Commentary:

The Easy Dialogue

There is one title which drives Eritrea into sheer ecstasy. And that is to be referred to as the former Italian colony. So be it.

As a former Italian colony, Eritrea is said to have inherited its sole traits from Sicily - the heartland of Italian Mafiosi.

Shortly after Eritrea invaded Ethiopia in May 1998, an Eritrean diplomat in Addis Ababa called a news conference of the Independent Press, which till Eritrea's invasion has been very critical of the Ethiopian government, and said: "Dear Ethiopians! The war is not with you the Amharas, the Oromos, the Afars, Gambellas, Somalis and other Ethiopians. The war is with Tigrai. Therefore, this war doesn't concern you. In fact, our goal is to punish Tigrai, liberate the Amhara, and empower the Oromo." Having said this, the Eritrean diplomat (courtesy of Mafia school diplomacy) thought he has done his homework and went home.

The next day, banner headlines of the local papers screamed: "Eritrea invasion a dangerous show of Mafia school completion". Neither amused nor bemused, the Ethiopian people rose up with indignation against the menace of Eritrean aggression.

What the Eritrean official had thought was he would outsmart the Ethiopian press, despite his knowledge that such media have been raising alarms when Eritrea took turns over its neighbors (Yemen, Sudan, Djibouti) and invaded them in five years of its existence as an independent nation.

If there is a need to create an analogy in the West, what Eritrea tried to prove to Ethiopians in the wake of its invasion was like imagining Mexico has invaded parts of the state of California and tells the US president: "Hey, Mr. Clinton: The conflict doesn't concern your Federal Government nor other states. Our conflict is just only with the trouble-making California State. In fact, you will be relieved of any stress when you watch from your office across the Hudson River how the Mexican army is gonna punish the local government in California."

The Ethiopian reaction to the Eritrean invasion was such that one Western diplomat had to sum it up like this: "Isaias Afwerki united Ethiopia in seven weeks what Meles Zenawi failed to do in seven years!" How apt! The Eritrean regime knew early on that its mission to divide Ethiopians and dismember their country has been a major political fiasco with the danger of facing a major backlash (such as deportation) and had to look for a quick fix elsewhere by employing its Mafia tactics. And surely beyong mainland Africa.

With black Africa being firmly behind Ethiopia, Eritrea opted to win the hearts and minds of Arab countries by villifying the Organization of African Unity (OAU) officials as incompetent and pro-Ethiopia persona who cannot be trusted as neutral peace makers.

Come Ghadaffi. No Arab leader than Col. Muammar Ghaddaffi has been visited in the year 1998 by any other head of state than Eritrea's Isaias Afewerki. Tongue-twisting in Arabic, Isaias hopped on any aircraft that was destined to Tripoli despite a then-existing UN embargo that had banned flights to Libya.

But fate was such that the Libyan leader was in a mood for calling it quits to feuling fights. Instead, official Libyan news agency had widely reported that the Libyan leader was for making peace among fellow African brothers in a bid to materialize his vision of creating the new "USA" (The United States of Africa). Where to try now? The West. Yes, and could there be any better candidate than US President Bill Clinton's peace envoy Anthony Lake?

Having lost a year-long campaign to turn the conflict with Ethiopia into a regional war, Eritrea is now desperately working hard to lure the US mediator into making the blunder of taking measures what Africa and others denounced as the offshoot of Eritrea's lunacy (to hope to remain at large after sowing the seeds of death and destruction against a sovereign state).

Taking for granted that the veteran US official would buy their story, Eritreans are being heard saying Ethiopia's interest is to annex Eritrea. What? Ethiopians rather resent the Age of Innocence (courtesy of the remarkable Ethiopian historian Bahru Zewde) they lived for decades squandering their precious resources with the naive belief of keeping "Eritrea under the fold of her Motherland". In fact, the conviction among Ethiopians now is how to keep Eritrea away from their reach. Ethiopia knows very well that it can live better off without the curse of carrying a resource-barren Eritrea on its back.

Has Anthony Lake got the gist of the political-Mafia games the Eritrean elite has been playing on the political terrain of the West?

On Thursday, Isaias Afewerki's advisor Yemane Ghebremeskel complained to the AFP in Asmara : "The Americans tell us arguments raised by Ethiopia are becoming more realistic, that they are lowering the tone of their statements."

If Anthony Lake is over with your game, who is on line - Eritrea?