following the decision of the Boundary Commission that the heavily disputed town of Badme would be zoned to the Eritrean side of the new border, Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin of Ethiopia announced on April 15, 2003, that `[n]o-one expects the [Government of Ethiopia to accept these mistakes committed by the Commission'. Further, the Ethiopian Ministry of Information released a statement accusing the Boundary Commission of an `unfair tendency' in implementing the border ruling and `misinterpreting' the Algiers Agreements.

(10) In his March 6, 2003, `Progress Report' to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary General Kofi Annan reported that Prime Minister Zenawi of Ethiopia had expressed to his Special Representative, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, that `if its concerns were not adequately addressed Ethiopia might eventually reject the demarcation-related decisions of the Commission'.

(11) The independent Boundary Commission has investigated, reviewed, and rejected Ethiopia's claims with respect to the village of Badme, and in a report issued on March 21, 2003, stated that, based on the boundary line from the 1902 treaty between the two countries that was used as the reference under the terms of the Algiers Agreements, the evidence submitted by the Government of Ethiopia to support its claim was `inadequate and inconsistent' and the Commission `cannot allow one party to claim a territorial right, to insist on adjustments of parts of the boundary which that party finds disadvantageous'.

It is the sense of Congress that both Ethiopia and Eritrea should take all appropriate actions to implement the Algiers Agreements, including by accepting the `Delimitation Decision' issued by the neutral Boundary Commission on April 13, 2002, with respect to the boundary between the two countries.

(1) Congress expresses its support for the Boundary Commission established by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and calls on the international community to continue to support the United Nations trust fund established to facilitate the process of demarcation between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the economic and social transition of affected communities to new borders determined by the Commission.

(2) Congress further declares that it shall be the policy of the United States to limit United States assistance for Ethiopia or Eritrea if either such country is not in compliance with, or is not taking significant steps to comply with, the terms and conditions of the Algiers Agreements.

(3) Congress strongly condemns recent statements by senior Ethiopian officials criticizing the Boundary Commission's decision and calls on the Government of Ethiopia to immediately end its intransigence and fully cooperate with the Commission.

(a) LIMITATION ON ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE- Economic assistance may only be provided for Ethiopia or Eritrea for any period of time for which the President determines that Ethiopia or Eritrea (as the case may be) is in compliance with, or is taking significant steps to comply with, the terms and conditions of the Algiers Agreements.

(b) LIMITATION ON MILITARY ASSISTANCE AND ARMS TRANSFERS- Military assistance and arms transfers may only be provided for Ethiopia or Eritrea for any period of time for which the President determines that Ethiopia or Eritrea (as the case may be) is in compliance with, or is taking significant steps to comply with, the terms and conditions of the Algiers Agreements.

(c) EXCEPTIONS- The limitation on assistance under subsections (a) and (b) shall not apply with respect to humanitarian assistance (such as food or medical assistance), peacekeeping assistance, counter terrorism initiatives, assistance to protect or promote human rights, and assistance to prevent, treat, and control HIV/AIDS.

(d) WAIVER- The President may waive the application of subsection (a) or (b) with respect to Ethiopia or Eritrea if the President determines that it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so.

Until the date on which the border demarcation between Ethiopia and Eritrea is finalized, the President shall prepare and transmit on a regular basis to the appropriate congressional committees a report that contains a description of progress being made toward such demarcation, including the extent to which Ethiopia and Eritrea are in compliance with, or are taking significant steps to comply with, the terms and conditions of the Algiers Agreements.

Explanatory Note: I am writing this very brief article almost a month late from the introduction of H.R. 2760, which was introduced in the 108th Congress 1st Session on July 16, 2003. Due to the fact that I was engaged on other topics, I completely missed the shameful activities of some Congressional members against Ethiopia. TH