Ethiopia reportedly asked to renounce its foreign policy on Eritrea
By Ethiopian newspaper The Reporter; subheadings inserted editorially
Jan 14, 2004 — The international community is finding it increasingly hard to countenance Ethiopia’s steadfast position of not abiding by the boundary ruling, with its commitment to international law and wants Ethiopia to take some confidence-building measures, diplomatic sources told The Reporter.
Global tolerance’s towards Ethiopia
The sources, who pointed out that any country which defies international law does it at its own risk, said that Ethiopia’s refusal to abide by the Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission’s (EEBC’s) decision is being tolerated by the international community for two reasons.
“The first of these is that we recognize that there are political difficulties and sensitivities and we hoped that by sort of talking a bit longer to get it right, we can sort these out,” they added.
“But, above all, it is because we recognize that Ethiopia is a large, very poor country to which the international community desperately wants to give additional resources. And if there is any way we can avoid that, we want to avoid it.”
Eritrea’s position
According to the sources, the position of Eritrea as expressed in its insistence on the implementation of the commission’s decision and the ruling out of any form of dialogue before demarcation was “legally right” and that the international community would require some confidence-building measures to be undertaken by Ethiopia in order to enable it [the international community] to use its good offices to bring about political dialogue.
“There is certainly some ambiguity,” they said, “or even some tensions between our position of taking the (commission’s) decision as final and binding and that of us not, at the moment, wanting to hurt Ethiopia. But over the coming weeks those position will become increasingly difficult to reconcile.”
Regime change in Eritrea
They suggested a set of measures which if Ethiopia undertakes would be “very helpful.” These include allowing direct flight for UNMEE [UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea] personnel from Addis Ababa to Asmara and vice versa, the appointment of field liaison officers to work with the surveyor team, the payment of arrears to the boundary commission, agreeing to the holding of Military Coordination Commission (MCC) meetings alternately in the two capitals, and finally, and importantly, to go on record by renouncing Ethiopia’s foreign policy of bringing about regime change in Eritrea.
The sources specifically stressed the importance of changing the country’s policy towards Eritrea while at the same time recognizing the difficulty of doing it. They noted the fact that Eritrean opposition parties operate in Ethiopia was a logical consequence of them not being allowed in Eritrea, but they also added that these opposition parties, too, should renounce any plan of forcibly changing the regime in Asmara as their political agenda.
Alliance of Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen
As to Ethiopia’s involvement in the Trilateral Cooperation Forum which includes Yemen and the Sudan and is taken by many as a front against Eritrea, the sources revealed [that] they were encouraged by Prime Minister Meles’s statement that each of these countries could look after their own interests with Eritrea, and his call for all countries in the region, including and specially Eritrea, would be welcome to join this alliance which is essentially about economic cooperation.
“So, the signs are there but Ethiopia needs to go on record and say that regime change in Eritrea is not part of its foreign policy,” the sources concluded.
BBC Monitoring Africa