“… the border needed to be drawn up in a way that was "sustainable" for both sides. "We don't need a use of force here"…”

Secretary Rice must know that the only way it can be sustainable for both is to obey and abide by the rule of law and with Agreements signed.

The Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission has delimited and demarcated the Eritrea Ethiopia border on the basis of the colonial treaties of 1900, 1902, and 1908 as well as related international law. The Boundary Commission's ruling is final and binding, and as such it is not subject to debate and appeal or “dialogue”. There can be no dialogue when sovereign Eritrean territories are militarily occupied and thousands of Eritreans are waiting in makeshift camps. Ethiopia refused to allow the EEBC to fulfill its mandate and place demarcation pillars on the ground and now the EEBC has placed demarcation coordinates on the map. The delimitation and demarcation lines are final and binding and Ethiopia must be urged to abide by the rule of law.

As for the use of force, it is Ethiopia that is militarily occupying sovereign Eritrean territories. Unless the Security Council shoulders its moral and legal obligations under the UN Charter and invokes Chapter VII to restore Eritrea’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, unless the US stops obstructing justice and the rule of law, and unless the minority regime unconditionally and immediately removes its forces from sovereign Eritrean territories, Eritrea’s rights under the UN Charter and international law for self defense remain an option.

It is this Administrations policy of appeasement that has emboldened the minority regime in Ethiopia led by Meles Zenawi to flout international law, renege on Agreements it willingly and consciously signed, invade and occupy sovereign territories of neighboring states, commit genocides in the Gambela and Ogaden regions of Ethiopia, massacre innocent Ethiopians and recklessly used military weapons and training provided to it by the United States for counter terrorism efforts in the region, to terrorize the people of Ethiopia.

The Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the 30 November Press Briefing gave a brief description of the Secretary of States’ itinerary. Here is what she said:

“…In addition to the head of state summit on the Great Lakes, the Sudan ministerial and the Somalia ministerial, the Secretary of course will hold bilateral meetings with the Ethiopian Government, including a meeting and dinner with Prime Minister Meles and Foreign Minister Seyoum, in which we would expect a discussion to focus on regional stability, fighting terrorism, democracy promotion, economic development and food security in Ethiopia, including issues of the Ogaden and, of course, the robust program that the United States and Ethiopia are partnering on dealing with HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria…”

There is much to be said an done on all of the topics that she intends to raise during her visit, the fact that she is only spending a couple of days in the Ethiopian capital tells us how important Africa really is to this Administration and this Secretary of State. I hope she is not going there to encourage Meles Zenawi to do more of the same-war mongering, invasion and occupation. I hope she is going there to say enough. Enough on the blood shed, enough on the death and destruction, enough on the violations of international law. I hope she is there to tell Meles Zenawi, Washington’s “staunch ally on the global war” on terror to stop its terrorist acts.

Also, what is with the “dinner with Prime Minister Meles and Foreign Minister Seyoum”? This is a blood dinner and an affront to the many thousands of Ethiopians and Somalis who are victims of the Meles and Seyoum regime that is being pampered and coddled by Washington. Condoleeza Rice will be insulting the people of Ethiopia if she sits with Meles Zenawi for “dinner’. Did she forget the crimes committed by the regime in Ethiopia? Allow me to refresh her memory:

• Meles Zenawi's security and military apparatus massacred 44 University students in cold blood in Addis Ababa in 2001
• On May 2002, Meles Zenawi's forces massacred over 100 people in Awassa, his forces committed illegal acts against innocent citizens who were demonstrating against a change in the administrative status of Awassa. Security agents used machine guns mounted on armored vehicles to fire into a group of unarmed peasants, workers, women and children. Twelve of those killed were children.
• Dubbed “Operation Sunny Mountain” by Meles Zenawi and his minority regime, plans to procure Annuak territory, a zone coveted by corporate interests for its oil and gold, were laid out at a top-level cabinet meeting in Addis Ababa led by Meles Zenawi on September 2003. At that meeting, “the militant ethnic cleansing of the Anuaks” was openly discussed and a coordinated military operation to systematically eliminate Anuaks began on 13 December 2003. The minority regime in Ethiopia willfully burned villages, massacred hundreds of Anuaks and Nuers and caused over 15,000 inhabitants of Gambela to flee to neighboring Sudan and Kenya.
• Meles Zenawi’s minority regime rigged the May 2005 Elections and stole the people’s votes that ignited the nationwide protests. Having declared a “State of Emergency” on 16 May 2005, and after taking full command of the police, security and army apparatus, the genocidal regime continues to detain all the opposition leaders, journalists, civil society leaders and opposition supporters on trumped up charges of treason and inciting violence, and detained over 40,000 Ethiopians all over the country while its military and security forces have massacred over 200 people since the elections.
• The minority regime in Ethiopia has harassed and intimidated the Ethiopian Inquiry Commission and prevented it from presenting its Report to the Ethiopian Parliament. The Chairman and other members of the Commission mandated to investigate the post election violence in Ethiopia have been forced into exile.
• On 19 November 2007 BBC in its reported:
  
  “…days of air attacks on civilians have caused many casualties…Helicopter gunships have been used to attack villages in the remote area…Aid workers say an estimated 1,500 Ogaden refugees crossed into Kenya to escape renewed fighting last month…Ogadenis fleeing into northern Kenya have given harrowing description of government assaults on their villages…More than 500 families reached different parts of Kenya's massive Dadaab camps in October - many gave similar accounts of a sustained campaign of rape and brutality, with men hanged from trees…the Ogadenis claimed Ethiopian soldiers had been entering villages over and over again to kill, rape and burn in a campaign to flush out ONLF rebels…”

• 20 November 2007 New York Times article, “Separatist Rebels Accuse Ethiopia’s Military of Killing Civilians in Remote Region”, reported the following:
  
  “…Separatist rebels fighting in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia accused the government on Monday of strafing nomads in recent days at a watering hole with helicopter gunships, killing up to a dozen civilians…A Western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution, said the government had recently moved several attack helicopters to the Ogaden, a desolate corner of eastern Ethiopia…“Unfortunately, these reports are credible,” the diplomat said. “But whether the government is using the gunships to track down rebels or for reprisals against villages, we don’t know…”

• 19 November 2007 Reuters Reports “Ethiopia's Ogaden refugees recount horrors of conflict”
  
  "…The last time they attacked the village, they collected many men and took them away," he said, pausing in the early afternoon heat of a refugee camp in north-east Kenya…"Some guys were hung on trees, nooses round their necks until they died ... I saw it."…Similar harrowing testimony -- dismissed as rebel propaganda by the Ethiopian government -- was repeated by various Ogaden refugees who have trickled recently into different parts of Kenya's massive Dadaab camps, home to 170,000 refugees…Ethiopian soldiers had been entering villages over-and-over again to kill, rape and burn in a campaign to flush out rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)… “My village was attacked more than 10 times. There is a great genocide going on. Why does the international community not intervene?"… The effect of the Ogaden crisis is being felt in neighboring Kenya, where more Ogadenis than usual have been trickling into the three Dadaab camps…”

• CNN in its 29 November 2007 news item reported the following:
  
  “…In the desert stretches of eastern Ethiopia, locals accuse soldiers fighting an insurgency of burning villages to the ground, committing gang rape and killing people “like goats”… The allegations have drawn the attention of international human rights campaigners to this remote corner of a key U.S. ally.

The ill-advised “dinner” with the genocidal leader is an affront to the people of Ethiopia and sends the wrong signal about US’ stand on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. She should condemn the massacres in Ethiopia and stop financing the regime’s belligerence and war mongering. Being wined and dined by a terrorist mercenary regime will only further undermine Rice’s credibility, integrity and reputation.

The Rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!

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