The United Nations has appealed to journalists to stop trying to incite war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
It said it is concerned about the increase in media hate comments on the impasse in the peace process between the two Horn of Africa states, which it termed as “currently in stasis”.
“In the past I have referred to the peace process as being on track. I have also described obstacles as mere hiccups in an evolving process on the road to peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” said the UN secretary general’s special representative for Ethiopia and Eritrea, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, in a video-linked press conference between Addis Ababa and Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, on Thursday.
“However, as you have already been informed by my spokesperson in the last couple of weeks, the peace process is currently in stasis,” he added.
But the UN envoy stressed that although politically the peace process is “in a state of suspension”, militarily the contested border between Ethiopia and Eritrea remains stable and there are no signs of impending war.
At the end of July, the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea had 4 200 UN troops, including some military observers deployed in a 25km-wide buffer area, called the temporary security zone, between the two states.
“The worst thing we can do when we experience the kind of difficulty that we are experiencing now is to start talking about war,” Legwaila warned journalists in both countries.
“In my experience with peacekeeping, rhetoric about war has never been helpful. I would like, therefore, to appeal to the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea and to you as journalists whose influence on the public consciousness is so powerful, to stay calm,” he said.
“I wish to appeal to you to avoid using language that might create a state of panic among the people of the two countries,” he told reporters.
Added Legwaila: “On both sides of the border there are still people living in camps for internally displaced people. You have to go to the border to see the kind of destruction in the war that took place from 1998 to 2000. It’s terrible destruction.”
“These people, who are living in the camps, yearn to go home to live in permanent structures. So let’s not frighten these people. They’ve suffered for too long.”
The Ethiopian-Eritrean war was the biggest in the world at the time, clearly surpassing the Kosovo war in the number of casualties, troops involved and displaced civilians. The number of dead and wounded was estimated at 100 000 with an involvement of about half a million troops and the displacement of about 600 000 civilians.
The heart of the matter is the border town of Badme, where the war first started. It is currently under Ethiopian administration, but under the ruling by the Hague-based Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission — made in April last year — the town lies in Eritrea.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea committed themselves to be bound by the decision of the commission in the border demarcation between the two countries, as spelled out in the Algiers Agreement that ended the war in December 2000. After being postponed twice, the demarcation of the 1 000km border was scheduled to begin this month.
But last month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi stunned the international community when he wrote a three-page letter addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council.
Zenawi called the ruling on Badme “illegal, unjust and irresponsible” and warned the decision was a recipe for continued instability and “even recurring wars”.
The acerbic media comments started appearing in the local press last Friday and continued over the weekend in the form of editorials and opinions, rallying Ethiopians to stand up for Badme.
“Because Ethiopians can never expect justice from the West, it was wrong in the first place to refer the aggression committed by Eritrea in Badme to an international border commission — and the Western powers have a clear pro-imperialist bias and desire in their heart of hearts not to solve but exacerbate conflict between the two sisterly nations,” wrote the weekly Addis Tribune.
Added the Tribune: “Under such inauspicious circumstances, Badme had been bartered by the blood of tens of thousands of Ethiopians who had died in defence of our sacrosanct sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
“As the League of Nations had done with impunity, the UN is now treating Ethiopia like a sacrificial lamb. We now say that enough is enough. There is a limit beyond which patience ceases to be a virtue,” concluded the weekly.
In a blood-chilling editorial over the weekend, the Capital weekly said: “Eritrea will have to be weakened to the point when it will finally have to come to terms with Ethiopia on Ethiopian terms. Ethiopia missed out on a golden opportunity in the last war when its army was prematurely ordered to stop its advance towards Asmara.”
“Believing that we will get justice from The Hague, Meles [Zenawi] took the Badme case to the world body only to be neatly trapped. Ethiopia is now paying for that monumental folly,” editorialised the Capital.
Commenting on Zenawi’s letter, Legwaila said he still had hope that the peace process would continue and be successful because the alternative was “too ghastly to contemplate”.
“The international community realises what it expects in the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Therefore the international community is going to work very hard to ensure the peace process succeeds,” he said.
Added Legwaila: “That’s why the secretary general [Annan] and I’m told even the president of the United States [George Bush] have written letters to the parties.”
“I’m sure there’re many presidents, many prime ministers who have also written letters to the two parties to say ‘please, please, please let’s implement this decision because there is no alternative — because if the border is not demarcated you will never know what will happen between Ethiopia and Eritrea’.” — IPS