The EEBC ruling 10 years on
So, here we are witnessing another day, which should have been a day of honor, just whiz by instead as a day of infamy because of the inept and corrupt organization, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which has become, sadly, the playground of the only Superpower in town! Yes, a day that should have been heralding a brighter future for the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia, has become another causality of the political machinations of the United States coupled with the international communities’ nonchalant attitude when it comes to the interest and wellbeing of small nations like Eritrea. The historical jurisdiction that was handed down by some of the most esteemed international judges of the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC) 10 years to the day was meant to put an end to the needless pain and agony the peoples of the two countries had suffered by a war that was neither wise nor necessary. The so called “Border” war of 1998, which was instigated by the TPLF regime, was appropriately termed, by some political observers, as “Senseless” for it defies logic in both its sudden occurrence and the magnitude of helpless souls it had consumed mostly on the Ethiopian side.
After the dust of the TPLF arrogance settled, the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments agreed to let an independent, impartial and transparent juror, EEBC, to look into the matter and abide by the jurists decision as final and binding. That decision was handed down on April 13, 2002. In spite of the false bravado (and wishful thinking) that Ethiopia sounded immediately after the verdict by publicly stating that it was “More than satisfied” by the landmark decision, since then, Ethiopia has refused to abide by the same ruling to which it had agreed to respect its outcome and continues to play with fire.
If the ill will that continues to be hatched against Eritrea was coming only from the disgruntled TPLF regime, one could’ve dismissed it as an unlucky coincidence to have such an irresponsible neighbor. But when the UNSC decides to not shoulder its legal and moral responsibility repeatedly when it comes to Eritrea, then the “International” conspiracy and the double standard applied against Eritrea becomes crystal clear.
The UNSC led by the US could not continue to flaunt the rule of law so contemptuously by calling on “Both sides” for restraint when the infraction is being carried out by the TPLF regime and TPLF regime alone. This is an insult to our intelligence and no Eritrean (or anyone else with some sense of fairness) is going to buy such nonsense. The UNSC should be embarrassed to call on Eritrea to “Withdraw” from its own territory bordering Djibouti when it conveniently ignores a 12 year illegal occupation of our land by the TPLF regime! If that is not double standard of justice, I don’t know what is!
The Eritrean people had not, are not now, and probably will never in the future ask anything out of the ordinary of the UNSC or anybody else for that is not in our nature. What we are reminding the UNSC is to shoulder its responsibility and implement the international verdict which it helped setup and finance. To that end, it must unequivocally direct the occupying Ethiopian forces to vacate Eritrean sovereign territory, thereby allowing for the UN cartographers to place the border markers as delimited by EEBC in 2007 with no ifs ands or buts. By doing so, it would dispose its responsibility of acting for a cause of peace and justice for a change. Is that too much? We don’t think so. Otherwise, it does not take a person with more than an average intelligence to see the undesirable consequences that is inevitable if the UNSC chooses its deafening silence by ignoring the volatile situation.