ERITREA: Unsubstantiated Allegations that led to US-Engineered Sanctions

The US and Ethiopia seem to be employing the “if you want to avoid talking about something, change the subject adage” in yet another futile attempt to divert attention away from Ethiopia’s numerous violations of international law, the African Union and UN Charters and most importantly, the Algiers Agreements, which were signed by Eritrea and Ethiopia in December 2000. The United States is not only one of the witnesses and guarantors of the Algiers Agreements; it is US State Department lawyers that authored the Agreements.

The Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) was established in accordance with article 4.2 of the Algiers Agreements, which said:

"The parties agree that a neutral Boundary Commission composed of five members shall be established with a mandate to delimit and demarcate the colonial treaty border based on pertinent colonial treaties (1900, 1902 and 1908) and applicable international law. The Commission shall not have the power to make decisions ex aequo et bono"

Article 4.15 of the Algiers Agreements also said:

"…The parties agree that the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Commission shall be final and binding. Each party shall respect the border so determined, as well as the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other party…"

The Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission delivered its final and binding decision on 13 April 2002. While Eritrea accepted the EEBC’s delimitation decision, regime in Ethiopia rejected the decision and set out on 5-year long effort to frustrate the work of the Commission with the tacit approval and acquiescence of the US led international community.

The EEBC persevered despite repeated attempts to thwart and hijack its sole mandate to demarcate the Eritrea Ethiopia border. In November 2007, after waiting for over 5 years to demarcate the border by placing boundary pillars on the ground, the EEBC decided to fulfill its mandate by demarcating the border using coordinates on maps-“virtual demarcation”. The regime in Ethiopia rejected the EEBC’s demarcation decision and told US officials that “if the Security Council inadvertently legitimized the EEBC’s virtual demarcation of the border…Ethiopia would withdraw from the Algiers Accord.”

A decade later, Ethiopia continues to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories, including Badme, the casus belli of the Eritrea Ethiopia “border conflict”. The US-engineered sanctions are a continuation of the 12 year long policy of appeasement and legal attrition of the EEBC’s decisions, were transparent in their motives.

They were orchestrated to give the regime in Ethiopia a win that it could not get in its US-backed bloody war of aggression and expansion, or through legal arbitration. The illegal, unfair and unjust sanctions should be seen in this context.

The desperate agenda led to equally desperate means and as the record below will show, the usage of manufactured facts, outright lies, and deliberate deceptions that mark the ugly 6-year long US-Ethiopia saga that used Somalia as a pretext.

The Monitoring Group said that there were “2000 Eritrean forces” fighting alongside the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006-that turned out to be a lie fabricated by Ethiopia.

The Monitoring Group said that Eritrea was the owner of a plane that made several trips to Mogadishu to deliver arms to insurgents there. That plane crashed in Uganda and it was owned by the United States.

The Monitoring Group accused Eritrea of sending MANPADS to Somalia and produced pictures with “painted on” markers to make its case. The Ethiopians said that they were taken from Al Shabbab. The pictures were provided by US intelligence, but the MG has yet to explain how the MANPADS it claims were in Al Shabbab’s hands, remain in Eritrea’s possession today.

The Monitoring Group accused Eritrea of attempting to bomb the African Union based on “evidence” provided to it by Ethiopia. It has yet to explain the many inconsistencies including why the Ethiopian Gemechew Alana, an Oromo, was presented as an “Eritrean General” in its report to the Security Council.

This paper seeks to highlight these unsubstantiated allegations against the State of Eritrea: