Open Letter to UN Secretary General by The Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF)
25/05/2001
Mr. Kofi Annan
UN Secretary General
New YorkYour Excellency,
RE. Our Position on the Ethio-Eritrean Peace Accord
The armed conflict between the Afar people and the Eritrean forces (ELF and EPLF) started back in 1960's during the regime of Emperor Haile Silassie. This conflict continued throughout the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam and did not collapse with it. The fact that the armed resistance of the Afar people has so far survived the fall and rise of regimes in Ethiopia explains and testifies its true nature as a popular nationalist movement.
The Afar nationalist movement was born in the colonial era of conquest and enslavement of peoples, out of necessity to protect and preserve the Afar society from disintegration. The Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) marks the continuation as well as the renaissance of this objective.
Over the last decade, since 1991, the Afar people have paid very heavily in their struggle to reinstate their national and democratic rights. The international community has been well aware of political repression the Afar people suffered at the hand of the EPLF government of Eritrea. Because of the military and security pact that existed between the two governments up to 1998, the effect of the Eritrean government's repressive measures was devastating on the sector of the Afar people who reside across the former Italian colonial border. Yet the international community chose to remain silent. Nobody bothered to assess the prevailing relationship between the de facto government of Eritrea and the Afar people it dominated and annexed by force. Nobody was also prepared to look at the background of the conflict between the Afar nationalist force and the Eritrean forces of liberation.
Your Excellency,
ARDUF was not the cause for the war that erupted between Ethiopia and Eritrea but it certainly constituted a problem that has occupied the attention of both governments since 1991. However, ARDUF did become part of the problem in their minor skirmishes and the full-blown war that broke out.
Once again the international community seems to have chosen to ignore the Afar nationalist aspiration and has committed itself only to resolve the problem of the two governments. Thus we regard the peace agreements signed in Algiers on 18th of June and
12th of December 2000 as a deal between two warring governments and not as a peace deal for the people of neither the two countries nor one that can resolve outstanding political issues. We strongly believe that the current Ethio-Eritrean peace deal cannot produce the desired lasting peace between the Afar people and the EPLF government of Eritrea. The Afar-Eritrean conflict still poses the potential danger to the security and stability of the western Red Sea coast and the international water way.
Your Excellency,
It is to be recalled that we registered our opposition to the Referendum that was conducted in Eritrea in April 1993 in our letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Betros Petros Ghali. The Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) still remains opposed to the Referendum and the outcome which led to the independence and secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia on the ground that:
- The Transitional Government of Ethiopia that authorized the Referendum in Eritrea was not a government elected to power with a clear mandate from the Ethiopian peoples to allow for the referendum.
- The Referendum that was conducted under the provisional administration of the EPLF was not democratic. No Ethiopian or Eritrean or ethnic political organization was permitted to address the Eritrean peoples in a pre-referendum political campaign and argue for or against the motion that was defined by the EPLF. The referendum also was not fair or free, particularly in the western Red Sea Afar area as the people were intimidated and forced to cast their votes for the motion of the EPLF i.e. secession.
- When the former Italian colony of Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952 the colonial border based on the colonial treaties of 1900, 1902 and 1908 was automatically transformed to become the administrative border of Eritrea. The 1900 and 1902 treaty border remained and was still the administrative border of the Ethiopian province of Eritrea at the time of the referendum. But the 1908 treaty border was no longer the administrative border of the ex-Italian colony of Eritrea as the Afar Red Sea area of Dankalia was detached from the province of Eritrea in 1988 and was incorporated with the rest of the Afar homeland in the formation of the Asab Autonomous region that was accountable to the central government of Ethiopia. Thus, technically Eritrea was the land beyond the Gulf of Zula and the Referendum that was conducted in Eritrea should not have included the Afar Red Sea coast of Dankalia because of international and national legacies that preceded the Referendum.
- No due consideration was given to the international and national legacies that preceded the Referendum and consequently the Afar Red Sea area of Dankalia was not placed under UN interim administration to assess the free will of the concerned sector of the Afar people in a democratic, fair and free referendum, as it should have been.
- The Referendum in Eritrea was not conducted on terms and conditions of the UN and the UN did not pronounce itself to be responsible for the outcome of the referendum.
Your Excellency,We believe that the will of a victorious EPLF force prevailed over existing legacies and democratic procedures, thereby depriving the Afars from administrative unity (which at the time they had achieved) and Ethiopia from the internationally recognized "legitimate need for adequate access to the sea'' --- UN Resolution 390 A (V) of December 2, 1950. The destiny of Eritrea was determined on the battlefield and not by the referendum that was conducted solely under the administration of the EPLF. Therefore, the manner in which the Referendum was conducted in Eritrea renders the Afar people and ARDUF free from any international obligation to observe and respect its outcome. However, had the UN taken over the administration of the Afar (Danakil) area of the Red Sea and conducted the referendum on its own terms and became responsible for its outcome, then the Afar people and ARDUF would have been confronted with an international challenge to accept the outcome of the referendum in Eritrea. Thus, since this is not the case, ARDUF strongly believes that the Afar people still retain the right to express their free will in a democratic, fair and free referendum to determine their own destiny.
Your Excellency,
The ARDUF as a political organization is bound to observe the principles of the UN. Thus our forces have all obligations towards UN personnel deployed for peacekeeping mission and although ARDUF is not part of the cease-fire accord signed by Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, we would like to assure you that, while pursuing our cause, our forces will respect and cooperate with the UN personnel.
Your Excellency,
Please rest assured that our fighting force would do the utmost in their ability to protect and to safeguard the safety of the UN personnel deployed for peace keeping between the two government forces of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Sincerely Yours,
Mohamoda Ahmed Gaas
Secretary General of ARDUFCc.
UN Security Council
[Opinions in this article are solely that of the writer.]