The Ethio-Eritrean 2018 Agreement: The Eritrean Tyrant and his Prioritization of Own Vital Interest over the Country’s Vital Needs
The Eritrean people, witnessing and hearing explanations from the Ethiopian side about the signed border-crossing agreement, had many unconvincing answers to their many questions that evolved. The verbalized concerns of the Eritrean people on some key points of the reached agreement were expected to be addressed in the tyrant’s interview by giving clarifications on the agreement’s goals and explaining the scope of the joint investments/projects, cross-border trade and job creations supported by free movement of the people, joint security, and economic integration.
Those who watched the tyrant’s interview had to bang their heads against the wall because the tyrant, who knew best about the signed agreement, could not say any convincing word or explain anything important. Yet, he advised his viewers not to pay attention others’ explanations.
Indeed, the tyrant’s dead-end explanation proved that he is not prepared to embrace the proposed change as well as not ready to provide what-is-going-on-backed facts (with regard to the Ethiopian rights vs. denials of equal rights to Eritreans). Until the people get convincing explanations about the agreement, no one can get onboard to support the suggested maximization of productivity by 6 times (in a 8 hours shift to generate as equal as a 48 hours production, i.e., if the current productivity is half an hour, the increase by 6 times will equate it to a productivity of 3 hours a day) in order for the country to catch up.
After all, the Eritrean people were not the cause of the unproductive 27 years to be asked to make up the lost years by working hard like slaves. Wasn’t it easier for the tyrant to confess that he lost the time unnecessarily because he was totally absorbed in punishing his close friends (the G-15 and all allies in the region including the Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen). An old wise Eritrean woman commented what about finding a common ground in that the Eritrean people agree to increase productivity by 6 times and the tyrant to step down as corrective actions to make sure that similar blunders do not happen again.
Eritreans are witnessing how the Ethiopian leader is inducing his own people to believe in the signed agreement and energize them to participate in all of its programs. Following the tyrant’s interview, Eritreans are not only feeling that the tyrant has failed to put them on the same page but also betrayed them.
Upon signing the border-crossing agreement, the two countries moved on to a calmer yet undefined relationship. The Ethiopians appear to enjoy all the benefits and rights under the agreement while the Eritreans are denied. The fact that the Ethiopians claim and the Eritreans do not claim any rights under the agreement signifies that the reached deal was made to favor the Ethiopians at the expense of the Eritreans. The conflicts that are arising are not between goals and outcomes of the agreement but are due to denying Eritreans to participate equally as the Ethiopians.
The Ethio-Eritrean border-crossing agreement of 2018 is among the world’s fastest reached agreements. The agreement would be considered unjust if only one party to the agreement had to give in while negotiating the agreement. Similarly, if anyone or both of the parties to the agreement had situations that put them in race against time, the reached agreement would not guarantee fairness in all aspects.
The two countries had to speed up the process of negotiating the agreement because their respective looming threats were too fast to avoid. The level of threats compelled both parties to sign the agreement, namely: The country of Ethiopia and the Eritrean tyrant, to accept face-to-face negotiation. Ethiopia that feared disintegration and the Eritrean tyrant, who feared not to be brought before the ICC (International Criminal Courts) judges to face crimes against humanity and the endless slavery charges, had no alternative but to come to terms as fast as possible.
What Edge do the Partners see in the Tyrant to Trust him?
To the question: What is wrong with the region? The true history of the Eritrean tyrant tells that he is the one wrong in the region and, also, is the one who turns social wounds into conflicts. Those leaders of the Horn of Africa countries including Yemen were/are the tyrant’s scapegoats whom he used to advance his interest and to smash the interest of the Eritrean people. For the tyrant, the only source of peace for him is stirring up troubles, provoking disputes or starting wars in the region as scapegoats not to implement the Eritrean constitution and step down.
The tyrant is highly skilled in sowing seeds of conflicts as well as unleashing and breeding hatred. His mastery over such domination tools helps him to target and weaken those who refuse to bow to him.
In the past, against those who refused to bow to him, the tyrant had made unilateral declarations to start wars. Simultaneously, the tyrant resorted to bilateral cooperation with another neighboring country to secure advantageous position, be it by obtaining additional military support or other needed backups until his targeted enemy is weakened and brought to his knees. These facts lead to questioning, what about now: is the tyrant seeking through multilateral cooperation to isolate and finish one more of his targeted enemy?
According to some members of the Sudanese opposition parties, Al Bashir of the Sudan was put on the screens of the ICC in order to make a smooth way for the Eritrean tyrant to have a bilateral cooperation with the Sudan against Ethiopia. But unfortunately both countries, the Sudan and Ethiopia, ultimately became victims of the tyrant’s leaping flames threatening the central/federal governments with internal wars. This time, Qatar was not there as a mediating country that specialized in arranging bilateral cooperation to rescue the tyrant from the impact of border closure with the Sudan.
Unlike the Organization of African Countries that brokered peace between two warring countries in the region, the Arab Gulf Countries appeared to mediate between/among leaders of countries in the region to enter into multilateral cooperation. Although the tyrant’s status cannot be convincing to all signatories to the agreement, each country has its worries about weak spots and wants to ensure safety of sovereignty from external pressures and threats.
The true history of the tyrant confirms that he never locks in to all terms and conditions embodied in agreements that he enters into. Indeed, the tyrant’s chameleonic personalities fail him to respect his part of the agreements. Because the tyrant hates to be committed, he never puts his signature on agreements and that how he is branded as a person who signs with a pencil making grounds for denying responsibilities and duties under the agreement.
The tyrant’s chameleonic personality resonated fear of denying any obligation under the agreement compelled the Ethiopian leader to demand that the agreement to be signed by the tyrant in ink in order to ensure irrevocable compliance and full enforceability of the agreement. However, the Ethiopian leader appears to miss the legal facts that the tyrant, as an unelected person, does not bind the Eritrean people by his signature. The tyrant might represent his commercial businesses and can enter and execute any agreements representing his own companies/businesses.
The Two Betrayals that United the Eritrean People
Most Eritreans believe that all Ethiopians were well informed about the facts that induced their leader to sign the border-crossing agreement. Accordingly, these Eritreans find the tyrant’s failure to consult and inform the Eritrean people unacceptable.
In the past, the tyrant was given many times the benefit of the doubt to allegations of betrayals. But this time, all Eritreans feel like they don’t need any proof to free the tyrant from the accusations of deceits and betrayals. Time has come to end the blind support to the tyrant. Even inside Eritrea, people started to break their silence and the whisperers have become louder following the ex-minister Mr. Berhane Abrehe Kidane’s calls.
On the part of the pro-tyrant Diasporas, it was shocking for them to come to know that the border-crossing agreement had no link to the EEBC’s delimitation of the border. Surely, the border-crossing agreement cannot annul the EEBC decision but may shelve away or delay the implementation of the 2002 border commission ruling.
On the part of the people inside Eritrea whose lives are most directly affected by the border-crossing agreement, they found the tyrant’s failure to give a clear explanation about the agreement inexcusable. Like every Eritrean in the Diasporas, they are shocked by the tyrant’s refusal to disclose or tell the downright truth about the agreement. In an effort to cover up the fact that the agreement openly values the Ethiopian interest over the Eritrean interest, the tyrant kept deflecting the interviewers’ questions by swimming in shoulda, woulda, and coulda merry-go-round explanations.
The tyrant in his interview, instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, blamed the USA and other countries for Eritrea’s border wars with neighboring countries. Based on the tyrant’s past, there is a lower likelihood that he would abide by the terms, conditions and provisions of the multilateral cooperation. The question is: could the multilateral cooperation be sneaked to function on the terms of the tyrant. If he succeeds, all the neighboring countries would be turned into enemies of the Eritrean people.
The Eritrean people should keep sharp eyes on the plots of the tyrant if they want to defeat the conspiracies of the tyrant. The tyrant, who intentionally does not want to clear away the storms of the troubles caused by his policy of ‘no peace, no war’ to the Eritrean people, even after signing the border-crossing agreement, must be confronted by a determined public awareness to defeat his conspiracies.
Holding weekly open houses in the neighborhoods is the answer to the challenge. The weekly open houses can help to bring together members of different opposition groups, justice seekers groups, civil societies, independents and the youth. The open houses will serve as meeting places to inter-connect the people for common actions. Here, news updates could be used to engage and communicate with Eritreans website discussants or other members of online social networks. The neighborhood open houses could join together to hold larger open houses in the cities, like in the community centers.
Only the involvement of all makes the defeat of tyranny in Eritrea possible,
Mamino
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