ZALA AMBESSA AND IROB- BURNING ISSUE OR NONISSUE ?
The conspiracy of applying double standards against EthiopiaBy: Tseggai Mebrahtu
Every Ethiopian knows by now the geographical location of Zala ambessa and Irob and what they represent for us in contemporary Ethiopian history. For the benefit of those who don't know well, the geographical location of these two woredas is in the tigrai province and particularly in Agame awrja. Both woredas have given to Ethiopian outstanding personalities in the past and in the present. Among past political personallities mention can be made of queen Makeda, after whose name seems to have been baptised the Gulo makeda woreda whose capital is the once bustling beautful town of Zala ambessa and which has now been completely destroyed through the order the EPLF hitlerite leadership. Irob which is located south woards to Zala ambessa is also native home of outstanding personallities among of whom one can cite Dejazmatch Subagadis, atse Yohanes and doctor Tesfai Debessai, the former leader of the Ethiopian peoples revoltionary party. Besides, Irob is repository of many hstorical documents which attest to the high level artistic creative quality of medieval Ethiopians, a capacity which doesnot exist any more today. It is here in Irob which we found Gunda Gundo which houses these historical documents. By the way the ocuments which we find here were brought from different places to escape from Gragne's decision to destroy twelfth century old Chiristian civilisation. According to historical research, the documents that we find in Gunda Gundo came from northern and central Ethiopia. Some historians also argue that if these documents escaped from destruction, it was because the Moslems were very much impressed by the qualities of the documents that they did not want to touch them.
But, Zala ambessa and Irob are not only museums of history; They are also living testimonials of Ethiopian invincibility and courage. In fact courage and determination are not new things for Ethiopians. They are part of their long history and therefore part of their personality. In this regard we have many places such as Dubarowa, Mekdela, Gura, Gundet, Adowa, Maichew. Dubarowa, which is located in present day Eritrea is a place where King Yeshak inflicted heavy loss to the Ottoman Turks which descended as far as the christian highlands to desacralize the heart of christian Ethiopia. The history of other places is too recent and known to be repeated here.
My argument is that Zala ambessa and Irob are also historical places which desreve our consideration and due attention. Consideration and attention because they represent two contradictory things which can be expressed in terms of Ethiopian invincibility but also Ethiopian surrender. Let me start by showing why the Zala ambessa and Irob fit squarely into Ethiopian tradition because their inhabitants have shown an extraordinary feat of bravery and determination during the EPLF invasion of Ethiopia in May 1998. As I indicated elsewhere, the inhabitants of these two areas played a decisive role in stopping the enemy from physically occupying Ethiopia and making her and its people a laughing stock of the world. As you know the enemy made undeclared aggression on our nation and its iniquitous plan was to have us for breakfast while unprepared. Had the inhabitants of Zala Ambassa and of Irob did not pay the heavy sacrifice to stop it, the enemy had prepared lorries and other transport materials to pillage Ethiopian property under the pretext of recovering the property of its citizens.
Remember the EPLF uses always the same logic. When it occupied the Hanish Islands, it said it occupied no territory other than the one which it owned. When it occupied Badme, it presented the same argument. In fact, the aim of the EPLF seemed to be revanchist in the sense that it aimed at taking Ethiopian property in compensation to what it said might have been taken from Eritrea by the monarchical administration as if it did not exploit Ethiopian wealth during its seven years of unrestrained access to Ethiopian ressources and hegemony over Ethiopia. Imagine now the worst scenario of Ethiopia being occupied by the EPLF. Imagine also the havoc and material destruction. Imagine the genocidal crime it would not hesitate to commit as the destruction of Zala ambessa , the bombardment of Mekele and Addigrat amply showed. Imagine what could be the reaction of the international society: No help, no media reporting of the tragedy. Conversely, the international media talks about war and the EPLF says it is a civil war among Ethiopians themselves. Because of this the international society does not condemn it as usual. It behaves rather in a manner as to eulogise the military "prowess" of the aggressor. At best, the international society can impose sanctions on the victim and on the aggressor as it did in 1936, 1977, 2000. Therefore when Ethiopia is attacked don't expect that the international society would succour us. It is a criminal society by action and omission. Our history proves that beyond doubt.
Let me come back to verify my hypothetical examples. When Eritrea attacked Zala ambassa and Irob in May 1998, the international media spoke panegyrically of Eritrean penetration deep inside Ethiopia. No one spoke of invasion or even aggression of Ethiopia by Eritrea but of outbreak of border war (and when Ethiopians forced the EPLF army to withdraw from Ethiopia and our army occupied some places in Eritra, the so called international community started to talk about Ethiopian invasion of Eritrea and rushed to impose arms embargo agaist us as if it did give a tacit and overt support to the EPLF while occupying Ethiopian northern territory). The Ethiopian government's position was not very different either. Instead of asking the security council to adopt a resolution condemning Eritrea invasion, it preferred, for reasons which every body can guess, to proffer an empty threat of counter offensive. More bizarrely, the Ethiopian media started to speak of Ethio-eritrea conflict whereas Ethiopia was being invaded and part of its population under an enemy occupation. One can not fail to remember how much Ethiopian and foreign media were engaged in a campaign of disinformation against Ethiopia. The campaign of disinformation of the international media transformed from a simple reporting of the out break of the war to qualifying it as a war between Goliath and David, David being the aggressor by reference to what is said in the Holy Book. The idea was that the EPLF army was a living reincarnation of King David & that it would bring giant Ethiopia to its kneel. Examples were legion to corroborate this. "David" was credited with giving a lesson to Yemen, to the Sudan and to Djibouti. Concerning Ethiopia, "David" had not only "defeated" his giant “neighbour” after "thirty years of war" but also he succeeded in reducing it to a vassal status. Therefore, Ethiopia, a "pre-colonial empire" threatened with disintegration, as they relished to say, was unfortunate to go to war with David who proved himself to be the new military super power of the Horn of Africa or why not the whole of Africa?
We read, heard such a story worthy of telling to a child to make him sleep. Despite that, when the EPLF invaded Ethiopia, many believed that it was the end of Ethiopia. If there was anyone who could not envisage even for a second such a an impossible scenario, it was only Ethiopians themselves. Because, they know who really David is and what his Achilles Heel is. In fact, there was no such thing as David and Goliath. It was the same people led by power thirsty and foreign manipulated leaders who was exterminating each other. That said the false David was out to show he was a real black David. Zala Ambessa and Irob were chosen to be the laboratories. Zala Ambessa and Irob did not have a choice but to show that they could stop David despite his military superiority, for they were armed with a devastating weapon called determination and even if the Ethiopian army was conspicuous by its absence. At the end of the first round of the invasion, the Ethiopian army reached and the Government told to the world that it killed eleven thousand soldiers of the enemy. For some of us it was a great consternation. A brother killing his brother. There was nothing to be proud about that even if we pried that the number be not as high as it was reported. The EPLF discovered to its dismay that it gave to its army a very unrealistic home work of occupying Addis Ababa. It was obliged to admit what it knew all the time: that Ethiopia was neither the Sudan, Yemen nor Djibouti. In fact, it could have also understood that the so called thirty years of war was not between the Ethiopian people and the EPLF but against a regime completely illegitimate in the eyes of Ethiopians. The case of Zala Ambassa and Irob showed once more that no one can defeat the Ethiopian people leave alone yesterday's Asmara delinquents who became more Eritreans than the true Eritreans themselves and who achieved their sinister aim of separating one people thanks to the unfailing help of their Ethiopian cousins.
My argument is that the inhabitants of Zala Ambassa and Irob paid a great sacrifice so that the enemy's plan of occupying Ethiopia could be nipped in the bud. For this reason, I think that the incredible bravery of the people of these areas fits well into what I would call the Ethiopian people's tradition of victory.
Nonetheless, Zala Ambassa and Irob constituted also a departure from this tradition in that the enemy was obliged to send its mechanised army which enabled it to occupy the very people at the hand of which it suffered a heavy loss of life and moral blow. As a result not only these historical places were occupied during two years and the enemy followed a scorched earth policy but it committed a genocidal crime of exterminating people. After two years of hitlerite occupation and unimaginable inhumane suffering, the inhabitants of the two woreda were liberated by the Ethiopian people. Their liberation has however a special significance for it was for the first time that an Ethiopian territory was occupied for two years by a black army in almost five thousand years organised societal life. It was for the first time that a central government was unwilling to come to the help of its people and let them languish under the occupation of a mortal enemy. For this reason, Zala Ambessa and Irob had paid the price which had been meted out to the whole of Ethiopia. The crime that the enemy committed showed the EPLF's unbridled hatred towards Ethiopia. The complete destruction of Zala Ambessa typifies this rabid hate.
However, we learnt also from the former TPLF political bureau member Tewelde Woldemariam that there was an uncharitable suggestion from some of the TPLF grand seigneurs to leave Zala ambessa as a gift to the EPLF under the pretext of avoiding financial sanctions from international financial backers. The decision to leave Zala ambessa and Irob, orphan daughters' of Ethiopia was interpreted ex post facto as an evidence to the wide spread hearsay that there was no love lost between the so-called tigrean people's liberation front and the Agame people. As if to give credence to the public rumour, the TPLF prevented the inhabitants of Zala ambessa to return and reconstruct their destroyed homes. As if the sacrifice paid in the liberation of Ethiopian territory did not mean anything, the Government, in lieu of allocating fund for the reconstruction, forbade the reconstruction of the town. There are even unverified rumours that money sent by foreign donors for the reconstruction of the town was reallocated for other purposes. Still very incomprehensible is the decision of the government not to ask the inclusion of a provision providing for the compensation of the victims of the unprovoked aggression and the wanton destruction. Injustices continues to pileup. But the inhumane injustice of which the people of Zala ambessa and Irob in particular and the Agame people in general are victims did not start in 1998. It dates back to 1991when the peoples of Zala ambessa had to fight against the EPLF pillage of Ethiopian property while TPLF dignitaries feigned knowing and seeing nothing.
The EPLF's wanton destruction of Zalambessa and Irob should be seen as a revenge against the determination of this population not to allow the EPLF to continue to pillage Ethiopia. For this reason, it would be a great betrayal and unethiopian behaviour to let these areas or part of them go to the EPLF under the pretext of border demarcation. The Ethiopian people should not let that happen. Given the history of the TPLF/EPLF and their hatred for this area, we fear lest the government throw us into the lion's jaw. It is also disconcerting that the appeal of Zala amabssans and Irob for justice and for the respect of their right to be Ethiopian and only Ethiopian has not triggered a wide support from Ethiopian political parties. The members of Committee of Zala ambessa and Irob have asked the Ethiopian people and the international community desperately and repeatedly to stand beside them in their struggle to be Ethiopian and only Ethiopian. It is really incomprehensible that the demand of these people not to be deprived of their right to continue to live in their ancestral homes has not triggered a national wide positive reaction as is the case of maritime outlet for our nation.
Zala ambassa and Irob are first of all the ownership of the Ethiopian people, in the second place they belong to the tigrai population, in the third place they belong to the Agame population in the fourth place they belong to their inhabitants. This being our conception of Ethiopian territory we cannot understand why different political parties don't speak very loudly about the Ethiopianess of these areas and their inhabitants. Unless one looks at the problem through ethnic lens, the inhabitants of Zala ambessa and Irob should not have been the first to be concerned by the Ethiopianness of their ancestral homes. It should have been the prime concern of all Ethiopian political organisations. It is our firm conviction that pan Ethiopian political organisation has the responsibility to listen to the sufferings of fellow country men and plead their causes in all available platforms. The fantastic and untiring job of the members of the committee of the Zala Ambessa and Irob should now be continued by a pan Ethiopian political organisation.
But it seems that Ethiopian political parties should go still a long way to start to be saddled with such an arduous task. Or are they victims of the ideology of "ethnic democracy" and think that this should be an inter tigreagn problem? We believe that every inch of Ethiopian territory and every Ethiopian who lives in such inch has the right to expect that a national political party plead his cause. That is the only way that political parties can really show that they are there to be at the service of everyone who knows no identity other than being Ethiopian. Just as the Ethiopian people sent their children to died for the liberation of these areas, it behoves national political parties and even regional parties who believe in one Ethiopia to plead the cause of Zala ambessas and Irob.We have reason to doubt that the Government can do this.
Everyone knows that the Ethiopian Government has refused to recognise Ethiopia's right to life. By including the right of secession, it has already accepted in principle the complete disintegration of Ethiopia. One cannot be sure that this principle will not be translated into practice. As regards Ethiopian territory and right of Ethiopians, the Ethiopian government has a very contradictory position in comparison to its policy with respect to Eritrea. We know that the Ethiopian government regards the false referendum in Eritrea as an expression of the will of Eritreans to be separated from the motherland. The EPRDF prided itself unduly on enabling Eritrea to exercise its right of self determination. Just imagine the same right it recognised for Eritrea does not apply to Ethiopia. If the Ethiopian government had a consistent policy, even an inch of Ethiopian territory cannot be abandoned to the EPLF. For the areas which the EPLF falsely lies claims to are inhabited by Ethiopians. Therefore, the same logic that applied to Eritrea should have applied to any part of Ethiopia including Zala Ambassa and Irob. Namely as the secession of Eritrea was not a result of decision by a tribunal, the fate of any Ethiopian territory should not have been decided by foreigners. The role of foreigners should have been confined to determine the will of the inhabitants of those areas which the EPLF says falsely are its. You cannot recognise the right of self determination to Eritreans and at the same time deny the same right to others. The Ethiopian Government has always followed a policy inimical to Ethiopia when it comes to Eritrea. For example, the Ethiopian government decided that the Eritrean people decide which territory belongs to them because when the so called referendum took place, those who voted inside the different parts of the province of Eritrea were presumed to be Eritreans. So were the places wherein they voted.
Conversely, in the case of Ethiopia it is a territory which is going to be a basis to determine to which people it belongs despite the fact that this territory is inhabited by Ethiopians. And as the territory cannot speak, it is foreigners who are to speak on its behalf. So if the reader has understood me, I am saying that the Ethiopian government and the international society are adopting with regard to Ethiopia and Ethiopians double standards in order to harm Ethiopia. Why is that when Eritreans are “allowed” to decide their fate by themselves that Ethiopians are denied such right? What is the reason that the Ethiopian government did not see to it that Ethiopian's claim on Eritrea be decided by a court and it agreed now that the ownership of Ethiopian territories inhabited by Ethiopians be decided by foreigners? It is a gross violation of elementary principle of justice which is equality before the law. Justice requires that the same cases be decided by applying the same principle and different cases be decided differently. Basing ourselves on this elementary justice we are saying that if Eritreans are allowed to be independent, inhabitants of Zala ambessa and Irob and other Ethiopians should be given the same right to determine themselves which identity they want. We are saying that the enemy cannot claim a territory whereas it has destroyed the territory itself and exterminated the inhabitants of the territory. We are saying that the inhabitants have an enforceable right agaist any one including the enemy on Zala ambessa and Irob. So as long as there was no judge to decide the fate of Eritreans, there should not be either a judge to determine the fate of Ethiopians unless one wants to give up our territory to an enemy. The principal actor of this mise en scène and the sole responsible of this injustice that has been befalling on our people and country is the Ethiopian Government and western governments towards whom it ingratiates itself.
I don't think that some Ethiopians have really measured the magnitude of the injustices being committed against our people and country by blind politicians who cannot see beyond their noses. Zala ambessa and Irob and other Ethiopian territories and the inhabitants which inhabit theses areas are victims of this conspiracy. This is a flagrant violation of Ethiopian rights which should not be allowed to continue to happen. No tribunal can decide which identity Ethiopians should have. No tribunal can decide to whom belong a territory inhabited by Ethiopian for many centuries before the creation of Eritrea. If the Ethiopian people do nothing then Ethiopians will be obliged, as I said in my previous article, either to change their identity or to leave their ancestral homes if they decide to remain Ethiopian. What has not been applied to Eritrea is, thanks to the illegal Algiers Agreement, being applied to harm Ethiopia. I believe no court can decide on the identity of a people leave alone in the case an independent country like Ethiopia. What is at stake here is the question of justice. We should not allow the right which we have been denied as regards Eritrea to be applied against us. It is essential that every Ethiopian know the contradictions and the one sided pro Eritrea policy of the Ethiopian government.
Intellectuals are therefore expected to plead the cause their compatriots. It is not sufficient to plead only to Ethiopia's access to the sea. If there is a meeting of minds and union of hearts of all Ethiopians, there is no doubt that we will have the right of maritime access sooner or latter. We are sure of that because justice in its legal and ethical sense is on our side. What the Ethiopian people have liberated by sacrificing their dearest sons and daughters should not be retrieved by the enemy under the pretext of a tribunal verdict. The verdict is not ours for we have never been represented. Who was represented was the Ethiopian government which does not have any vested interest to argue for Ethiopias cause. If it had such a noble aim then it should have acted after a due consultation with Ethiopians instead of running to Algiers where as our people are amdist unprecedented national disaster. When we say that the Ethiopian government isnot interested in Ethiopia's cause, it is not an extrapolation or a blind accusation. Its contradictory policy and its penchant for Eritrea are there to prove that. You remember that His Excellency the foreign Minister said he did not mind if one or the other party was hurt by the decision of the tribunal. Our aim, he argued, is to see that international law is respected by both parties religiously. In his opinion, the people don't count. What matter is the respect of colonial treaties. Because of such irrational policy, the EPLF and its supporters are certain that they will win and they are asking America, before the publication of the “decision” to do all it can so that Ethiopia be abided by the decision of the tribunal.A spokesman of the United Nations has also acknowledged that the Arbitration Tribunal did not pretend to have a Solomonic wisdom to give an equitable decision. That is why I argued before that the establishment of a border commission is a diplomatic window dressing. The tribunal in this particular case does not represent anything other than miscarriage of justice. There is no due process of law. The tribunal is saying that it cannot examine the plaints of Ethiopians as long as it is not asked to do so by the Ethiopian government. However, the practice of the international court of justice show that a court cannot decide on the identity of people. However as you know the international mass media has presented the war of aggression as senseless war fought for a few kilo meters of rugged land. It never spoke of people.either did the foreign minister and his superordinates. And now when the so called decision is made public, one will start to speak of the resolution of a difference which gave rise to a “senseless war”.
One has to know that there is a great difference between the Ethiopian conception of territory and that of the West. For the West every thing is seen from the angle of what I would call economicism. When they talk of rugged land the reference is that there is no oil, mineral or anything economical. Money being the supreme standard against which everything is measured, they say that you don't have to fight for anything which is not economic worthy. That is why they consider us to be a country of less importance. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are however very important because there is petrol. We Ethiopians have a different weltanshauung of territory. It is part of our identity, it is part of our personality. Remember only what did Kings Tewedros and Yohaness when they ordered that foreigners leaving Ethiopia be washed before they start to sail lest they take with them Ethiopian soil. For a western society pervaded by irrational rationalism, this can only be seen as irrational, barbaric, uncivilised, whatnot. We can only laugh at people for whom money has become the only god which one should ador. We Ethiopians appreciate very weLl the value of money. But money is not everyhting for us. For us it is the human person and not the homo economicus which is at the heart of our world view. Our philosophy of life a human being with his weaknesses and strong points. A human being whose life is guided by the respect for mother nature. As part of the African philosophy, our philosophy of life requires that the equilibrium between man and the environment be maintained. When Ethiopians advise to trample the soil lightly, they don't mean that the soil will feel pain. It simply means that the soil is not to be treated improperly and not to be exploited without moderation. In other words for us it is not only human beings who have the right. Inanimate objects too have a right. The balance that our innate knowledge tells to respect is now being understood by the rationalist world and people are speaking of ecology or preservation of the environment.
I ask the reader to excuse for this digression. What I want to show is that the idea of a territory is not the same thing in the Ethiopian culture and in the culture of those who are to decide to which the territory belongs. So there is a clash of civilization to use the famous expression of Samuel Hunington. The issue of Zala ambessa and Irob is therefore a matter of Ethiopian identity. You cannot tell someone to change his identity by giving to some one a territory onwhich his ancestors have lived since time immemorial. This is our main argument and we believe that no right exists which overrride this right. For it is a matter of respecting the Ethiopian identity of the inhabitants and of their ancestoral homes and not that of deciding simply which territory goes to whom as some naive spirits seem to believe. Let us show once more to the world that when we are united, no earthly power can stand on our way. Once more, we ask and urge all patriotic Ethiopians to save us from being thrown into the lion's jaw by joining forces and transform the non issue of Zala Ambessa and Irob into national issue of international lime light. Let us save our honour and history; let us fight for the respect of our Ethiopian identity.
[Opinions in this article are solely that of the writer.]