Pinpointing Badime and ZallambessaNovember 16, 1998 Dear Netters: Recently, a number of Eritreans have e-mailed me the following article from the Indian Ocean Newsletter. I don't usually post articles from the ION, as they are generally speculative in nature. However, since so many Eritreans sent this article in, I thought it useful to reproduce it below: HEADLINE: Pinpointing Badme and Zalambesa Three diplomatic missions in Asmara have been using GPS (Global Positioning System) to determine exactly the location around the little community of Badme which Eritrea and Ethiopia have been arguing about much of this year. Data collected have been transmitted directly to their government's and not released publicly, in a bid to avoid giving the impression they might be taking sides in the border dispute as, sources say, Badme appears to be confirmed on Eritrean territory from a geographical viewpoint. This seems supported by a Soviet-era map published during the 1970s showing the village about 4 km inside Eritrea. Similarly, it is understood Zalambesa is shown inside Eritrean borders according to a map published by Ethiopian Mapping Authority in 1979, whilst a GPS sighting taken at the southern tip of Zalambesa gave the coordinates 14. 30' 88" N, 39. 23' 44" E, putting this village too inside Eritrea according to an Eritrean map published in 1995 (although the village name of Zalambesa does not appear on the map). Zalambesa was a Customs and trading post administered by Ethiopia until occupied by the Eritrean army when the current border dispute broke out. Several years ago, Eritrea built a brand -new village on its own territory and only a few hundred metres from Zalambesa, then believed to be on Ethiopian territory, although localEritrean villagers preferred to cross into Zalambesa to trade in Ethiopian coffee and spices. Relations became tenser and finally broke down in May 1998. I.O.N. - The Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute is so eminently political that GPS is unlikely to be very useful in settling the problem. It may come into its own when the belligerents finally agree to negotiate a fresh frontier line. COMMENTS:Leaving aside the unidentified "sources" for this article, it is still clear that Eritrea thinks it can pick its favorite maps and plot Badime on them to claim the territory. Eritrea seems to believe that a single coordinate - that of Badime - is sufficient to establish to whom Badime belongs. Of course this is not true. The Badime stretch of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border is undemarcated (both Eritrea and Ethiopia agree on this) and also undelimited (Eritrea still denies this). Eritrea cannot unilaterally delimit and demarcate the Badime border area and claim Badime on the basis of its preferred maps. As I have explained before, the Ethiopian map of 1997 is the best representation of the 1902 Treaty. There is no doubt that Badime is Ethiopian on the basis of this map. Regarding map evidence, please see the analysis of the Hanish decision for Eritrea's own legally expressed attitude toward map evidence in general. Also note the International Tribunal's explanation of how map evidence should be interpreted. As has been explained many times before, the status of Badime can only be determined on the basis of the guidelines provided in the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1902. Nevertheless, a preliminary analysis could be performed if Eritrea provided all three of the following coordinates:
(a) Maieteb/Setit With these three coordinates in hand, everyone can sit down and plot the position of Badime using appropriate graph paper. But Eritrea will never allow the Maieteb/Setit coordinate to be used in defining the border. Eritrea will claim that the Treaty of 1902 contains a cartographic error, and that the real boundary should start from the Mai Tomsa/Tekezze junction. (An Eritrean sent me this information last week.) However there is no basis for stating that there was a cartographic error in the 1902 Treaty - I will post an article on that shortly. But again, just to show how strong Ethiopia's case is, let us just take the Mai Tomsa -Tekezze junction for the moment. Where is the document or treaty that specified a straight-line border from Mai Tomsa to the Mareb? There is none. The area is undelimited and undemarcated. Therefore there is a requirement to determine sovereignty according to the colonial treaties and international law and not according to maps produced by one side or the other. As we saw from the Hanish decision, lines drawn on a map are of far less relevance than the actual situation on the ground. This is where Eritrea's case falls apart. To delimit the border, arbitrators will want to see what evidence each party has of peaceful exercise of sovereignty. In the words of the Hanish Tribunal: "The modern International Law of the acquisition (or attribution) of territory generally requires that there be: an intentional display of power and authority over the territory, by the exercise of jurisdiction and state functions, on a continuous and peaceful basis." Eritrea has nothing to present to the International court in this regard. No tax records, voting lists, buildings, etc. By contrast, Ethiopia has a wealth of evidence to show continuous and peaceful administration. Even I was able to find a UN document mentioning Badime under Ethiopian sovereignty from a casual Internet search. Now we should recall here that even before reaching this stage, Eritrea must be able to convince the International Court that it is justified in rejecting the Maieteb river as its boundary (as specifically directed in the 1902 Treaty). This will be a hard sell. The Italians moved the border unilaterally from the Maiteb to the Etana, and then to the Mai Tomsa. It was a unilateral, expansionist land grab carried out in bad faith. Unfortunately for Eritrea, International law does not regard acts carried out in bad faith as legally binding. [Please see upcoming article on this] Regarding Zalambessa, it is really an open-and-shut case. The map evidence is contradictory and not legally binding. I have personally seen a large-scale map from 1985 showing Zalambessa in Ethiopia. So after reminding ourselves of the caveats regarding map evidence, we need to look at evidence regarding the history of peaceful administration of Zalambessa. The people living there know who administered the town - it was always administered as part of Tigray province. This evidence strongly supports Ethiopia's claim. The real fatal wound in Eritrea's legal case regarding Zalambessa is a self-inflicted one. They set up a border post and put up a sign saying "Bon-Voyage -You are now leaving Eritrea." This is incontrovertible evidence that they have accepted and recognised Ethiopian sovereignty over Zalambessa. They demarcated the border themselves. Case closed. - Dagmawi |