Eritrea urges AU to avoid raising country’s agenda in Addis Ababa summit
By Tesfa Alem Tekle
January 30,2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Eritrea on Saturday accused arch-foe Ethiopia of hindering its right to participate in Africa Union summits and urged the Union not to discuss Eritrea related agendas at the ongoing Africa Union summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Statement said that, in breach to the Algiers Peace Agreement and the Charter of the African Union, Ethiopia has continued to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories including the town of Badme – a source of the 1998-2000 bloody border war with Ethiopia, which then killed some 70,000 people.
“Ethiopia continues to obstruct Eritrea’s right to participate in AU Summits and other AU meetings in Addis Ababa by its refusal to observe the basic diplomatic provisions spelled out in the HQ Agreement and that are extended to all Member States,” Eritrean government said.
The tiny red sea nation which declared independence from Ethiopia in 1993, has asked the African union to respect its “membership rights”.
“In view of the above facts, Eritrea expressly requests that any agenda item that relates to Eritrea should not be discussed in Addis Ababa but must be deferred to the next Summit that is routinely held in some other African country.”
“Should Ethiopia refuse to agree or continue to violate this provision, Eritrea calls on the AU to stop holding Summits in Addis Ababa,” It added.
Eritrea calls comes after an AU ministerial level meeting which opened Thursday in Addis Ababa once again voiced support to UN imposed sanction and condemned Asmara to its negative roles in regional stability.
A document by the AU Peace and Security Department said that Asmara was a major destabilising factor to peace efforts in Somalia by arming, training and financing to insurgents which contributed to thousands of civilian deaths and also led to deadly attacks against the African peacekeeping force in Somalia.
The AU document highlighted hopes that the list of the Eritrean officials affected under the UN sanctions to be made public soon.
The council’s paper further urged the UN Security Council to ensure some air, sea and land blockade be imposed on Eritrea and effectively implemented to prevent the entry of foreign anti-peace elements into Somalia to cripple the insurgency.
The UN Security council on 23 December, last year imposed an arms embargo against Eritrea, through resolution 1907, for backing Islamist insurgents in Somalia. It has also laid travel ban and an asset-freeze to country’s military officials who were held responsible on fuelling Somalia chaos.
The 14th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) is being held from 25 January to 2 February 2010 in the Ethiopian capital under the theme “New Information and Communication Technologies in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Development”
Around 4,000 guests and African leaders across the continent are expected to come for the AU head of states and governments summit, due to kick off on Sunday at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the current European Union President, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick as well as representatives of various international organizations, among others, will attend the Summit.
It is during this final summit that the AU chairmanship is expected to move from the current chair Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya to Malawi’s Bingu Wa Mutharika.
(ST)