In exhaustion, Eritrea's political grass keeps growing
By Berhane E Tesfay
Feb. 11, 2012
After all, Eritrea's recent actions has brought the already strained relation of the two countries in taters.
At first sight, the sprit sinks, to campaign assiduously against Eritrea Due to lacklustre handling of the government If push comes to shelve.
One can only suggest the normalcy resumes , after the ugly nature of the war. Under normal situation, one observes a decade long breathing space could be a good reason to lead into semi tranquility and peace to the utmost manifestation if both sides had they had worked to the interest of both reading each other's Mood board.
If i have to speak from a different angle,The intercity is that the our government has endorsed measures that does not address the root-course of the problem in taming volatile Eritrea, despite it's endless provocative actions.
Eritrea, being a wounded nation, for loosing the war has been allowed time and again to effectively transpired its tactics tenaciously which has gone its limits wide off the mark.
I believe, once the government had established eritrea's track record, Eprdf led government should have opened its books for quick remedy rather than put itself in such endless squabbling which again gave Eritrea a false hope to peruse its aggression. Same old story . Same old tactic.
Even though This strategy has worked well for only for a short run, it transpires this far as of today killing international tourists or being instrumental for it has gone beyond any reasonable trend . I think Eritrea, should not expect an appeasement here.
Eritrea's action has precipitated , I am afraid, all for the wrong reasons.
On that note, we have to fear the worst as Eritrea can be a real danger to our development efforts by actively linking to the" shabab" elements and may be lobbying hostile governments like state of Iran and Afghanistan and it can take any turn to suffice its long term desire for long range missiles just for the sake of creating havoc in the region.
These signes are not all exhaustive, but what is not changing on the ground is Eritrea has an insatiable desire to destabilise Ethiopia by all means.
Having said so, from the collective behaviours of Eritrea which has been seen in decades irrespective of president Essays stays or leaves . The position of hate towards Ethiopia has gone too far beyond a manageable repair! That infringement is so frightening, and an extreme caution should be adopted to handle Eritrea to a degree of scrutiny.
Ethiopia, hence, is required to handle this fragile and temperamental nature of Eritrea with extreme astute strategy by adopting a viable option depending on facts on the ground.
Such approach has to be as swift as stringent as it could including using all effective options on the pipe line. I believe Ethiopia has that capacity to protect its space and peace lead projects and to make poverty history.
The other side which, I am adamant to criticise the government is why other options such as asking for the ownership of our ports can not be as a strong negotiating agenda if it serves the interest of Ethiopia?
Against the interest if the government,Facts on the ground indicate that, we can apply international maritime law to peacefully claim Assab as we have been owning it! The door should not be slammed once and for all for a simple reason that Eritrea is a sovereign country now! And mentioning Assab ,as if we a claim the whole Eritrea or can be seen conspiring against its freedom, is a mere understatement to mention a few and it is absolutely a gross miss conduct of the government in power
No, we can still recognise Eritrea and still ask what is rightfully ours as well.
There is no justification to relate asking for Assab and afar integral part is to regress Eritrean independence! It is far from it and I for one strongly favours it! People and other political parties should not be ridiculed for using as an alternative negotiating clout , if peace is to prevail for the betterment of the two countries over long run.
I would like us to exhaustively have a meaningful debate on it with out scaring people who are actively perusing as a policy direction for it!
I strongly share, former Ethiopian airforce general Abebe Teclehaymanot's notion and assertion that under international maritime law, Ethiopia can claim through peaceful means what is its natural port! To me this remains to be the burning issue! It will remain so up until we approach it its entire right in a pragmatic fashion,be it in this government with the incumbent prime minister, or on any one who replaces the state-of the- art- machinery, No matter whether there is a time frame attached to it or not.
*Former gov't advisor at some capacity, who no longer serves the government!
