Commentary:

Aggressors Cannot Be Champions of Peace: The Self-Defeating Communiqué of EPLF

EPLF's office for Foreign Affairs has published a communiqué today, 8 August 1999, entitled "Who is the Victim of Aggression?" in an attempt to accuse Ethiopia as the aggressor and EPLF as the aggressed and champion of peace. Allow me to briefly review this self-defeating communiqué. Quoted are parts of the communiqué.

It starts by accusing a member of the ruling front in Ethiopia as follows "The TPLF has remained lethargic to this investigation on which Eritrea has insisted from the beginning for the reasons illustrated below" [reasons quoted below].

Before commenting on the said reasons, let me ask the Foreign office of EPLF as to who proved to be lethargic to the investigation of the conflict and its peaceful solution by betting that the SUN will not rise if EPLF withdrew from Badme? Who bet about the physical impossibility and the moral unthinkability of EPLF's withdrawal?

Then the communiqué went listing the so called reasons.

"In July 1997, the TPLF regime violated the sovereignty of Eritrea to invade and occupy Adi-Murug. The TPLF employed one brigade from its regular army to carry out this act of aggression. Eritrea did not resort then to legitimate means of self-defence but instead chose a path of dialogue. President Isaias Afwerki sent a letter to the Ethiopian Prime Minister protesting the use of force to create facts on the ground. The Joint Border Commission was subsequently formed at the suggestion of Eritrea."

Mind you, the Ethiopian army had been in Adi-Murug for sometime with the complete knowledge of EPLF officials. But once the army dealt with destabilising elements in the area, it peacefully withdrew from Adi-Murug long before May 1998. In fact if you carefully read the above part of the communiqué, it does not accuse Ethiopia of continuing its occupation of Adi-Murug. Ethiopian forces were not there on May 1998 and Adi-Murug can never be the cause of the current crisis. "

In October 1997, the regime issued a new map of the Administrative Region of Tigray incorporating into that region large slices of sovereign Eritrean territory."

Again here the communiqué does not specify which "large slices of sovereign Eritrean territory" were incorporated into the new map. The communiqué is silent because no territory that was not under Ethiopian control was incorporated into that map. But what should be underlined is even if TPLF incorporated such territories, as far as it had not physically advanced into them, the map remains only to be a paper; no more no less. In such a case, EPLF should only have brought the case to the attention of the appropriate Ethiopian officials or international arbiters but in no way invade a sovereign state. "

In January 1998, TPLF sent troops to the Bure area in an attempt to occupy new areas in a pattern reminiscent of the Adi-Murug incident. Eritrea was alerted this time and sent troops to its borders. There was a stand off for three days until the Ethiopian contingent was ordered to pull back after a flurry of communications between defence headquarters in Asmara and Addis-Ababa."

Well, I don't understand why this part is included in the communiqué to accuse Ethiopia if, as a result of "a flurry of communications", "the Ethiopian contingent" pulled back. "On 6 May 1998, TPLF troops surrounded and killed a number of Eritrean officers in the Badme area. The attack provoked a series of clashes that continued until May 12 with both sides bringing in reinforcements."

Another clear and self-defeating part. Unlike the confusion that existed soon after the invasion of Badme, now the whole world knows that before May 1998, Badme and its environs were under Ethiopian control. Now, what exactly were the "surrounded and killed" "Eritrean officers" doing "in the Badme area" which was being administered by Ethiopia? All right let us accept these "Eritrean officers" were negotiators as EPLF alleges. Then if they were killed, EPLF should only have demanded explanation, kept Ethiopia responsible, or take any other diplomatic measures that it felt were appropriate. The killing of "a number of officers", no matter what their number was, should in no way amount to the invasion of Badme and its environs!

Last not least: "On 13 May 1998, the regime officially declared war on Eritrea through its Parliament." Well, what else should the Parliament do? Keep the intransigent invasion of Badme and its environs secret and beg EPLF behind the doors? The invasion was a well organised one lead by three mechanised brigades and three generals in the absence of a single member of the Ethiopian formal army! That was only an official aggression; not a border skirmish among militia or police. It was an aggression ill-conceived by the hooligan EPLF group of gangs! And EPLF expects the Ethiopian Government to keep quiet! Is that not another demonstration of its unparalleled arrogance?

All in all, the communiqué just repeated what EPLF has been communicating since the conflict begun and suffers from consistency and distortion of the truth. It only revealed the true and wicked nature of EPLF. It is only a self-defeating communiqué.