Western Woman Tells It Like It Is On Eritrea and Ethiopia

Eritrean miners having a lunch break at Bisha plant

By Linda Lynn Harris

Eritrea was never a part of Ethiopia; however it was illegally federated with Ethiopia in 1952 by the super powers during the end of the colonial era in Africa. Eritrea gained its Independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of war in 1991 and referendum conducted in 1993. Since independence Ethiopia has claimed a land that belongs to Eritrea in 1998 and a border war broke out between the two Countries. Both Countries agreed to go to arbitration and signed what is called “the Algiers agreement" in Algeria. The agreement would implement the delimitation and demarcation of the border through the establishment of the EEBC (the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission) composed of lawyers selected by Ethiopia, Eritrea and one by the United Nations. The most important aspect of this agreement was that the decision of the EEBC would be final and binding. This agreement was guaranteed by the United States, United Kingdom, United Nations, and African Union among others. After the EEBC ruled in Eritrea's favor, Ethiopia in defiance of international law refused to accept the ruling and continues to occupy Eritrean sovereign land until today, 13 years after the decision of EEBC.

Since then Ethiopia has made several military attacks in different parts of Eritrea and Eritrea has retaliated. In response to the statement made on this page by a contributor to Seeking Alpha “Eritrea is now considered a state sponsor of terrorism" I want to clarify that there has not been any evidence of this statement or accusation. The monitoring Group which is mandated to investigate this issue has reported in their last report, the fact that after 5 years of investigation there is no information linking Eritrea to Terrorist in Somalia, in fact they informed Eritrea is a marginal player in Somalia.

The Sanctions were imposed in 2009, with the help of the United States specifically Ambassador Susan Rice (previous Per. Rep.of the U.S. to the United Nations). Ethiopia was able to have Sanctions imposed on Eritrea under the pretext of support for terrorism but the real reasons for sanctions was to deviate from the decision of the EEBC. This conspired action by Ethiopia and the U.S. has clearly been revealed on Wikileaks as well as the recently leaked communication from the Ethiopian Government to their diplomatic staff in different parts of the world.

Today Eritrea is the only truly peaceful Country in the horn of Africa and one of the few peaceful Countries in the region in general. It has a truly unified and harmonious society that identifies themselves as non-other than Eritreans despite the composition of the society which is 50% Christians and 50% Muslims and 9 different ethnicity.

The border war with Ethiopia has negatively impacted investments in Eritrea and hindered economic growth. However, while it has a long way to go in the area of economic development, Eritrea is a unique country that enjoys an independent economic policy, with investment and trade at the center of it's economic development plan.

Bisha mining has been a very successful project in Eritrea. Given Eritrea's high levels of natural resources, peaceful environment, its economic policy, and government's commitment to a corruption free environment, it has enormous potential in attracting large number of investors.

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