June 28, 1998
Dear Netters:
I am writing this article because of the demonstrably false information being posted at the Eritrean Dehai website. Some of this false information has also been included in official statements from the Eritrean government.
The false information can be summarized in the following three statements:
1. A statement that the May 15, 1902 Italy-Ethiopia treaty annex specifies a straight line between the Tekeze and Mereb rivers.
This is easily disproven by reading the english version texts at the Dehai site. Every reader can verify this for themselves. It is a mystery why Dehai thinks it can get away with such blatant misrepresentation.
2. A statement that the Eritrea-Ethiopia colonial borders are clear and unamabiguous.
Please note that the Eritrea-Ethiopia boundary is marked with the label "boundary in dispute" on a National Geographic map from 1935. The League of Nations was trying to mediate the border dispute between Italy and Ethiopia in 1935. Ethiopia was requesting a joint survey party to delimit the ill-defined border areas. The mediation failed because of Italian intransigence.
3. A statement that Eritrea's borders have been unchanged for 92 years. (92 years since the 1906 treaty which dealt mainly with the Afar areas).
Eritrea's borders were changed in 1987. I will shortly post a map showing those borders. Secondly, Eritrea became an internal province of Ethiopia in 1962 and was no longer recognised internationally.
More Analysis of the May 1902 Treaty annex:
As stated elsewhere, the colonial treaties between Italy and Ethiopia were rendered null and void many times over:
(1) By Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935
(2) By the Eritrean Parliament's act of union with Ethiopia in 1962
(3) By the redrawing of Eritrean borders in 1987
However it is useful to examine the colonial treaties because they reveal the weakness of the Eritrean legal position, and they provide evidence to refute the false statements made by the Eritrean government and by the Eritrean website known as Dehai. (Note: Eritrea's only "evidence" is the Mussolini map of 1934 which has already been rejected by France and Djibouti)
The borders were ill-defined except where natural features existed. The remaining border areas were supposed to be demarcated by joint survey parties. This never happened because Italy intended to use the undefined border as a pretext for invading Ethiopia.
In the case of the Badime region, the border was supposed to be delimited by Italian and Ethiopian delegates, and the Kunama "tribe" was supposed to end up in Eritrea
According to an Oxford University scholar who has been studying the Kunama people, of the 60,000 strong Kunama population, only several thousand lived in Ethiopia [according to the border as of May 6] Meanwhile the population displaced from the newly Eritrean-occupied areas in the Badime region is 24,000.
This indicates that the Kunama are a minority in the disputed areas. Therefore Eritrea has no claim to the disputed territory even according to the treaty annex of 1902.
However, the most relevant discussion should focus on the application of international law. Treaties which forcibly assign the nationality of "tribes" are unacceptable in this day and age. Obviously, the correct action is to allow the Kunama people and the other long-term inhabitants of the area to vote in a UN supervised referendum.
Of course Eritrea has no intention of respecting the rights of the Kunama. They were overwhelmingly against secession and most of the young men fought against the EPLF. Today, they are one of the most persecuted groups in Eritrea.
A referendum for the Kunama would likely result in Eritrea losing the entire Gash-Setit region (besides the small disputed Yirga triangle). It is for this reason that the Eritrean government is carefully avoiding the phrase "International Law" in its proposals. This is also another reason why they are objecting to the US-Rwanda peace plan.
- Dagmawi