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Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin at the Forum for Supporters of CPA
Thirty-three countries and organizations, representing the witnesses and other international supporters of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) met in Washington on 23 June 2009.The meeting was hosted by the US Government and was attended by the two parties to the Agreement. Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin participated at the meeting and made a statement.
In his statement, Seyoum expressed his appreciation to the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, for taking the lead in organizing the Forum. He also thanked Senator John F. Kerry for raising the voices of millions of Sudanese children born in the ashes of war and who want to have the opportunity to build their future in peace and prosperity. Minister Seyoum said that the successful implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement is of critical importance, not only for peace and stability in the Sudan, but also for the whole sub-region and beyond. He stressed that Sudan is not just a Horn of Africa country; but also part of Central Africa, a country which shares borders with nine countries. Obviously, a lost opportunity for peace in Sudan would have enormous implications for millions and millions of Africans and, for the international Community as well according to Minister Seyoum.
Seyoum said that a lot of time has been wasted since the signing of the CPA in January 2005. More or less, two-thirds of the time allotted for the implementation of the CPA has been exhausted now while it is about a third of the tasks planned to be carried out during the interim period that have been accomplished. The nationwide elections now rescheduled for February 2010 have to be carried out, and the referenda on Abyei and on self-determination of South Sudan should take place before the end of the interim period, according to Seyoum.
Minister Seyoum also emphasized that there is no way the CPA can be effectively implemented during the short remaining period unless there is far more enhanced readiness on the part of both parties to work together to ensure that the implementation of the CPA is speeded up. No doubt, there can be no progress in this regard unless the two parties take the lead.
But Ato Seyoum noted that third parties have also a role since the CPA is the result of the concerted efforts of the international community, particularly of those who were involved in a very pro-active manner in the process of negotiation leading to the signing of the Agreement. He stressed the international community’s heavy responsibility to help the two parties develop the capacity to work together in harmony so that they would be able to address the common challenges they are facing.
Ato Seyoum also pointed out that, despite its importance, it was not necessary to neglect the CPA in order to pursue matters relating to Darfur. He called on all parties to draw the necessary lessons from this and to redouble their efforts to help the parties in the remaining period until the Referendum.
Seyoum further said that the whole rationale in all efforts is to make sure that everything is done to reduce the risks associated with the Referendum and its outcome, and to facilitate a civilized handling of the situations no matter what the outcome.
Seyoum stressed the need for avoiding a catastrophe in the Horn of Africa and Central Africa and beyond by ensuring a peaceful and effective implementation of the CPA. He also emphasized that the post-Referendum situation needs to be handled with wisdom and on the basis of prudent anticipation, well in advance, of potential problems that might, unless addressed in time, lead to cascading series of crises that once touched off, would be impossible to arrest.
At the end of the meeting, the participants renewed their commitment to the CPA and urged the parties to urgently address outstanding implementation issues. The forum participants further reaffirmed their fundamental support to lasting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Sudan through full implementation of the CPA.
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FM Seyoum’s visit to Germany
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ato Seyoum Mesfin, paid a three day official working visit to Germany from June 23-25, 2009. During his visit, the Minister met his German counterpart Dr. Frank Walter Steinmeier, the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mrs. Heidemarie Wieczoreck-Zuel, other German Government officials and parliamentarians. On the occasion the two sides raised issues of bilateral concern and the Horn of Africa.
During the discussions Seyoum expressed his satisfaction that the Ethio- German longstanding and historic relations are mature, intensive and very friendly.
Minister Seyoum remarked that the centerpiece of bilateral relations between Germany and Ethiopia is economic cooperation; and he singled out the Engineering Capacity Building Programme-ECBP as very crucial, which he said has a tremendous impact on system building.
During his discussions with German government officials Minster Seyoum expressed his country's interest in a stronger presence of German companies in Ethiopia and requested the officials to assist in this by encouraging German investors to invest in Ethiopia.
The Minister
briefed German government officials about the situation in Somalia,
the Sudan as well as issues related with Ethiopia & Eritrea. He also
gave further clarifications following questions forwarded by the German side about Ethiopia's legislations on Civil Society, terrorism, electoral process and other internal matters of interest.
The Germans recognized the constructive role that Ethiopia is playing in the Horn of Africa to ensure peace and stability. The two sides reiterated their intention to continue their collaboration in the efforts to find a lasting solution to the main regional crises, especially those concerning the Horn of Africa.
In the mean time, Ato Seyoum also held discussions with five German companies who are interested to invest in Ethiopia in geothermal and Solar Energy, leather and flower sectors. The Minister briefed the representatives of the companies on the investment opportunities in Ethiopia, the priority areas and incentive packages and gave further clarifications following the questions forwarded by the representatives of the companies.
During the visit, the Minister also took part and delivered a speech at the annual International Berlin Gathering which attracts high profile personalities.
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Accentuating the Positive: Strengthening the Eastern Nile Cooperation
As the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program Team-ENSAPT-held its 25th Meeting from 22 to 24 June 2009 in Addis Ababa, it provides the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements of the Nile Basin Initiative, which increasingly faces skeptical voices from some corners. Nine of the ten Nile River Riparian Countries—Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda have established a Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in 1999. Eritrea is still an observer in this process. The NBI has two Subsidiary Actions Programs and a Shared Vision Program. The Subsidiary Actions Programs (or SAPs) of the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program (ENSAP) comprises of Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sudan. The Equatorial Lakes Regions comprises of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Both have their Councils of Ministers as the decision making organ as well as technical advisor teams. ENSAPT is the technical arm of ESAP advising the Eastern Nile Council of Ministers ENCOM and serves as the governing board of ENTRO—the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office—the Regional Office that is administering the activities of ENSAP. The SAPs and Shared Vision Program have made significant strides in drawing the Nile Basin Countries closer towards more robust economic cooperation and enhancing their mutual understanding. The Shared Vision Program has enabled a wider involvement of all stakeholders in matters affecting cooperation on the Nile. This has enabled public discussion between different sectors of the society in and among Nile Basin countries. As a result, the level of awareness and sense of ownership on Nile River matters has been gradually improving.
Both SAPs have transformed the trans-boundary nature of the Nile River into a unique opportunity for cooperative water resources development and management. In these endeavours the World Bank and the committed group of Development Partners it leads have been institutionalized as the Nile Basin Trust Fund (NBTF) and they have so far been critical in providing needed expertise and funding towards the implementation of the different projects under NBI. The 25th Meeting of ENSAP is a good example of this multi-sector and multi-actors collaboration. The three countries of Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sudan met with the Executive Director and staff of ENTRO and have reviewed the work being done under ENSAP. Their consensual and positive decisions have also given much needed impetus for further collaboration on different First Joint Multipurpose Programs. The concrete steps they have taken have helped push the identification of investment projects that can bring mutual benefits such as low cost hydropower, irrigation, flood and drought mitigation, sediment management as well as environmental optimal uses of water. From the onset of the launching phase of the Joint Multipurpose Program, the ENCOM decisions have given the necessary guidance and have been indispensable in cementing cooperation in this regional development endeavors. ENSAPT decisions and discussions on various administrative matters as well as the recruitment of additional staff have not only significantly bolstered the Regional Office; but it also shows the stage of advanced regional collaboration among the three countries. Given the progress made in the two-Phase Joint Multipurpose Program project identification, the ground is set for a more structured and enhanced economic and political collaboration among the three countries.
In light of similar progress among the Equatorial Lakes Region Subsidiary Action Program and progress in the Institutional Strengthening Program of the whole of the NBI, the move towards a more lasting basin-wide cooperation is increasingly becoming a reality—disproving all predictions otherwise. The NBI Secretariat has shown similar increase in staff numbers thereby developing the capacity to undertake complicated projects. With the effective implementation of the Institutional Strengthening Program, the NBI is set to enhance its structure and policy tools to ensure further cooperation on the Nile River based on accepted principles of international law and win-win approach. In time, the Nile River Basin would only be used as a model for the fruitful and incremental building of a collaborative arrangement, which shall be crowned with the signing of the Cooperative Framework Agreement by all riparian States. In the end, the hope is that even the most ardent pessimists would join in the vision of NBI to “achieve sustainable socioeconomic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources.”
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Human Rights Watch Executive Director Visits Ethiopia
The Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Mr. Kennett Roth, and his colleague Ms. Leslie Lefkow, Special Initiatives Researcher of the African Division, visited Ethiopia and met with Dr. Tekeda Alemu, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, and other officials of the Ministry. The visit by Human Rights Watch was intended to explore ways in which the organization and Ethiopia could establish working relations without necessarily agreeing on positions taken on the respective assessments made on the situation of human rights in Ethiopia. On the Government side, the officials explained that Ethiopia does not hold a position that it should be immune to criticism by external actors like Human Rights Watch but that they be based on objective facts and arrived at using methodology that is credible. The Human Rights Watch also used the occasion to present cases that it considers do not comply with Ethiopia’s international human rights obligations. It has also defended its approach in producing the reports and assured the Government that it would take onboard the position of the Government before finalizing and publicizing its reports.
The visit has helped the two sides reach an understanding on the respective positions on what has been a very acrimonious and difficult relationship. The common understanding is that this relationship could be improved step by step through building confidence in the respective approaches. It would be recalled that Ethiopia has at different occasions been forced to respond in detail to the reports by Human Rights Watch. It is Ethiopia’s hope that prior consultation and gradual development of working relations might improve the situation.
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On Somalia
This week the security situation in Somalia showed a sharp deterioration after successive and heavy attacks launched by the combined forces of Al-Shabab/Hizbul Islam/ foreign Mujahidin coalition of extremists who gained control of much of Karan and Sinai districts in North Mogadishu. These districts are the heartland of the Abgal Sub-clan of Hawiye where the president is also from.
Prior to these intensive attacks in the capital, the TFG had lost some soldiers and weapons to Al-Shabab in a district called Galgalato. It also lost its Deputy Police commissioner Gen. Ali Said in the fighting in the capital. The National Security Minister, other security officials as well as traditional elders numbering around 100 in total lost their lives in Beledweyne as a result of Shabab's terrorist car bomb attack. An MP, Eng. Addow was captured in the battle of North Mogadishu and was literally slaughtered by Al Shabab leaving its body on the street to rot for two days.
It was following such multiple moves by Al-Shabab with impunity that the parliament, the Council of Ministers and the President called on the international community and the neighboring countries in particular to come to render support to the TFG.
The President of the TFG has also declared a state of emergency this week following the danger posed by Al-Shabab/Hizbul Islam coalition with the full participation of foreign Mujahidins who no more see an advantage in hiding themselves and their presence. Neither did the Al-Shabab/Hizbul Islam leadership deny the participation of foreign extremists in the fighting. It was equally interesting that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has challenged the international community saying now and then that he will bring in more foreign fighters. The speaker of the parliament, Sheikh Aden Madobe has also announced that a retired Pakistani General is commanding the battle from the Bakara market in Mogadishu.
Kenyan Security and Defense officials have also attested that the Al Mujahidin in Somalia is led by a Kenyan known as Saleh Nebhan with his deputy Abu Mansur Al-Ameriki, a US citizen. They are commanding more than 180 battle-hardened Al Qaida trained fighters from Kenya, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Europe, America and Asia who are actively engaged in fighting in different regions of Somalia and launching terrorist attacks against the TFG, AMISOM and innocent civilians.
It is such a situation that forced the TFG to call for help from the international community. As Al-Shabab repeatedly makes its objective clear, the international community should move practically to support the TFG and punish those spoilers sponsoring terrorist activities in Somalia.
Nevertheless, the international community seems to have settled for watching a Taliban of Africa emerge in the Horn with the support of a rogue Eritrean government and its backers trying to create a formidable force of destruction and destabilization. It seems that the international community is missing every opportunity to help Somalia.
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Eritrea's contempt for International law
Eritrea’s leaders like to refer to their country affectionately as the youngest nation in Africa. Whatever they think that reference represents in fact, one thing is certain. Eritrea’s precocious talent for destruction and violence has grown to become its distinct characteristic and all too often it makes a point to flaunt it in wholly unwholesome ways. No sooner was Eritrea independent than it got at loggerheads with literally everyone of its neighbors. Eritrea’s leaders’ contempt for principles governing inter-state relations—and all that the civilized world upholds to be sacrosanct—has been almost visceral. All along the government of Eritrea has never made its contempt for international law a secret. It rather has an established habit of justifying why it should not respect international law and norms governing inter-state relations.
Eritrea, we were told, is unique and none of the rules that apply to ordinary states should apply to it. And if the behaviors of countries and international organizations do not fall in line with the thinking in Asmara, they are roundly dismissed as irrelevant. There is hardly anyone that has been spared from Eritrea’s leaders’ offensive tirades. The UN, the AU, IGAD all have been vilified time and again for not agreeing with Asmara's line which is frequently at odds with the rest of the civilized world. Western countries in general—and the US in particular—have also been a subject of consistent derision and attack. Eritrea’s leaders’ penchant for belligerency can be matched only by their paranoid world view. The entire world is out to get them, with the US administration leading the charge through—as it were—neighboring Ethiopia. Hearing President Isaias blame the CIA ad nauseaum for everything that goes wrong in Eritrea, one could not help wondering if they really think the spy agency has no other business to take care of than concocting, day in and day out, all kinds of plots against tiny and impoverished Eritrea. The list of enemies does only grow heftier by the day. Any domestic challenge to his dictatorial hold on power, no matter in what form it comes, has the fingerprints of the CIA all over it. It is not unusual to hear President Isaias claim that those tens of thousands of refugees, who risk it all to escape from his brutal rule, are being induced by the CIA to flee Eritrea. It should be recalled that to date over 30,000 mostly young Eritreans have managed to cross over to Ethiopia against horrifying odds. Of course, to this regime, these young men and women who flee from its clutches are just spineless traitors working in cahoots with American politicians.
Obviously the Eritrean Government does not show any sign of willingness to lighten the burden it has imposed on its own people or to listen to rational voices from outside the country. Eritrea is characterized by the non-existence of State institutions, the absence of a constitution and electoral politics, the complete ban on any kind of freedom of expression and lack of freedom of religion. A glance at the regime in Asmara, one can easily come up with a laundry list of all the defining features of text book dictatorship. Of course, the primary victims of all these are the people of Eritrea.
More troubling still, however, Eritrea’s leaders have made it their business to export violence beyond borders. The peoples of the Horn of Africa have for a long time now been suffering the consequences of the destabilizing actions of the Eritrean Government. Almost all of Eritrea`s neighbors have been dragged in to conflict imposed on them by the dangerous adventurism of the Eritrean Government. Its continued support for extremists in Somalia in their war against peace and stability is just part of this pattern of uncalled for belligerency.
Unfortunately the regime in Asmara has faced little or nothing by way of criticism much less severe action as a consequence of its heinous crimes. The international community, particularly the UN Security Council, has been too lenient in its handling of the Eritrean regime so far and this inaction has contributed significantly to the prolonging of the suffering of the people of the Horn. Now that Eritrea’s involvement and support for terrorists in Somalia has been proven beyond any doubt, this appears about to change. It remains to be seen if the UNSC is to take all that it takes to rein Eritrea in. In an apparent about-face, Eritrea is experimenting with a sudden change of tone in an attempt to avoid the sanctions of international legality that IGAD and the AU have called on the UNSC to take. These are African organizations that are very close to the scene of Eritrea's destructive role in the region. Their recommendation to the UNSC to impose sanctions on Eritrea obviously came as an action of last resort as they have unsuccessfully tried for a long time to convince President Isaias to embrace international legality and dialogue rather than war and destruction.
The way President Isaias does business with regard to his government’s relations with the external world can sometimes all too unexpectedly seem to take a sharp turn for the better in very dramatic ways. While keeping the people of Eritrea under severe oppression and continuing to destabilize the Horn of Africa, the Eritrean Government appears to be entertaining the hope that it can trick the international community into taking Eritrea seriously as a normal state. This is most certainly induced by its recent desperation to ward off a possible sanction by the UNSC for its open support to terrorists in Somalia. The recent diplomatic chicanery appears to indicate that Eritrea’s leaders have finally felt they might have some use for the diplomatic niceties they have always disdained with relish. To the extent that the regime in Asmara gives diplomacy a chance, it is most certainly for short term goals bereft of any trace of principle. This is what they appear to be up to with those strenuous efforts they are making to display a semblance of civility these past few days.
But the Eritrean Government should understand that putting up a show aimed at hoodwinking the international community is not going to work. The international community should not fall for such cheap gimmicks either. What it needs to do in order to become a constructive member of the international community is first to take a hard look at itself and take the simple decision to dissociate itself from terrorism and destabilizing its neighbors as well as stop repressing its own people. Despite the recent about-face, though, even the nicest of overtures that Eritrea’s leaders have managed to make are laced with unmistakable signs of deep-seated arrogance symptomatic of incorrigible behavior. As the old adage has it, old habits die hard.
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