Last Week’s So-Called Attack Basically US Administration’s Plan Emanating From Frustration: President Isaias (Part II and final)

President Isaias Afwerki conducted an extensive interview with the local media regarding the prevailing developments in our region where a number of questions have been raised by Eritreans living inside and abroad. Second part and final of the interview follows.

A number of countries and organizations have issued statements following the enemy incursions. With the exception of the Government of Italy, most of these countries and organizations called through their announcements both countries to honor the Algiers Agreement and refrain from the use of force. Why? What is the Government of Eritrea’s response to the said plea?

Of course, much can be said on this issue. But the question is not for the condemnation of Eritrea or for the TPLF to win a round of applause. In sum, the clique has also admitted by means of its testimonials and the statements it disseminated via the global media outlets. The import of the aforementioned statements by the international community notwithstanding, all governments has denounced the move, except the Administration in Washington. Such a stand calling both parties to abide by the Algiers Agreement is but a ‘diplomatic approach’, according to them.
Needless to say, these quarters are well aware of the Algiers Agreement and the Boundary Commission’s ruling. Should they take a side and condemn either party, they will have to lay diplomatic ties on the line; this diplomatic approach might hypothetically serve them a face-saving outlet in the diplomatic arena. Eritrea, however, would by no means and with whatsoever logic entertain treating the perpetrator and the offended on equal footing, as well as calling both parties to respect the EEBC’s ruling, which was already concluded through the virtual demarcation a decade ago. Indubitably, not a single reasoning person or government has endorsed such acts of adventurism.

Excellency, the United Nations Security Council has not given any official statement regarding the TPLF’s incursion. Why hasn’t the United Nations so far been able to fulfill its legal and moral obligations?

We first need to ask what or who the United Nations is. Why is the UN considered as a heavenly body or a sanctified international organization? We on our part don’t think that and have never considered it as such.

There have been theories worldwide that the UN needs to restructure and reformulate its objectives. One important thing here is that we need to look at the bigger picture.  What we have been witnessing over the past 20 years, that is since the end of Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, is a unipolar system. This system came about as a result of the erroneous US world domination policy that views the agenda of the Horn, Africa or the world, for that matter, from the standpoint of Washington’s national strategic interest.

In these 20 years, we have observed that in order to control countries or their resources and assert regional or world domination, one needs to be in charge of several things. Of course, this state of affairs did exist before this period but it differed now because in the so called New World Order, world domination for generations to come seemed conceivable. And to substantiate such aspirations, you need to be able to control or manipulate the United Nations and its Security Council. 

Passing resolutions that are or seem legitimate or controlling regional and international organizations so as to make them instruments of achieving their objectives… How were all these accomplished in the last 20 years? Who influenced the working procedures and voting on important issues in the Security Council? And whose interests did the passed resolutions really serve?

While it’s undeniable that there should be a world order where all people live in harmony with one another, without any oppression or domination, or exploitation of others’ resources, the call for a body that conforms to the 21st century and that equally represents all countries and peoples of the world has also been recurrent.

But the reality is as we see it today. Who can block a case that has made its way to the Security Council? There is the Secretary General; there are the members of the Security Council, both permanent and provisional; and the UN Assembly as a whole; and it’s only profound yearning on our part to ask why this body has not issued a statement or why it didn’t condemn the action. We will not refrain from asking the body to assert its stand. There are messages to be sent to the Security Council and other countries of influence – all in due time.

At a time when we are shifting from one world order to another, the way the UN has been operating in the past 20 years remains a cause worth fighting for. If we are to ask why the UN hasn’t responded to every action, right or wrong, just or unjust, we would only be drifting away from reality.

The United Nations and members of its Security Council are fully aware of the situation but we cannot expect the superpower that plotted and orchestrated this conspiracy, in addition to masterminding all the hostilities in the last decade, including the resolutions passed, to acknowledge all its evil deeds and ask for forgiveness.

Some analysts say that the current attack and what has been said about it has to be associated with the progress of the Eritrean economy. Some others tend to believe that these things are being done as part of the fabricated excuses related with the third round of the attempt to tighten the sanction against Eritrea. The reason is that at this time it is strongly felt that the fabrications linked with the case of Somalia that were designed to tighten the sanction have been already exhausted and considered invalid. Yet others feel that this is considered part of the conspiracy to indicate that it is because Eritrea is playing a destabilizing role in the Horn of Africa that there is a potential cloud of war between the two countries. How do you see all these views?

There may be different analyses as people are free to examine and describe things depending on their situation and their particular world view. The prospect of the Eritrean economy and the potential for restoring the stability of our economy and further promoting the economy is considered to be significantly worrisome for the Ethiopian regime and those who treat the regime preferentially. This is being discussed not only by analysts but such concerns are explicitly revealed through their documents and leaked through their lips. It is strongly felt that states and their people have to be kept hungry, poor and aid dependent in order to be easily controlled and remotely managed. This has been one of the major global problems. We faced untold problems and obstacles while we were initiating the mining activities. It is by overcoming such considerable problems that we have been able to be successful in having the plans associated with mining in the country implemented. Among other things, there were serious conspiracies for blocking funds to the investors, that is, the mining companies in the country. To this effect, there were some six or so military attempts that were intended to threaten those who were involved in the Bisha mining processes. These were done with the intention to have the activities terminated or undone. Such conspiracies have not yet stopped. I do not claim that we are satisfactorily okay with our economic achievements and that we have been able to get where we want to get, and that everything we have planned is being implemented perfectly as we intended it to be. However, there are visible prospects indicating the hopeful progress of our economy and this is one of the major issues that are perceived to be very worrisome by the Ethiopian regime and those backing it.

Overall this issue is one of the clear objectives of the CIA, as this agency is preoccupied with targeting the key aspects of the Eritrean economy, which are believed to significantly contribute for the recovery of the economy. In this case, the Ethiopian regime along with some wicked groups is the implementer of such conspiracies. While they want to have the overall Eritrean economy retarded, but they particularly target the mining activities in the country. They are excessively obsessed with regressing or undoing the mining processes in our society as they are afraid of the benefits associated with the sector. This is part of the conspiracies that are designed to stop or slow down investment in the country as they feel that restoring economic stability in Eritrea is a disadvantage by their standards. What is done to hinder or discourage those Eritreans in the diaspora in their attempt to remit money so as to help their parents and relatives back in home is also part of such wicked activities.  Taking into account what is being consistently done to hinder mining activities at large and the things that are done for blocking the flow of money an Eritrean individual earns abroad to Eritrea and the attempts to base the unjust sanction against Eritrea on these irrelevant issues is an indication of their ill intentions. You don’t need to be a seasoned analyst to grasp the root causes of these things.

The current attack and the campaigns associated with it are also designed as a means of deviation from the fundamental issues such as the implementation of the final and binding decision of the border commission; such things are done to mask such important concerns that are related to the invasion of the Eritrean territories by the Ethiopian regime. The problem is that these days it has been realized that it is really hard to implicate Eritrea using the case of Somalia as an excuse. In this case, they hope that such a conflict would divert the attention of the people from the fundamental concerns to the trivial ones. These things might be also hoped to enrich their misguided media diplomatic campaigns that are concerted against Eritrea.  However, their intentions have been aborted at early stages. These would mislead those who try to analyze such issues by examining a single event, but those who look at the issues comprehensively by analyzing the issues and episodic events retrospectively and proactively cannot be misled by their fabrications and misguided campaigns. 

Different news agencies have announced that through the mediation of Qatar and Israel, there is a negotiation going on between Eritrea and Ethiopia. It is has been widely discussed that the representatives of both countries are talking secretly in Germany about five points incorporated within the proposal for negotiation. Is there any such a negotiation? If there is any, what will be the end result?

In short, there is no such a negotiation. More importantly, there will not be any negotiations even in the future. Such things are part of the mechanisms employed to deviate us from what has to be done. CIA agents continuously try to persuade us to meet and talk secretly with the Ethiopian regime. When I try to see what has been documented in my office in relation to this issue, I can see that there are 76-77 letters requesting us to negotiate. The Ethiopian regime has also its own input in this issue. The initiatives calling for negotiation became common after the border commission gave its verdict. When it comes to this issue, what are the things we are expected to talk about? The border issue has been legally settled. Let me give an example that I often use in this case. If an individual has looted your house, and if you ask that individual to go out of your house, do we expect that individual to claim that he or she needs to negotiate with you, as a precondition, before he or she goes out of your house? If this happens, it is really surprising. The two peoples and the region at large have lost a considerable opportunity of developing their economies because of the border dispute, which claimed many lives, that has been attached to other irrelevant agendas. As mentioned earlier, the border dispute has been legally settled and it is a final and binding decision. Subsequently, the border has been virtually demarcated. Even an earthquake that would change the topography of the area would not change the signals of the border and the lines indicating the border of the two countries in this case. The different conflicts and the attempts associated with the need for negotiation are means that are intended to mask the fact that sovereign Eritrean territories have been yet invaded. Bearing this in mind, negotiation is unthinkable.  In such a situation, negotiation is meant to further complicate the issue, but we will not be too naïve to deviate from what has to be done based on the final and binding decision of the border commission.

The Ethiopian regime vainly tries to appear that it cares much about the people who happen to live around the border area. It is claimed that as a result of the border decision, families as well as a single house has been divided along the two sides of the border. If they really care about the people, they need to think in terms of the more significant effects associated with failure to comply with the final and binding decision of the border commission. By way of such arguments, they want to indicate that they are willing to negotiate but the Eritrean government is not; this has nothing to do with the readiness or lack of readiness to solve the problems between the two countries.   

Such claims are just part of the nonsense political games that are designed to serve as a means to divert public attention from the primary concerns. Those who request us to solve the problem we have with Ethiopia through negotiation are either misguided or they have to be part of the game that is meant to divert attention from the main issues. What are the problems to be solved through negotiation when we think in terms of the root cause of the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia? What are we going to talk about in the negotiation table? What for do we need to meet or not to meet or to be willing or not? When it comes to the border dispute between the two countries, the party that has failed to comply with the final and binding legal decision is the Ethiopian regime. But the said games are hoped by their players to reverse the views associated with the issue. They want to vainly indicate through the messages communicated in the different forms of their campaigns that Ethiopia is ready to solve the problem it has with Eritrea but Eritrea is not willing to do so. Such games are useless; they worsen the problems experienced by the two peoples. If those who call us for negotiation are really concerned about the peoples of the two countries, and if they really and heartily want to have the problem between these two countries solved, what they have to do is very clear – the Ethiopian regime has to pull out from the sovereign Eritrean territories it has occupied. The simple message in this case is Ethiopia must comply with the final and binding verdict of the border commission. This is very, very clear and there is nothing we need to negotiate about such issues. The people and government of Eritrea have been patiently waiting for the international community to do its part in having the final and binding decision implemented.  And we will continue to do our best in order justice to be served and our rights to be effectively redressed.

What should the Eritrean people living inside the country and in the Diaspora do to overcome the conspiracies directed against us? What should we do through our concerted diplomatic, media and poplar efforts in order to steadfastly overcome the problems we are facing?

In the last ten or more years, all the conspiracies associated with the diplomatic, political, military, economic as well as psychological campaigns and measures directed against the people and government of Eritrea were proved to be futile as a result of the concerted popular efforts of the Eritrean people living inside and outside the country. The Eritrean people as a whole have endured many problems so as to overcome the problems associated with the said conspiracies and the overall lack of justice when it comes to the case of Eritrea.

We will do our best so as not to be disrupted from what we have to do to recover our economy. We need also to be much stronger in order to accelerate the progress of our economic development programs. We will endeavor not to be disrupted as a consequence of the campaigns and conspiracies designed to divert our focus from the primary concerns to the trial concerns that would regress our endeavors because the conspiracies are likely to be continued side by side with what we intend to do. When we say that many of the conspiracies and campaigns directed towards hindering our endeavors have been futile, this does not mean they are totally undone and that we may not face similar obstacles. We have also successfully challenged what have been done to hinder the economic activities that have been designed to ensure economic recovery in the society. We can confidently say that now we are in a better position and what we have learned from our experiences will enable us to perform far better and achieve far more in the future. We need to be aware that such conspiracies can have different forms. Hence, we need to think in terms of proactive measures to overcome them instead of using reactive measures to tackle the conspiracies that we may potentially face so that we may not be disrupted from what we can do and what have to achieve. I also feel that one does not need to remind the Eritrean people about what has to be done simply because it is the civic and political consciousness of our people that has enabled us to successfully challenge all the wicked campaigns and attempts against our society.

Your Excellency we thank you for your brief explanation.