ONLY AN "ELDERS COUNCIL" CAN LEAD THE WAY
Harvard African Law Association/Black Law Students Association
By: EPHRAIM ISAAC
International Chair, Horn of Africa Peace & Development Committee Addis Ababa Ethiopia,
February 11, 2006
First of all, I wish to thank the organizers of this symposium, HALA/BLSA, in particular, Ato Fasil Amde-Sion who did all the hard work to bring us together. I also thank Prof. Goodman for his kind introduction.
I have been at meetings where in political discussion people tend to use very strong or negative words. I am glad today is Sabbath. It is permitted to study and discuss critical subjects on Sabbath but forbidden to use foul language or speak ill of others. Hence you will not hear from me such language (anyway I do not use such language even on other days.) Ethiopians are traditionally respectful, kind and polite people. In this academic setting, I pray that we all control our tempers and be civil to each other, speaking objectively and with respect of all political leaders and opponents, even when criticizing them.
The topic of our symposium is "Ethiopia: Prospects for Democracy". I believe democracy is possible if we have peace. And peace is possible if we respect and implement our traditional culture of peacemaking. In my brief presentation, I shall speak about that – the road that could lead us to lasting peace and democracy. That road is in our own hands, the Ethiopian peoples, not in the hands of mediators from outside. Outside mediators can be well-meaning but often add confusion to conflict in the process.
For several years, 1998-2000, competing foreign negotiators from every corner of the world converged on the respective capitals of Ethiopia and Eritrea trying to solve what they said to be a border dispute. More recently, they busy and buzz around about the recent internal confrontations in Ethiopia. What have they achieved?
In respect to the 1998-2000 Ethio-Eritrean conflict, all of the outsiders (ironically they themselves often at odds with each other!), instead of assisting and collaborating with a then active native elders group (there was such a group), decided to take matters into their own hand. In the process they aggressively meddled in the internal affairs of the two countries, contributing to distancing them from each other, and delaying the solution. The active native elders group stepped back many times showing difference to our foreign friends who repeatedly put out big publicity that their agencies might end the conflicts quickly. Yet the result was what amounted to an African World War. To date we have not yet seen the final outcome.
In the recent clash between the Ethiopian Government and the opposition groups, several international organizations such as the European Union and other foreign governments rushed in to solve the problems. The result has again been a dismal failure. (We continually see the failure of outside intervention also in the case of the Middle East.)
Conventional international, professional mediation has failed and will continue to fail in the Horn of Africa, witness the extreme case of Somalia, because most conflicts in the region, involve the peoples themselves, not merely the political parties; and it is the people, which can play a significant role in their outcome.
Professional, regional and bilateral, peacemaking groups/governmental or international NGO groups that make substantial effort to bring about peace from outside the region address the parties or their political leaders only, not knowing any way to reach the peoples because of linguistic or cultural barriers. These foreign friends deserve credit for their efforts and good will. However, their views and diplomatic methods-- as in the case of Ethio-Eritrean conflict and present stalemate, or the current internal Ethiopian political antagonism – that conflicting parties would give in to international pressures, or resolving an ongoing open conflict now is guarantee for avoiding future confrontations, are naïve and do not produce result.
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, an ancient agency for peacemaking exists that Western-led professionals ignore, namely, councils of trusted native elders. Such ancient modes of human mediation remain superior modes, wherever they are extant. Elders profoundly understand the human dimension or the psychology and history, not just the ideology, of the combatants or political party contestants. Elders feel personally the blood of their own kin on both sides that will flow if they fail. The warring peoples or political parties generally consider them venerable moral guides (Saint Kristos Samra would agree and witness the conciliation between the 19th century rulers Yohannes and Menelik.) When all things are considered, it is with the native local elders that in the end the warring parties have to live as fellow citizens/ neighbors.
Traditional elders look at the emotional and cultural dimensions, the traditional pride, with some component of the social and economic aspect rather than, let us say, focusing on immediate issues, a simple border or election dispute, their resolution unquestionably important, on which alone outsiders tend to put emphasis.
The 1991 truce, which came at the end of a thirty-year war, the longest in modern African history, broke down because the international professionals ignored the native elders. The U.S. State Department officials forging the truce knew about an advanced negotiation activity by a confidential Ethiopian-Eritrean Elders Council (consisting of members coming from various linguistic and religious background) but expropriated their leadership instead of engaging their wisdom.
The Elders insisted that there cannot be total lasting peace in the region unless all conflicting parties including the Derg, EPLF, EPRDF, OLF, EPRP, MEISON, EDU, EPDA, ALF and all other big and small linguistic (Ethiopians belong to the same ethnic group but different linguistic families) conflicting movements are included in the truce. When the US State Department got involved and called a meeting in London, and decided that only the Derg, the EPLF and EPRDF would participate in making the truce, the Elders ad hoc council was asked to postpone its planned conciliation meeting in Switzerland. As far as I remember now, even the principal parties that were invited to London, the Derg, EPLF and EPRDF, agreed with the Elders insisting initially on the inclusion of all conflicting grou;s, but were able to get a concession to include only the OLF, even that with some reluctance.
The Washington professionals brought a political truce; they congratulated themselves naively calling the war, "finished business;" but sadly no real reconciliation of the peoples took place.
Still, the Elders Council insisted that the truce be followed by aggressive grass roots reconciliation to avoid any possible future outbreak of hostilities. The leaders of all the victorious political parties again enthusiastically embraced their vision and proposal. Yet with limited national resources and little outside support, their appeal for assistance for popular reconciliation programs fell on deaf ears. One major international peace organization responded in 1995, three years before the tragic breakout of hostilities between Ethiopia and Edritrea, saying in effect, "the Ethiopian civil war is finished business, we do not want to hear about it any more."
The shortsighted failure of the London professional negotiating team to leave out many political contestant parties and subsequent negligence by the international community to support and follow through building the people-to-people rapprochement ultimately insured the death of the 1991 London truce -- the collapse of the OLF role in the transitional government and the tragic outbreak of the Ethio-Eritrean war – add the Ethio-Eritrean political stalemate and the recent election crisis.
Regarding the OLF, the Scandinavians and the Germans proudly thought (and think?) they had/have a handle on the OLF dispute with the Government. They too had good intentions and made real effort to solve the problems for which they deserve great credit; yet twelve years later there is not an inch of movement forward. On the contrary, so far they seem to have contributed to generating unrealized false hopes of solution, which only puts off the time for peace and reconciliation.
Regarding Ethiopia and Eritrea, they are now two countries, yet they are racially, culturally, and linguistically united. They were once also historically united. Elders know and discern that a speedy resolution now must also include not only an end to the ongoing hostility but an open respectful dialogue regarding their deep traditional relations that outsiders do not seem to grasp as well as their future social, psychological, and cultural relations, in particular the economic prosperity and renaissance of their peoples. As allies, the two could become a 21st century powerhouse, fulfilling the manifest destiny of one of Africa's most outstanding centers of culture in ancient times.
Likewise, the resolution of the dispute between the Government and Opposition groups requires a deep understanding of Ethiopian idioms and Weltanschauung. The two sides might seem to move in different directions in method and ideology, but in the final analysis they share similar aspirations-- a social, cultural and economic renaissance for their country, not to mention their blood relations and a great deal of psychological views they hold in common that outsider negotiators do not also seem to grasp.
There is a Jewish saying "If I am not for myself who is for me, if I am only for myself what am I?" No nation has ever lived in this planet isolated. Surely, it is no longer possible for any nation to be a loner in this Internet age. Ethiopians must have good foreign friends from the US to the Middle East from China to Europe. We must love and respect all those who want to be our foreign friends, our homes always open to them. We must strengthen our social and economic ties with them. We should expand trade with them and strengthen cultural exchanges. However, we need to solve our own very conflicts, disagreements, clash of ideas and principles ourselves. As some of our proverbs say, we and only we can solve our own very problems. In the final analysis, even our foreign friends will respect and trust us more and do business with us with confidence when they see that we respect and trust each other ourselves, when they see civility even in the way we disagree with each other. We can and must do so, for after all, civility in language and behavior is the very fabric or our ancient tradition.
The hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the present internal conflicts within the two countries respectively are already draining both economically. Some fear that if the interstate and intrastate conflicts continue or persist, Ethiopia and Eritrea will weaken respectively to the point where they could possibly vanish from importance, except as dangerous and disaster zones like Somalia. The potential for leadership possessed by these gifted peoples in the Horn of Africa-leadership not only within Africa, but also in the world - will be destroyed for decades. Damage will be done to the strategically important region that straddles the Red Sea oil trade route.
Such state of affairs might be possible, fortunately when it comes to Ethiopia and Eritrea, I am an optimist and reject such predications. I do worry but see a great bright future for our peoples after all the storm passes. Democracy and economic prosperity will be possible with lasting peace which must come soon some day.
The UN has been somewhat supportive of the idea of working with local elders in Africa as a valuable channel of peace making. Only recognition by all other international professionals and governments of the elders' councils, and a renewed effort by the elders themselves can bring peace to our region, and as its consequence, in time, possibly glorious achievements inspiring to the whole world. The role of unpaid native elders/peacemakers and bridge builders must be accepted, respected, and supported by all peace-loving governments and international institutions that now invest millions on paid conflict resolution specialists and professionals.
In conclusion, I used to be an incorrigible optimist. I am still an optimist, but a corrigible one. When all is said and done, I believe deep in my heart that there will be peace and democracy in our region. Some paleontologists now think homo sapiens, that is to say that the first rational human beings (!), evolved in the Horn of Africa. Indeed, the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea have a long glorious past of humanity and civility. Ethiopia can be said to be the first melting pot where the original Africans, Jews, Arabs, and Asians met and mingled since time immemorial and gave rise to a once vibrant civilization. Five hundred years ago, Damiao do Goes, the great Portuguese humanist, a disciple of Erasmus, described Ethiopia, where Christians, Moslems, and Jews and peoples of different languages live in peace together, as role model of tolerance for Europe. The Oromo people already have a strong well-established tradition of gada democracy; an even more socially and culturally integrated form of democracy that others can envy. There will be peace and democracy in our region one day. I am only sad it is taking time to happen because the peoples of our region now suffer from poverty, disease and illiteracy, and that pains me a lot. Thank you again.
There will be mirth in heaven,
When everything made well
Atone together
(Shakespeare, As You Like It…)
[Opinions in this article are solely that of the writer.]