February 22, 2014by Amanuel Biedemariam
On February 10, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia gave reporters
and conducted a press conference. The statements of Hailemariam are
fraught with inconsistencies and telling that there is a serious
leadership vacuum and lack of direction in Ethiopia. The statements lack
principle, direction and strategy. The messages are inconsistent and
contradictory to previous statements.
On an interview with Africa Confidential January edition, when asked what’s your Eritrea policy? PM Hailemariam Desalegn said,
“Our
Eritrea policy is very clear. These two peoples are very friendly; the
normalizing of relations, also with the governments, should come as soon
as possible. We have accepted unconditionally the rulings [on the
border] and so this has to implemented but with a discussion because the
implementation process needs something on the ground since it is a
colonial rather than a people’s boundary.” Emphasis added.
For a
while, Ethiopians have been expressing anger and concern about the
border issue between Ethiopia and Sudan claiming that the minority TPLF
regime has unlawfully ceded huge chunks of Ethiopian territories to
Sudan. The tenet of their argument is that the signatures of Meles
Zenawi and Hailemariam Desaleng are unlawful, null and void based on
Article 55(12) of Ethiopian constitution which demands accountability
and ratification by parliament. On a recent article, Ethiopia From Chopping Block”, Dr.Alemayehu G. Mariam wrote,
“It
is important to understand and underscore the fact that the “agreement”
Meles and Bashir “signed”, by Meles’ own description and admission,
has nothing to do with the so-called Gwen line of 1902 (“Anglo-Ethiopian
Treaty of 1902” setting the “frontier between the Sudan and
Ethiopia ”).
It also has nothing to do with any other agreements drafted or
concluded by the imperial government prior to 1974, or the Derg regime
between 1975 and 1991 for border demarcation or settlement. Meles’
“agreement”, by his own admission, deals exclusively with border matters
and related issues
beginning in 1996, when presumably the occupation of Sudanese land by Ethiopians took place under Meles’ personal watch.”
Citing Wikileaks, Dr. Al Mariam writes,
“Former
TPLF Central Committee member and former Defense Minister Seeye Abraha
told” American embassy officials in Addis Ababa that in a move to deal
with “on-going tensions between
Ethiopia
and Sudan”, Meles had turned over land to the Sudan “which has cost the
Amhara region a large chunk of territory” and that Meles’ regime had
tried to “sweep the issue
unde the rug.”
It
is unlikely that the views and efforts of the people of Ethiopia will
ever see the daylight vis-à-vis the border agreements that Meles Zenawi
or Hailemariam Desalegn signed or concluded since there is no question
on the legitimacy of their positions by the international community.
International agreements they signed will undoubtedly stand.
