By Tecola W. Hagos

I am absolutely flabbergasted by the activities of some Members of the Parliament of Canada in their latest campaign to landlock and destroy Ethiopia by demanding that Ethiopia accept the decision of a corrupted Boundary Commission. In the 37th Parliament, 2nd Session a report (11th Report) [attached herewith at the end of this article] from the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade from its November 6 �03 57th meeting, a course of action against the Sovereign Nation of Ethiopia is recommended in order to force Ethiopia accept the decision of Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission pursuant to an illegal, fraudulent, and collusive Algiers Agreement between Meles Zenawi, who had acted as an agent of the �Eritrean� government, and the Government of �Eritrea�. The action of the Canadian Parliament seems to be part of the conspiracy in line with the introduction by some members of the Congress of the United States of a draft Bill [see Draft Bill, H.R. 2760]. All these effort to force Ethiopia to accept such corrupt decision of a corrupt arbitration tribunal is aimed to destroy Ethiopia. At the same time, Western countries are harboring ethnic based movements giving them sanctuary and sustenance in the hope that they will lead the final act of totally dismantling Ethiopia into mini nations.

The Canadian government is not a new comer to such types of underhanded and behind the scene manipulation. In 1990 it helped the brutal Mengistu Hailemariam to relocate to Zimbabwe, and there by made it possible for Mengistu to escape prosecution for genocide and crime against humanity, treason, corruption, and murder charges. The Canadian government seems to think that it is acting in a peace-broker role to promote peace by meddling in the affaires of so called �Third World� nations. What Canada does is something far from helping the people of Ethiopia, but is giving support and comfort to Ethiopia�s enemies to strangle and destroy the people of Ethiopia by depriving us of our historic and natural access to the Red Sea, and force Ethiopian Citizens of the Afar Coastal Region to accept a foreign and alien citizenship or face massive forced relocation. All this is contrary to accepted customary and treaty based international law principles. The neutral peace loving edifice that Canada is projecting into the World arena is far from the reality of its use of double standards, hasty decisions, and hostility to our Ethiopian interest. Let us call on Canada to account for its rash and silly, and unprovoked attack on all Ethiopians.

First of all, before the Canadian government starts meddling in the affaires of other nations, it ought to free itself from the humiliating bondage and servitude to the Queen of England in whose name every official governmental act of Canada is undertaken. The government of Canada has no right whatsoever to dictate to Ethiopians terms and conditions that would deprive Ethiopian citizens their rights of citizenship, territorial integrity, and their ancestral homes that predate not only the date of Canada�s coming into existence but also the history of Canada�s settlers and �conquistador� population that used brute force and extreme violence against indigenous people to colonize great expanse of territory. It is sad to observe that in a land where not so long ago the great visionary Pierre Elliott Trudeau presided, we have now Lilliputian Canadian Parliamentarians in the corridors of power dispensing ridicules measures against the ancient and friendly people of Ethiopia in favor of �Eritreans� who just came into existence less than a decade ago carved out of Ethiopia through intrigue, treason, and betrayal.

Canada is not a real nation in the true sense of the word, but an outpost of a fighting ground, away

from the home bases of two contending European colonial forces (England and France). Need I remind readers about the ongoing effort of French Qu�b�cois to gain their own independence from what they consider an Anglo-Saxon domination in Canada. In order to subdue that independence movement, the Canadian Government did not leave any stone unturned in an effort to maintain the status quo as one territory. The Canadian Parliament went to great length to establish the illegality of any dismantling of Quebec from the rest of Canada. The Canadian Government even hired an international law expert, James Crawford, in order to augment the case for Canada�s territorial integrity with legal jargon. That same James Crawford is now part of the Eritrean team in the boundary dispute between Ethiopia and its breakaway territory of �Eritrea.� James Crawford, contrary to his written views on the independence of �Eritrea,� he is now supporting the land locking of Ethiopia based on defunct and long dead international instruments. The fact that the same individual who is advising the �Eritrean� government in its illegal grabbing of Ethiopian territory was also an advisor to the Canadian government caste long shadow of double dealing and corrupt practice by the Parliament of Canada.

A clear example of the double standard used by the Canadian Parliament is to be observed in the recent activities of its Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade that had prepared in a report to be adopted by the Canadian Parliament a resolution instructing the Canadian executive body to put pressure on Ethiopia to accept the illegal decision of the so called �Boundary� Commission. When the citizens of Quebec wanted to become independent, the Government of Canada used all conceivable means, short of brut violence, to impede that struggle. The Canadian government commissioned several times legal scholars to help it thwart the ambition of Qu�b�cois for independence. As stated above, James Crawford had produced for the Government of Canada a document that outlined the legal rights of Canada against any independence seeking movement in Canada. Crawford prepared his ideas and advice on the ongoing unilateral secession attempt by Quebec from the rest of Canada in a report that was often quoted by members of Parliament and the Executive body to justify their opposition to the breaking up of Canada. [See Crawford, REPORT TO GOVERNMENT OF CANADA CONCERNING UNILATERAL SECESSION BY QUEBEC, 19 February 1997.]

As an aside, let me mention that Crawford had written in that Report to the Government of Canada that there is no �recognition of a unilateral right to secede based on a majority vote of the population of a sub-division or territory, whether or not that population constitutes one or more �peoples� in the ordinary sense of the word. In international law, self-determination for peoples or groups within an independent state is achieved by participation in the political system of the state, on the basis of respect for its territorial integrity.� [See Crawford, REPORT TO GOVERNMENT OF CANADA CONCERNING UNILATERAL SECESSION BY QUEBEC, 19 February 1997.] The principle thus expounded by Crawford even challenges the legality of the very independence of �Eritrea� let alone the legitimacy of any claim subordinated to that status of independence. Crawford further had asserted that �[s]ince 1945 no state which has been created by unilateral secession has been admitted to the United Nations against the declared wishes of the government of the predecessor state.� [See Crawford, Report, 9] For example, Somaliland is stuck in its predicament as a victim of the continued perverse manipulation of the United States and Russia. Such lopsided treatment of people/nations with identical questions is also to a great extent the result of the fact that the United Nations itself in the person of its then Secretary General, Boutros Ghali, was involved in an illegal and corrupt recognition of a belligerent territory of Ethiopia as independent because of the manipulation of Arab States and the acquiescence of the Super Powers in collaboration with treasonous liberation movements such as the TPLF/EPLF and in particular Meles Zenawi as the leader of TPLF/EPRDF.

Like all predatory animals, whether it is Canada and the United States governments, or the governments of Arab States, Ethiopia�s historic enemies, they all are ready to bounce on Ethiopia because they perceive Ethiopia as wounded and easy prey ready for the picking. Here is where those nations that are trying to intimidate Ethiopians are making their monumental mistakes. Ethiopians will never give up their birth rights, their historic territories, their citizenship, and their demographic outlays, and historic territorial waters of the Red Sea, and their islands. Lest we forget, let me remind everybody that Ethiopia is the only Black civilization that stood alone courageously against the violent and brutal colonialism of the West and those of the Ottoman Empire, and to date the assault of Arab governments in the Middle East. We know the independence movement of �Eritrea� was based on fallacious assumptions, and divisive manipulation of Arab states whose main goal has always been the destruction of Ethiopia in order to control the flow of the life giving waters of Ethiopia�s highland great rivers like the Blue Nile, Tekeze, et cetera and to overrun the only great civilization that has practiced and maintained religious tolerance between two religious traditions, where Christians and Moslems have lived in peace under the great leadership of Ethiopia�s Christian Emperors and Kings, and the moral guidance of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand and five hundred years.

By contrast, the destruction unleashed on Ethiopia by Gragn Mohammed in the 14th Century is a good example to illustrate how some Ethiopian Moslems in the pay of foreign Islamic expansionist nations, such as the Ottoman Turks of Gragn Mohammad�s time, could be destructive and intolerant of Christians even if they acquire power for a short period as was the case with Gragn. [Here, I am only citing past experiences in our national history, and I am not advocating religious war or animosity between Ethiopians based on religion. In fact, I adhere by the great principle erected by Emperor Haile Selassie: �Religion is private, but our Nation belongs equally to all of us.�] In short, what we can observe both in our past history and current affairs in the Middle East, is the fact that Arab leaders have been the least tolerant of other religions and different people than themselves. The history of the Middle East of Islamic leaders is just one long history of nightmarish persecution and intolerance of Christians. Observe how Copts are treated in Egypt, and how other Christians are marginalized in Syria, Iraq, et cetera. The situation in Saudi Arabia is even worse where there is not a single Church of any kind, and where even private worship by Christians is a crime punished severely. One must never forget the fact that Ethiopian Emperors maintained relative peace and order through out history in that part of the present day �Eritrea� fighting off scavengers, and other marauding nomadic tribes financed and encouraged by their Arab masters coming out of the area now in the Sudan pillaging and destroying Orthodox Churches and settled communities.

The vigilance and sacrifice of Ethiopian Emperors in defense of Christianity and their dispensation of justice to all is stuff out of which great legends are made of. One Ethiopian Emperor, Kaleb, in fact, went to the extent of waging the first Crusade because Christians were being persecuted, their Churches being burned down, and their wives and children being sold into slavery across from Ethiopia in the present day Saudi Arabia and Yemen, long before Europe sent its first Crusaders at the end of the first Millennium. There are no comparable Emperors anywhere else in the World who could be likened to some of Ethiopia�s great emperors such as Emperor Amede Tsion or Emperor Serste Dingle who spent no less than thirty years each on horsebacks on campaigns fighting and maintaining law and order, and building a great nation in freedom and sovereignty the breadth and length of Ethiopia from northern area of the present day �Eritrea� to Borana, from Illubabur to the Ogaden. In fact, I say shame on all those governments who are at the present time trying to blackmail such a great people and their nation. Ethiopians have always impeccable record of historically verifiable facts of generosity, protection of the weak, the tolerance of many religious practices within their communities, and the justice of their Emperors and Kings administered to all of their people without discrimination. Thus, the coercion of Western nations of Ethiopians to accept a decision of a corrupt boundary commission is a prelude to Ethiopia�s destruction no different than was attempted by Gragn Mohammed many centuries ago.

There is also this ignoramus effort both by Western governments and by some of their intellectuals, as well as Ethiopian ethnic based liberation movement leaders, to portray Ethiopian Emperors and leaders as colonizers. Nothing is further from the truth; Ethiopian leaders were never colonizers in like images of the brutal Western governments during the era of colonialism. The enemies of Ethiopia are trying to draw a parallel between European colonialism unleashed on Africans, Asians and the Americas with that of Ethiopia�s nation building. Where in Europe can anyone name to me generals or subordinate officers of British Armies, French Armies, or Belgian Armies who were recruited from the colonies of Western Colonizers? In case of Ethiopia the situation was drastically different. If we just take the period of Menilik�s reign alone, the one Emperor most hated by liberation front leaders, the greatest commanders of his Army, his most trusted senior advisors et cetera were from areas that he had reassimilated into the Ethiopia that outlived the scramble for Africa. All Ethiopians are proud of such military leaders such as Ras Gobena, or skilful advisors such as Fitawrari Habtegiorgis, all from re-assimilated areas of Ethiopia. Above everything else, Ethiopian leaders saw themselves as �servants� of God and as such entrusted by God to look after His �herd� and not as individuals engaged in activities for individual glory. Even their names reflect their faith and service to God. It is not without reason our very ancient compatriots, the Greeks, referred to us as the �blameless� Ethiopians.

No Ethiopian in his right mind will accept the draconian decision of the Boundary Commission, or be intimidated by any of the support coming from the Security Council of the United Nations to such a decision, or the blackmailing effort of Western governments or their organs such as the Congress of the United States and the Parliament of Canada. There is no international precedent, customary international law, or any concept of justice that can be used as authoritative in order to deprive over seventy million Ethiopians their historic and natural coastal territories and their territorial sea on the Red Sea and islands thereof. One must not lose sight of the fact that both the creation of �Eritrea� and its claim of the Ethiopian Afar Coastal Territories, territorial waters, and islands is based on illegal events such colonialism and subversive activities supported by Ethiopia�s historic enemies of Arab nations and Egypt and the Sudan. Whereas, Ethiopia�s rights of territorial integrity and sovereignty is based on well established historical facts of statehood, continuity of Sovereign power, and natural law, customary international law, and principles of rights based on demography and geography.

What I find particularly insulting in the abrasive and caustic statements and demands contained in both the drafts and reports of the Canadian Parliamentarians and in the draft Bill of the Members of the United States Congress is the dangling of their wealth in our faces promising economic assistance, as an initiative to make us forgo our historic territories and abandon our fellow citizens to the vultures surrounding us waiting to tear us apart. There is no worse immorality than the coercion of a starving person into doing something absolutely against his or her long-term interest because of temporary poverty. The great sages of the Talmud admonished their people never ever to take advantage of a person in need, neither to sell to nor buy from a person in need, but rather to restore him first and to help him recover himself or herself. This is specially so between friends as both Canada and the United States claim to be of Ethiopia.

Tecola W. Hagos

November 22, 2003

37th Parliament, 2nd Session

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade has the honour to present its ELEVENTH REPORT

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), your Committee has considered the issue of Tension Along the Eritrea-Ethiopian Border and has agreed to report the following:

Concerned about the ongoing tensions along the Eritrea-Ethiopian Border which jeopardize the tenuous peace reached with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on December 12, 2000 in Algiers;

Welcoming the recommendations of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, created by Article 4.2 of the Algiers Agreement, to demarcate the disputed border between the two countries;

Mindful that following Article 4.5 of the Algiers Agreement, the recommendations of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission are binding on both parties of the conflict and are final;

Accepting the April 13, 2002 decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission to grant the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea;

Aware of the controversial nature of the Badme decision and the catalyst role of this settlement in the initiation of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea;

Alarmed over Ethiopian failure to fully comply with, and accept, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission's recommendations, especially with regards to the town of Badme;

Troubled by the findings of the United Nations Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the September 4, 2003 Progress Report, that the number of border incidents in Sector Centre is increasing, including the growth in the numbers of Ethiopian herdsmen and livestock present in the Zone on the daily basis;

Disturbed by the September 5, 2003 report of the United Nations Secretary-General with regards to the pointing of weapons by Ethiopian militia at United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) patrols on August 5 and the violation of the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities in the Drum Drum Stream area of the Zone by 102 personnel from the Ethiopian Armed Forces on August 9-11, who refused to leave the area despite UNMEE protests;

Appreciative of the leadership role that Canada has played in the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), including the deployment of 450 Canadian peacekeepers to the region at the cessation of hostilities;

Calls on the Government of Canada to increase the pressure on the Government of Ethiopia to accept, in full, the recommendations of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, including the decision on the town of Badme;

Proposes that the Government of Canada forcefully indicate to the Government of Ethiopia that our future cooperation would heavily depend on Ethiopia's acquiescence to the recommendations of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission;

Suggests that the Government of Canada offer incentives, in terms of developmental aid or/and other assistance to the Governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, if they live up to their obligations under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Algiers, especially with regards to the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission provisions.

A copy of the relevant Minutes of Proceedings Meeting No 57 is tabled.Respectfully submitted,


BERNARD PATRY
Chair