Ethiopian PM gives reason for accepting border ruling with Eritrea

ADDIS ABABA, Nov 26, 2004 (Ethiopian TV) — Prime Minister Meles Zenawi urged the international community to welcome Ethiopia’s new peace initiative to end the deadlock on the peace process with Eritrea.

Meles made the remarks today while briefing diplomats in Ethiopia on the new peace initiative. Meanwhile, African countries welcomed Ethiopia’s peace initiative.

Meles told hundreds of diplomats who gathered in his office this afternoon that various alternatives for peace were set up at the table by different parties.

Responding to questions as to what accepting the resolution in principle means, Meles gave both its legal and political interpretations. He said, legally Ethiopia had stopped paying its dues and sending liaison officers as the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission disqualified itself by passing illegal and unjust decision. But now, Meles said, Ethiopia would resume paying dues and sending the officers.

Politically, Meles noted, accepting the decision, in principle, means coming down from high moral of rejecting the decision to less moral of accepting it by way of choosing between bad and worse. In both cases, he added, Ethiopia accepted the resolution, believing that it could be a basis for whatever would happen in the future.

Meles said “We are coming down from the high immoral position, as you would have described it, of rejecting something that we consider illegal and unjust, into a less moralistic, more pragmatic position of accepting that a decision which is bad is better than a situation which is very bad”.

Material from the BBC Monitoring Service.