Mr. President,

I would like, first of all, to extend to you, Mr. President, the Ethiopian delegation's congratulations on your well deserved unanimous election as President of the 53rd session of the General Assembly. We are fully confident that under your guidance the work of this session of the General Assembly will be a resounding success.

I should also like to express our appreciation to the outgoing President of the General Assembly for a most effective guidance he provided to the 52nd session of the General Assembly and for the most valuable contribution he has made in this regard.

We are indeed deeply indebted to our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who has tried to inject new vitality into the United Nations and who has, under difficult circumstances, continued to make a difference at the helm of the Organization. We appreciate very keenly, in particular, what the Secretary-General has been doing to ensure that the voice of all those whose points of views needed to be heard is heard, and that there is a more effective co-operation than hitherto between the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. I wish in this regard, to commend him with great satisfaction for what can only be called a historic report he has submitted on "The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa." This report by the Secretary-General, for which he has deservedly already been congratulated by many, raises all those issues which are vital for the future of Africa and treats them with so much frankness and transparency that it is only my hope that we will all have the necessary resolve and commitment to follow up its recommendations and ensure their implementation.

Mr. President,

We in Africa have made over the past few years tremendous efforts to change Africa's image and reality. Despite the apparent slips of the past few months, what has been achieved in our Continent since the early 1990s can hardly be underestimated. This applies both to activities in the economic area as well as to the work for peace and stability in our Continent.

The past few years have shown quite vividly how most African countries, including my own, Ethiopia, have shown the necessary determination to create the domestic climate conducive to economic growth and development. There is today hardly any country in Africa which has not acknowledged that the economic future of countries lies in market-based and private sector-driven economic transformation, and which has not taken the appropriate steps to that end. It is indeed gratifying to note that the results, certainly in my own country, have been encouraging.

However, Mr. President, it is hardly disputable that our performance in the economic area has not, by any means, measured up to our expectations and has been far below what is needed to prevent hopelessness and despair in our Continent, specially among the younger generation. Although the reasons that provide part of the explanation for this may not be wanting, it is nonetheless very obvious that the well known limitations we face in international economic co-operation, in particular, in trade as well as in connection with the debt burden constitute the major impediments to Africa's economic regeneration. Consequently, the Secretary-General has reiterated in his report I referred to earlier, that there is indeed an urgent need for political will, to ensure sustainable growth and development in Africa, not only on the part of we Africans but also on the part of the international community as a whole.

Mr. President,

We in Africa have also, in the past few years, made every effort, in particular through sub-regional organizations, to work for peace and to prevent and contain conflicts. In this regard, the establishment by the OAU of a Mechanism for the Prevention, Management and Resolution of Conflicts in Africa has been a major step we have taken and our achievement on this score over the past few years can hardly be underestimated. In our own sub-region, we have continued to exert the necessary effort for peace in the Sudan as well as to assist the people of Somalia achieve national reconciliation and to establish a broad-based government and a central authority. In both cases, while success has not been easy, the efforts we are making have nonetheless continued because of the conviction, including on the part of our partners in the international community, that there is no effective alternative to these efforts carried out at the sub-regional level through the mechanism of IGAD.

It is however very clear, Mr. President, that these gains, however small, over the past few years in the area of peace and security in Africa have come to be tested very severely in the past few months. Developments in the Great Lakes Region, most particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indeed represent sources of some of the serious concerns we have in this regard. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that a way out of this looming danger in the Great Lakes Region would be found based on full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries of the region including the Democratic Republic of Congo, and on the full recognition of the security concerns of all countries of the region. It is Ethiopia's firm conviction that there is no alternative as a guarantee for peace and amity between states to the scrupulous observance by all of the principles of international law governing inter-state relations.

However, the greatest danger for peace, in this connection, Mr. President, is not so much the violation of international law per se, but the response by the international community in the face of such violations. When the international community, for whatever reason, fails to respond to aggression and to violations of international law with the required indignation and resolve, then aggressors would be sent, wittingly or unwittingly, the message that the principles of international law are not there to underpin the peace and that laws are there to be violated with impunity.

This has been, Mr. President, the lesson that we have drawn from one of the major recent disappointments that we have had in the area of peace and security in Africa. I am, of course, referring here to the naked aggression by the State of Eritrea against Ethiopia on 12 May 1998. Despite the efforts by various parties, this aggression continues to portend the outbreak of a full-scale war between the two countries because of Eritrea's intransigence that the peaceful resolution of the crisis must be linked to Ethiopia's acceptance of the loss of its sovereignty over a part of its territory and to the consequent appeasement of Eritrea and the dangerous impression the international community is conveying that aggression entails not costs to the aggressor but rewards.

Mr. President,

The aggression committed by the Eritrean regime against Ethiopia is unprecedented in more ways than one. First, it is aggression, which was not only unprovoked, but was also carried out against a state which, until the day of the aggression, was a true friend of Eritrea, probably the only true friend that Eritrea had until that day of infamy when it decided to stab Ethiopia in the back. Secondly, this is an aggression which was designed, paradoxical as it may seem, to impose Eritrea's will and policy on a country which is in no shape or form suited to play second fiddle to Eritrea. It is quite possible that Ethiopia's preoccupation with development and with the fight against poverty over the past several years might have created the wrong impression in the minds of Eritrea's leaders with a fixation on muscle-flexing and military might.

Mr. President,

Conscious of its responsibility not only for its own people but also for peace and the image of our sub-region, Ethiopia has exerted, and continues to exert, the maximum possible effort to ensure the peaceful resolution of this crisis which was created solely by the Eritrean aggression against Ethiopia and the subsequent occupation of Ethiopian territory. Our full co-operation with the various efforts made in this regard ----ranging from the US-Rwandan facilitation to the on-going effort by the OAU----attest to the maximum self-restraint that Ethiopia has demonstrated under difficult circumstances and in the complete absence of a rational and reasonable partner for peace on the part of Eritrea since the early days of the aggression.

Mr. President,

The origin of the crisis between Ethiopia and Eritrea is not any bilateral dispute between the two countries. Rather, it is the result of aggression --- an unprovoked aggression which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law. To many this Eritrean aggression against Ethiopia has been incomprehensible. But to those like us who are familiar with the internal Eritrean situation the behaviour of the Eritrean Government stems directly from the total absence of the normal characteristics of a state in Eritrea. The absolute failure of institutions, the absence of the rule of law, and the lack of accountability can explain the aggressive behaviour of the Eritrean leadership towards its neighbours ever since the establishment of Eritrea as an independent state. As a result, these factors also constitute the single most important cause for the current crisis between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The fact that, Mr. President, aggression was committed against Ethiopia by Eritrea has been indisputable for sometime now. This has been the position and conclusion of all those who have so far tried, under difficult circumstances of Eritrea's obduracy and lack of civility, to make their good offices available as facilitators and as brokers for peace in this conflict. No one who has been intimately involved with these various efforts for peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea would fail to see that Eritrea has never ever been prepared to give peace a chance.

No one who has been close to the efforts that have been made so far to resolve the crisis peacefully would fail to have noted not only the absolute disregard for peace on the part of the Eritrean authorities, but also their attempt to conceal the truth, their lack of transparency and the sheer failure to demonstrate a minimum of decency towards all those who have tried to help. Nevertheless, it is indeed regrettable that the conclusion appears to have been drawn by some, jettisoning principles, that in the face of the known irrationality bordering on the insane in Eritrea, what needs to be done is to lean on Ethiopia, the victim of the aggression, to compromise on principles and to agree to the appeasement of the aggressor and to reward aggression.

Two things must not be overlooked by the international community with regard to the enormous implications of Eritrea's aggression against Ethiopia for international law and for the future of peace and stability in our sub-region.

First, it must be recognized that this is precisely a trap laid by the Eritrean authorities in the form of a deliberately designed game of chicken calculated, these authorities hope, to end with rewarding aggression. Needless to say, Ethiopia refuses to play according to the Eritrean script, and we call upon the international community to take the same resolute stand.

Secondly, it should never be assumed, Mr. President, that through appeasement, war would be averted and that durable peace can be ensured in our part of the world --- a part of the world which because of its recent history although admittedly needs peace most cannot be expected to pay any price to avoid war in particular by accommodating aggressors. Clearly it stands to reason and history has amply demonstrated that war cannot in the long run be averted by appeasing aggressors.

It is a total illusion, Mr. President, to believe that Eritrea would be tamed and we are saying this from experience. One just has to look at Eritrea's track record of the past few years in our area. Eritrea's propensity to aggression has manifested itself first in its belligerent attitude towards its neighbours over the past seven years culminating in its most extreme form of aggression against Ethiopia. In the face of such destructive attitude one may ask why such belligerence by Eritrea was tolerated for so long. The answer is that we somehow entertained the hope that since transition from leading a liberation movement to running an independent state would take time and that the Eritrean leadership would mature over time as it is the case in almost all other similar circumstances. But our hopes were finally dashed on 12 May 1998. In light of this, we have absolutely no doubt that if we failed telling the Eritrean authorities in no uncertain terms that their unruly behavour cannot be tolerated any longer the result will be even greater instability and interminable conflict in the sub-region with enormous implications for peace and stability in our continent.

That is why Mr. President, the Ethiopian Government and people firmly believe that this flagrant violation of international law by a small nation which is totally blinded with arrogance and led astray by a leadership which has concluded that brinkmanship would always pay should not be left unchallenged. On our part whether the international community stands with us or not, on the fundamental principle of preserving international law and resisting aggression, regardless of the consequences, we are prepared to stand alone if need be for principles as well as for our national dignity.

This, Mr. President, as we all remember would not be the first time for Ethiopia to be in such a situation. In this connection, one is reminded of Emperor Haile Selassie and the League of Nations following Italian aggression against Ethiopia in 1936. The measure proposed at the time against Italy was the imposition of an oil embargo which certainly would have been effective in crippling Italian aggression against Ethiopia. Nevertheless, since appeasing Facist Italy was the preferred option for the great powers of the time the proposal was rejected. Instead, in a clear demonstration of injustice unprecedented in the history of inter-state conflicts an arms embargo was imposed by the League on both the aggressor, Italy, and the victim of aggression, Ethiopia. As a result we all know and history has recorded that this dismal failure of the League of Nations to prevent aggression was one of the causes which brought about the demise of the Organization and later contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. It is Ethiopia's hope that this shameful episode would not be repeated by the international community today, although the nature and scale of the challenge Ethiopia is facing today is radically different and is not comparable to that it faced during those difficult days on the eve of the Second World War.

Mr. President,

The United Nations is still grappling with various issues affecting international peace and security around the world. Among these the situation in Angola is a cause for serious concern to us. The behavour of UNITA clearly constitutes a dangerous trend which might lead to the derailment of the peace process, namely, the full implementation of the Lusaka Protocol.

We urge the United Nations to exert maximum effort to save the fragile situation in Angola and ensure the establishment of lasting peace and stability in that country.

On the situation in the Middle East we hope every effort will be exerted towards the full implementation of the Oslo Accords with a view to establishing durable peace in the area. With regard to the question of Western Sahara it is our earnest hope that the proposed referendum on the future of the territory will be held as soon as possible to bring about the final and successful settlement of the issue.

Mr. President,

As a founding member of this Organization Ethiopia has always been prepared to contribute to the best of its ability to all efforts designed to make the UN and its various organs more effective and more representative.

Accordingly, my country attaches great importance to the ongoing exercises aimed, among other things, at reforming and restructuring the Security Council. A satisfactory, fruitful and expeditious outcome of this process is indeed vital for the effectiveness, credibility and, I might add, for the enhanced legitimacy of the world body.

For Ethiopia, and for all those who have trust in the efficacy of multilateralism, there is no alternative to the United Nations. The UN should, therefore, be protected and what it stands for --- whether in the areas of economic co-operation, disarmament and human rights ---- promoted and fostered with all the dedication and commitment. In this endeavour Ethiopia will continue to be second to none in discharging its responsibilities to the UN in this and other activities of the Organization.

I, therefore, wish to conclude by renewing Ethiopia's commitment to the United Nations and to what it stands for.

I thank you.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Press Inf. & Documentation G/Directorate
P.O.Box 393
Tel. 517345
Fax 514300
E-mail MFA.Addis@telecom.net.et