20 December 2001
H.E. Mr. Kofi Annan
Secretary-General of the United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
Room S/3800
New York. N.Y.. 10017
Your Excellency:
The Ethiopian people have always maintained that they do not aspire to possess that which does not legally belong to them or accede to relinquish that which is rightfully theirs. But at this point of their history, they find themselves being ruled by a government that is not only unrepresentative but also quick to cede its sovereign territory, unwilling to protect the sovereign rights and legitimate interests of its people and lacking the moral right to be their reliable spokesman.
The present Ethiopian government assumed initially through the barrel of the gun. To legitimize this power, it conducted sham elections that were obviously neither free nor fair as witnessed by neutral international observers.
The Ethiopian people had, in the past, suffered greatly as result of being repeatedly betrayed by the world community. They have, yet again, become victims of another betrayal, this time with the consent of those who claim to be their leaders. Therefore, they are left with no alternative but to take their own initiative in order to protect their sovereign rights through peaceful and legal means.
We the undersigned political parties, with representation in the federal parliament, and actively working to bring about a democratic society in Ethiopia, strongly express our position, in the name of the Ethiopian people, that the Boundary Decision set out in Article 4(2) of the Algiers Peace Agreement, signed by the present Ethiopian Government and the Government of Eritrea on December 12, 2000, should not be binding on Ethiopia.
We sincerely believe that the Algiers Peace Agreement will not bring genuine and lasting peace that we all wish for the region for the following reasons:
First, the Algiers Peace Agreement is based on colonial treaties that were forged within the context of a colonial atmosphere. The colonial atmosphere is created by European powers that traveled thousands of miles from their capitals with the sinister intention of subjugating unsuspecting peoples through brute force, in violation of civilized norms. The colonial atmosphere was in no way a situation wherein two equal parties knowingly and willingly entered into a commitment for mutual benefits. Rather, it was a condition wherein modern powers with superior technology coerced weaker nations militarily into accepting their terms by so-called treaties with a threatening backup of brute force. The treaties that Emperor Menelik II signed with colonial Italy were, for example, not only treaties signed between unequals, but they were also treaties signed under conditions of duress. Had he not signed those treaties, Ethiopia would have lost its sovereignty totally to the European powers that had surrounded it at the time and were poised to partition it among themselves. Colonial treaties are, therefore, polite and condescending ways of imposing unprovoked domination of the strong over the weak and innocent. It is time that the present world should officially view colonial treaties as such.The Algiers Peace Agreement is thus based not only on treaties between unequal but also on treaties that have been trodden upon by colonial Italy and renounced by the same nation in the Peace Treaty of 1947. Therefore, genuine and lasting peace cannot prevail on the basis of such glaring injustice.Second, The so-called relevant international treaties (presumably those of 1900, 1902, and 1908) on which Article 4(2) of the Algiers Peace Agreement claims to be based are non-binding. Those treaties were abrogated - made null and void - by colonial Italy's naked aggression and invasion of Ethiopia in 1936 in violation of The Covenant of the League of Nations.
Third, Italy had signed the Peace Treaty of 1947 and according to Article 23 of this Treaty, it had renounced all right and title to Eritrea, thus annulling the colonial treaties it had already abrogated by aggression.
The Algiers Peace Agreement obligates Ethiopia to surrender territory to Eritrea, one of the major consequences of which is rendering Ethiopia, a country with a population of about 65 million people, landlocked and making the present border status a fait accompli.
If the border issue between Ethiopia and Eritrea is to be discussed, the border that is binding on Ethiopia and acceptable to the Ethiopian people is that which prevailed between Eritrea and Ethiopia just before Eritrea became independent in 1993.
Any decision by United Nations arbitral commission that denies Ethiopia of sovereignty over the administrative region of Assab will be not only based on non existing treaties but also in violation of the Peace Treaty of February 10, 1947. It will also be a sad failure not to take into consideration previous international recognition of the Assab territory as being an integral part of Ethiopia, and also to ignore the legitimate wishes of the people who live in the territory.
We the undersigned political parties are, therefore, writing to demand that the full outcome of the arbitral commission be placed before the Ethiopian people for scrutiny and final decision in the form of a referendum and in a context open to strict international supervision. Any agreement reached by the Ethiopian government or by any other party pertaining to matters of territory and boundary between Ethiopia and Eritrea, without the final approval of the Ethiopian people, is null and void and cannot in any way be binding on them.
We are also writing to demand that the legitimate rights of the people in the border areas be considered and their right for self-determination be respected.
We are committed to genuine and lasting peace not only in Ethiopia but also in the Horn of Africa. If genuine and lasting peace is to prevail in Ethiopia, as well as in the Horn region, the basis of negotiation for settlement of the dispute that exists between Ethiopia and Eritrea must be the boundary that prevailed between Eritrea and the rest of Ethiopia in 1993, just before the independence of Eritrea, and not the treaties of 1900, 1902 and 1908, treaties that have long been dead and buried.
Please accept the assurances of our best regard.
Sincerely,
CC: H.E. Mr Moctar Ouane, President
Security Council of the United NationsH.E. Mr. Amara Essy
Secretary-General of the Organization of African UnityH.E. Mr. Romano Prodi, President
European UnionThe five Permanent Members of the Security Council of the United Nations
Our common address is:
P.O.Box 822
Addis Ababa
EthiopiaTelephone: 251-1-55-35-06
251-1-55-17-89Fax: 251-1-55-31-55
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