The history of injustice by successive Ethiopian rulers against the people of Eritrea are too numerous to list here. In the interest of time, allow me to focus on recent attempts by the government of Ethiopia to muzzle the people and government of Eritrea.
In 1998, the government of Ethiopia lied to its people and the international community when it claimed Eritrea invaded Badme, a territory it falsely claimed as Ethiopian. Soon after, Ethiopia declared war on Eritrea. After much blood was shed on both sides, the government of Ethiopia was forced to take the matter to an international arbitration court in The Hague. The ruling of the court was agreed to be final and binding by both parties and was witnessed and guaranteed by the United States, the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union.
The court ruled that Badme, the flashpoint of the war, was a sovereign Eritrean territory and had been so for over 100 years. However, the government of Ethiopia with the support of powerful members of the Security Council has been allowed to ignore this final and binding ruling and remain on sovereign Eritrean territories in violation of international law. The government of Ethiopia has spent $2.5 million on lobbing efforts in the United States alone to not only allow it to ignore this final and binding ruling but to also sanction Eritrea under illegitimate charges. Eritrean efforts to defend itself from these unjust sanctions to the international community have been blocked in many fronts. Ethiopia continues to use the regional organization Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as an extension of its foreign ministry. It illegally blocks Eritrea from attending IGAD summits hosted in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It interferes and blocks Eritrean diplomats from attending African Union meetings headquartered in Addis Ababa. Recently, it has attempted to illegally jam both Eritrean Television (Eri-TV) and Eritrean Radio (Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea) transmissions around the world. There have also been several attempts made to bring down Eritrean government websites.
The court ruled that Badme, the flashpoint of the war, was a sovereign Eritrean territory and had been so for over 100 years. However, the government of Ethiopia with the support of powerful members of the Security Council has been allowed to ignore this final and binding ruling and remain on sovereign Eritrean territories in violation of international law. The government of Ethiopia has spent $2.5 million on lobbing efforts in the United States alone to not only allow it to ignore this final and binding ruling but to also sanction Eritrea under illegitimate charges. Eritrean efforts to defend itself from these unjust sanctions to the international community have been blocked in many fronts. Ethiopia continues to use the regional organization Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) as an extension of its foreign ministry. It illegally blocks Eritrea from attending IGAD summits hosted in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It interferes and blocks Eritrean diplomats from attending African Union meetings headquartered in Addis Ababa. Recently, it has attempted to illegally jam both Eritrean Television (Eri-TV) and Eritrean Radio (Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea) transmissions around the world. There have also been several attempts made to bring down Eritrean government websites.
The government of Ethiopia continues its attempts to block Eritrean efforts to inform and engage the international community. The recent call by some who appear to be agents of the Ethiopian government are suspicious to say the least. How do members of anonymous know they are not being used by the Ethiopian government in its continued campaign to silence the Eritrean government?
Yemane Abselom
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