Eritrea dismisses Ethiopia’s military threat after weeks of silence
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By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
May1, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – Eritrea through its envoy to Africa Union
(AU) has dismissed the latest military threats from Ethiopia in a
speech to the AU on 26 April.
JPEG - 15.5 kb
Eritrean envoy to AU, Girma Asmerom (www.ethjournal.com)
Delivering a speech at an AU meeting in Addis Ababa, the Eritrean
Ambassador Girma Asmerom said Eritrea is not surprised by the current
“disinformation campaign and the patently baseless and unjustifiable
accusation of Ethiopia”.
“The accusation is purely fabricated to divert and deflect the
attention of the international community from giving undivided
attention to Ethiopia’s illegal occupation of sovereign Eritrean
territory including the town of Badme in violation of the UN Charter
and the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) Final and Binding
2002 Delimitation Decision and 2007 Demarcation Decision” he said.
Ethiopia last month said it has changed its policy toward Eritrea and
is now preparing to oust the government through “diplomatic and
military” means.
“Ethiopia has abandoned its defensive policy and now will be proactive
about toppling Eritrea”, Ethiopian Prime minister Meles Zenawi told
parliament in a recent session, accusing Eritrea of continuing
terrorist acts with a plan to make Addis Ababa like Baghdad
After weeks of silence, the Eritrean Ambassador said the allegations
are “baseless” calling on the AU and UN to stop Addis Ababa making
“belligerent and threatening statements”.
“Eritrea does not have a plan or an agenda of destabilizing Ethiopia
or the region. Eritrea has never thought, imagined or said that it
will make Addis Ababa, Baghdad” Asmerom said.
“Once again Eritrea calls on the AU and UN to urge Ethiopia refrain
from making military threats against Eritrea, and unconditionally
withdraw from Eritrean territory including Badme on the basis of the
Final and Binding Delimitation and Demarcation Decisions of the
Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC)’’
The Eritrean envoy further said that the latest threats from Ethiopia
are “pure aggression and declaration of war against a member state of
the African Union and the UN which should be condemned by all peace
loving Governments and Peoples of the world”.
In 2003 Eritrea pulled out from the AU, recalling its envoy in Addis
Ababa, by fiercely protesting what it described as AU’s ‘failure’ to
condemn Ethiopia’s alleged violations of a peace agreement that ended
a 1998-2000 border war.
Since the devastating border war that killed over 70,000 people
relations between the two countries have remained tense.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration defined the border in 2002 but
Ethiopia has refused to recognise the award of the disputed town of
Badme to Eritrea.
Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, making its larger neighbor
landlocked, in 1993 following 30 years of struggle.
(ST)
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