Now Eritrea demands justice — weeks after restoring ties with Ethiopia, Somalia

By The Star Staff Writer

MOGADISHU – Eritrea was undeniably on a roll in recent weeks.

Its arch foe, Ethiopia, is ready to return Badame town, which it occupied for years. Somalia, which in the past accused it of supporting terrorists, is now calling on the UN to lift its sanctions on Asmara to boost regional economic integration. A new, reform-minded prime minister took the helm of Ethiopia, ending the rule of the minority Tigrayan ethnic group that made isolating Eritrea the core of its strategy.

Eritrea’s old enemies are, in a word, falling over themselves to please it. Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed both flew to Asmara and agreed to restore relationship with their erstwhile archenemy.

But Eritrea, which is being ruled by the same man who won it the independence in 1993, is far from satisfied.

On Monday, the Red sea nation demanded justice from the international community, saying the nearly decade-old UN embargo that isolated it and hurt its economy was illegal.

“The deplorable sanctions were not based on fact and law,” said the Eritrean ministry of information in a statement entitled “The Question is not “Removal of Sanctions”: It is why sanctions in first place?”

It went on: “They were maliciously concocted by a small clique in Washington which was working in cahoots with the TPLF regime in order to harass and corner the people and Government of Eritrea.”

The carefully-worded statement avoided mentioning Ethiopia’s current government, pinning the blame on the big enchiladas of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, a wing of the ruling coalition party, that represents the minority Tigray ethnic group and dominated Ethiopia’s security, politics and economy for the last 28 years.

“Wrongs perpetrated against Eritrea must be compensated with justice,” said the statement. “Justice must indeed be done. It is too late now to look for lame excuses!”

Why – one may wonder — would Eritrea want to reopen old wounds, especially when everything seems to be going in its favor?

“Sanctions were wrong to begin with. Eritrea was right all along. The international community, specifically the West, has never listened attentively to the Eritrean side of the story,” said Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, an analyst with the Southlink Consultants, a Nairobi-based consulting firm.

Abdisamad said Ethiopia, under late dictator Meles Zenawi, “committed far worse human rights abuses than Eritrea,” adding that “Addis Ababa invaded Somalia and occupied it. It committed war crimes against Somalis and even against Ethiopians in Ethiopia, but the West didn’t impose any sanctions on it. Instead, the West rewarded Ethiopia’s then autocratic administration with weapons.”

Abdisamad said Ethiopia was successful in selling its propaganda to the world that “Eritrea is a rogue state and that it must be punished.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, “the world uncritically accepted the Ethiopian story — hook, line and sinker. Eritrea was a soft target.”

Asmara is not only angry with Ethiopia’s past leaders, but also angry at the United States. And it seems that its beef with Washington is justified – or at least believable, according to evidence now unveiled by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks that details how Ethiopia and the US coordinated to isolate Asmara.

In a rare meeting between Getachew Assefa, the head of the Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service, or NISS, and then US Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto – the current envoy to Somalia – on June 8, 2009, Assefa told Yamamoto that Washington can “best help” Ethiopia “ by supporting “the IGAD and African Union which are seeking to sanction Eritrea, implement a no fly zone, and close ports used by extremist elements.”

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, was for years — and still is — a tool that Ethiopia used to further its regional and international interests, especially in Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan.

In a cable entitled “Ethiopia’s plans and intentions for Eritrea…”, Ambassador Yamamoto wrote on April 24, 2007 that he “assured Meles that we recognize Eritrea’s unhelpful activities” in the region, noting that Eritrea “hosts 30 different opposition groups,” which “underscores (Eritrean President) Isaias’ potential to add to regional instability.”

“Historically,” Ambassador Yamamoto wrote in the same cable, “Meles’ approach was to carefully keep Isaias in a “box” by strengthening Ethiopian forces along the border, neutralizing Eritrea’s influence in Somalia, and increasing Eritrea’s isolation in the international community.”

If you pore over the US cables written during the period that preceded the imposition of the sanctions against Eritrea, you can see how the Ethiopian government deftly exploited the regional bloc IGAD, the African Union and the US to wreak maximum vengeance against Eritrea.

In a summit in Sirte, Libya, on July 3, 2009, the AU’s Peace and Security Council called on the United Nations Security Council “to impose sanctions against all those foreign actors, both within and outside the region, especially Eritrea, providing support to the armed groups engaged in destabilization activities in Somalia, attacks against the TFG, the civilian population and AMISOM, as well as against the Somali individuals and entities working towards undermining the peace and reconciliation efforts and regional stability.”

Fourteen days later, on August 17, 2009, the Ethiopian Charge d’Affairs, Ambassador Fesseha Tessema, told the US envoy to the UN Susan Rice that “he was encouraged by the African Union’s recent call to sanction Eritrea for its support of armed opposition groups in Somalia and asked for U.S. “help and encouragement” in the creation of a new UNSC (UN security council) sanctions resolution.”

Susan “emphasized,” according to the same document, that “any new Sanctions resolution should be an Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative led by Uganda in the Security Council.”

Also, Ambassador “Rice emphasized that the U.S. strongly supports a resolution addresses the issue of Eritrea invading Djibouti,” said Rice on September 29, 2009, in a cable entitled “Uganda to consider Eritrea Sanctions Resolution which covers Djibouti…”

“It is a matter of principle that the U.S. cannot ignore, which puts UNSC credibility at stake, and would make Eritrea feel it can continue to invade neighbors with impunity, she said”, according to the cable. 

Rice went further, telling Yoweri Museveni of Uganda that “past experience suggested that the UNSC (UN security council) would not block a resolution led by African members and supported by the African Union. She shared the U.S. read that, if Burkina Faso and Uganda co-sponsor this resolution, the British will support, the French will “keep their heads down” and will not block.”

Finally, on Dec. 23, 2009, the UN Security council adopted resolution 1907 (2009) that slapped the sanctions on Eritrea.

“…The Security Council today imposed an arms embargo on that country (Eritrea), in addition to travel restrictions on and a freeze on the assets of its political and military leaders,” said the council, noting that “Eritrea had provided support to armed groups undermining peace and reconciliation in Somalia and that it had not withdrawn its forces following clashes with Djibouti in June 2008.”

Now, Eritrea feels vindicated.

“One does not need a magic wand to know who has sponsored terrorism in our region and beyond,” said the Eritrean statement, referring perhaps to both Addis Ababa and Washington. “Similarly, it is not difficult to know who has been obstructing regional stability.  These are not intricate secrets hard to crack or decipher.  Especially these days when the truth is out” in the open.

Nine year after those anti-Eritrean efforts led to the sanctions, a new pro-Asmara movement  calling for its lifting is gaining momentum. Apart from Djibouti, whose conflict with Asmara is yet to be resolved, regional leaders are happy to bring Eritreans back to the fold. Those leaders include Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo and Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the UN’s secretary-general, António Guterres, who said in a recent visit to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, that the sanctions on Eritrea could be “obsolete” in light of the diplomatic thaw between Addis Ababa and Asmara.

Still, Eritrea feels unsatisfied.

“Notwithstanding these positive statements, certain forces that harbor ill-will to the people of Eritrea are apparently dismayed by developments that bode well for regional peace and development,” said the Eritrean statement. “This is not surprising at all.”

Abdisamad, the analyst, isn’t surprised either.

He said Eritrea’s aim of revisiting the past is “to sort of bring the countries that championed the sanctions to their senses, and say to them: ‘You were wrong when you bought the Ethiopian line. Now, fess up and don’t repeat your disastrous mistake.”