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Causes of the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict. By: Atnaf Segued. January 11, 2004 Ethiopia has been an independent nation since time in memorial. This independence has been maintained not by chance or miracle, but by the blood of its valiant sons and daughters. Ethiopia has fought more wars than any other nation against invaders and defended itself successfully. During all these years, the now so called Eritrea has been an integral part of Ethiopia except for some years when it was ceded to Italy by one of our Emperors during the scramble for Africa by the European colonialists. Therefore, it must be understood by friends and foes that these Eritreans are actually Tigreans by ethnicity and are Ethiopians by nationality. Why this Ethiopian Emperor ceded our littoral region to Italy is debatable. Whatever the reason, it is too much to expect from him not to have foreseen that this littoral region would be a problem child to Ethiopia, and a chronic and cancerous one. During the colonized stay with Italy, the Eritreans developed different culture and narrow nationalism and conceived the idea to be independent from the mother land. This I believe is one of the causes of the conflicts which I will further explain in the following paragraphs. Italy used Eritrea as a springboard and invaded Ethiopia briefly. After the defeat of Italy by the allied forces with the help of Ethiopian patriots, Eritrea was united with its mother land Ethiopia. But the Eritreans always complained of ethnic partiality by the central government. The partiality was not only to them as other ethnic groups were also subjected to this partiality. In fact, the Eritreans were favored by the central government. The Eritreans with the help and instigation of Ethiopia’s arch enemies that always weave and contrive to destabilize Ethiopia due to conflicts of interest over the Nile River started armed struggle for independence from Ethiopia using partiality as a pretext. There are also some European countries that never liked Ethiopia being the only independent country in Africa that has served as guiding star for other African countries to struggle and gain independence from them. That is why I believe that the UK is always contriving against Ethiopia for being instrumental for other African countries to struggle and dislodge them from Africa. That is the conflict of interest causing the British to destabilize and disintegrate Ethiopia using Eritrea as proxy. That I believe is why they are intent on using this sinister and conspiratorial EEBC ruling to hand over our parts of our mother land to their proxy Eritreans. It is also becoming crystal clear that they have been behind the screwed up EEBC ruling. Perhaps they have the sinister vision that if they can disintegrate Ethiopia, they can easily disintegrate the rest of Africa and colonize it back? They can never do it. We Africans must beware and guard against their sinister vision. They can never be trusted in anything. I cannot understand why the Canadian government is also orchestrating with the UK and the EEBC. When the Eritrean Liberation Front gained control over Eritrea with the help of Ethiopian revolutionaries that were struggling against the discredited military government in Ethiopia, they (EPLF) immediately deported thousands of civilian Ethiopians depriving them of all their belongings, imprisoned hundreds, and massacred hundreds of others. This barbaric act made Ethiopians furious and made them harbor grudge and feud against the Eritreans. The Ethiopian government did not retaliate at that time though the Ethiopian people wanted action. The Eritreans were then freely and illegally granted independence by the new Ethiopian government without the consent and support of the Ethiopian people. Millions of Eritreans remained in Ethiopia though they voted for independence and were now Eritrean nationals. Many were holding key government offices. Still many were conducting lucrative businesses just as Ethiopians. In fact, they were more favored by the government and were given sweeping advantage over Ethiopians to borrow from banks to expand their businesses. But the Eritreans were funneling millions of money to Eritrea and foreign banks. Ethiopia was being sapped by these parasites with the help of the government. Eritrean traders were allowed to enter Ethiopia through the Northern frontiers but the Eritreans prevented Ethiopians to do the same in Eritrea. Ethiopians complained to the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments but in vain. They were not listened. Eritreans took advantage over the Ethiopians but their government would not do anything to help create equality. This created dissent within the Ethiopian government officials. The dissenters or hard liners as the Eritreans like to call them gained upper hand and created equality in all commercial transactions. This rightful action made the Eritreans furious as they were freely and willingly given commercial and political hegemony over Ethiopia by PM Meles Zenawi, the present Ethiopian leader. This hegemony enabled the Eritreans to funnel millions of Ethiopian money to Eritrea and foreign banks. This is one of the reasons why some countries in the west are unhappy and contriving to hurt Ethiopia because no money is coming to their banks by their Eritrean friends. And it is this lack of hegemony over Ethiopia that motivated them to aggress Ethiopia thinking they could force Ethiopia with their so called military might. The Eritreans in Ethiopia funnel millions of money to Eritrea for the Eritrean war effort against Ethiopia in broad daylight. This made Ethiopians furious and demanded that the Eritreans be deported and many got deported. This also made our foes in the west furious as no money would be funneled to their banks. The Eritreans were asked to withdraw peacefully from the territories they occupied forcefully. They refused and had to be dislodged by force at great human and material lose. The UK and other foes who thought and wished the Eritreans would win and gain hegemony over Ethiopia were terribly unhappy and are now trying very hard to hurt Ethiopia by decimating the Ethiopians that are living in their rightful land and hand over this land to the Eritreans. They know this is impossible without dismantling Ethiopia. Giving away this land will create a domino effect all over Ethiopia and consequently all over Africa. This is the sinister vision of the English and their friends and their uninitiated proxies. They will never do it Ethiopia is united and will defend itself as always. Therefore, the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict is all about conflict of interest and hegemony orchestrated by our arch enemies over the Nile River and the English and their friends. It has nothing to do with the Ethiopian territories. The territories are used as pretext by the Eritreans and their western advisers to escape paying war reparations as aggressors. The only way to solve this impasse peacefully is to unite these brotherly peoples living in both sides of the Mereb River. The alternate way is another war if the Eritreans insist on having a pound of flesh from Ethiopia encouraged by the English and the Egyptians, our arch enemies over the Nile River. One way or the other, Eritrea will be united with Ethiopia as before. United we stand. Divided we fall. The forces of evil shall perish. The forces of good shall prevail. |