Mr. Ban-Ki Moon, the current United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), has been making some irresponsible statements and distorted allegations against Eritrea, which seems to me that they have been simply “Cut & Pasted” from his predecessor - the biased and unprincipled Mr. Kofi Anan. Naturally, one wonders if these officers who hold some of the highest world offices have any principled stand whatsoever short of “Earning” their salary by appeasing and being an obedient servant to their masters. Are they simply messengers of some message whether the message was befitting of the office they hold and one that could stand any legal scrutiny in some world court? More importantly, what can one expect from an individual who seems to lack originality except parroting the same old finger pointing by UN officers at Eritrea. One would expect that, sooner or later, these egocentric officials would quit playing saints and realize their earthly limit.

Generally speaking, Mr. Ban-Ki Moon makes many statements regarding our world community affairs. That would be perfectly alright as, I suppose, it would be part of his job to do so. But I wonder if he is not instructed to say something by some unauthorized high placed personnel rather than speaking his mind. Does he use the same measuring stick when gauging all world events? For example, it appears that it has become the style of the day for the world powers to talk about the “Genocide” that is reportedly happening in the Sudanese province of Darfur. Genocide or not, it pains me to see innocent people get abused anywhere in the world let alone get killed or maimed. Such acts of unjustifiable cruelty should be appropriately addressed by any concerned people or organization not least of which is the United Nations (UN). However, it pains me even more when the UN habitually uses double standard in dealing with world “Hot spots” – just like the US does. I wonder if that is just simple coincidence. It is even more unsettling, indeed troubling when people like Mr. Kofi Anan shed some crocodile tears over tragic events when they or the organization they represented were directly or indirectly implicated. Case in point, the well talked about “Rwanda Genocide” of 1994 may be cited as one of many examples of UN ineptness and perhaps misguided policy.

The third world in general and Africa in particular has been the playground of political intrigue of the powerful for so many years. The UN was supposed to be the “guardian angel” of the many unlucky, dispossessed, disadvantaged and ever marginalized masses of the world. Again, there are so many incidents of such disparaging and frustrating situations to list them all. The Somali case in which about a million people have been displaced from the city of Mogadishu alone, many more thousands killed or maimed and immeasurable properties destroyed by the US blessed Weyane invasion is perhaps one of the unquestionable crises of Biblical proportion that our world has seen in contemporary times. Yet, Mr. Ban-Ki Moon found it convenient to talk selectively about subjects that his mentors have been repeating for the last three or so years: “Too many people have suffered for too long in Darfur” when the UN and he have yet to condemn the Weyane regime for its irresponsible and criminal activity in Somalia. That unwarranted Weyane invasion of a sovereign state has exacerbated the already dire situation that prevailed in Somalia which can truly be describes as “Human catastrophe”! How many innocent Somalis (old men, women and children) would have to be unceremoniously mowed down and how many of the living would have to be sent into exile and internally displaced before the self aggrandizing boys at the UN would find it fit to call it “Genocide”? If the case in Darfur is being touted as “Genocide”, shouldn’t the Somali situation, a condition which is much graver than that of the Darfur be equally a candidate for that unenviable terminology?

Finally:

• when the inept United Nations Mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) failed to show anything for its existence for almost 8 years, and
• when the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has shown its unprincipled, openly biased and disingenuous stand on resolving the Eritrea Ethiopia case of the so-called “Border” issue,
• when the UNSC has encouraged the Weyane regime to flout some key legal tenet of the Algiers Agreement and
• when the UNSC has failed to uphold the rule of law and has let Mr.Meles Zenawi and his Weyane thugs to get away with murder by not abiding by the Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC) final and binding decision,

Mr. Ban-Ki Moon had found it convenient to accuse law abiding Eritrea of violating the Algiers Agreement by not supplying fuel or food for a unit that has overstayed its welcome by violating the very Algiers Agreement the UNSG has been using as a cover for his callous neglect of responsibility. Never mind that the UNMEE troops were never kept from receiving their contractual food supply, the concern of his 1,400 or so UNMEE personnel wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans when compared to the wanton destruction and suffering that our people are forced to endure because of UN inactions and its malicious intent. While his UNMEE troops are in Eritrea by their volition, the same can not be said about many Eritreans who are stranded in make shift camps inside their country under unacceptable living conditions. Their villages and indeed their homes and livelihood are held hostage by the forcefully conscripted Weyane occupying army and all this with the knowledge and tacit approval of the UNSC which is touting itself as the world champion of peace and security. I suggest either the meaning of “Peace and Security” be reviewed and changed to suit the New York big boys’ interest or the UNSC should stop pretending what it is not for its true color has been exposed stark naked in so many instances. As for Eritrea, it will continue to abide by the rule of law while vehemently safeguarding and protecting the general interest of the Eritrean people for that is the only correct and right thing to do, it seems, in a world full of intrigues and miscalculations.

Berhane Alazar

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