Eritrea Wire

Dear Compatriots at Home and Abroad,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My profound Congratulations on this auspicious Day of the 30th Anniversary of our Independence!

Let me also express my gratitude to those who have organized this event.

The significance and splendour of this momentous day radiates more with time; year-in and year-out. And beyond instilling immense jubilation and pride, it impels us to ponder on, and mull over, several indelible truths.

Eritrea’s inalienable legal and natural rights to independence and sovereignty were suppressed and trampled upon at the end of the Second World War. The Eritrean people refused to succumb to slavery, colonialism, deceit, the logic of force, and subordination. They waged a ferocious struggle with heroism and resilience for fifty years – from 1941 until 1991 – to assert the independence and sovereignty of their country through heavy sacrifices. This is the historical backdrop, the bedrock and statue, on which the significance of Independence Day rests.

The significance of this memorable day is also amplified by the resilience of the Eritrean people to confront and thwart myriad challenges, in the past thirty years after independence, so as to preserve and defend the national sovereignty that they had secured through precious sacrifices and justice. The fact is, the agendas of greed and domination are still prevalent without effective deterrence. As a result, the predicaments that we had to face in the past 30 years – just as it was the case in the preceding 50 years – were complex and multi-faceted.

One of these subterfuges was putative border disputes. Indisputable colonial boundaries were misconstrued to stoke conflict among neighbouring countries. The Hanish and Badme conflicts are conspicuous testimonies of these subversive schemes whose ultimate objective was to keep Eritrea hostage through the continuous fomenting and “managing” of crises. In the case of Badme in particular, the attempts to perpetuate illicit occupation of our sovereign territories, in spite of the final and binding Arbitral Award of 2002, were vivid manifestations of insidious hostility towards the country.

Instigation of conflicts under the pretext of border disputes was not enough and could not fully mollify the appetite of the agendas of domination. The fact is these subversive schemes could not dampen or vanquish the resistance of the Eritrean people. In the event, fabricated allegations of “terrorism” were concocted and harmful sanctions imposed on Eritrea in 2009 through heavy-handed pressure on the UN Security Council. In this additional gesture of hostility, albeit with a different facet, Eritrea’s principal detractors had no qualms to act as the prosecutor, witness, judge, and enforcer of punitive measures

Furthermore, economic and political tools, campaigns of defamation and demonization, were pursued without let-up by churning out cheap lies to reinforce and ramp up the hostile agenda.

But, the relentless schemes and hostilities woven to undermine our national independence and sovereignty foundered on the bedrock of our people’s steadfastness and resilience. In tandem with these trends, their principal surrogate, the TPLF clique, became increasingly ensnared in an intractable bind and was ultimately sidelined as its “Game was over”. Our patience, in the face of occupation of our sovereign territories for twenty years, had also paid off.

All these events pushed them to resort to desperate measures which culminated in the reckless attacks of November 4 last year. Eritrea was attacked by missiles. When the unprecedented and reckless attack was foiled, intensive and mendacious propaganda campaigns were, and continue to be, carried out for the past six months to wrongly indict Eritrea and deflect attention from the real culprit. This is an outrageous act of transparent deceit and bankruptcy.

In the circumstances, the significance of this memorable day of our 30th Independence Anniversary is measured by the extraordinary resistance and resilience of the Eritrean people; by their victory in protecting and preserving their sovereignty and independence. I thus extend – again – my congratulations to the Eritrean people and its heroic armed forces.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Protecting and preserving national independence and sovereignty was not confined to combating the security threats emanating from the forces of greed and domination. Nation building through effective developmental undertaking was also a mission pursued with equal priority. Although we may not have managed to achieve all-rounded progress, sector by sector, and in various fields and projects – with the pace envisioned and to the extent of our aspirations – the track record in our priority areas is satisfactory. We have no doubts that overall progress will be expedited in the period ahead on the basis of the programmes charted out and reviewed already. The experiences gleaned so far will also be crucial in this endeavour.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Another factor that has direct impact on our developmental programmes and undertakings is the COVD-19 pandemic. The commotion and staggering loss of life that the pandemic has inculcated globally in the past year cannot but constitute a “Wake-Up Call” for humanity. This has provoked and amplified serious questions on different economic concepts and indicators; developmental choices as well as social, ecological and health precepts. In Eritrea, it has enabled us to identify our shortcomings – both in our health policies and operational modalities – and to implement requisite adjustments at the outset. In this context, we shall not spare efforts to put the threat from the pandemic under full control in order to eliminate deleterious consequences to our safety and developmental objectives. This will require perseverance in our vigilance and the bolstering of our all-rounded research, preventive measures, and therapeutic capabilities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The prevailing turbulent global and regional setting underscores the imperative to strengthen our developmental endeavors above and beyond the efforts we exert to preserve and protect our national independence and sovereignty. In the event, I urge for more dynamic and vigorous initiatives for the effective implementation of our national security and developmental programmes on the basis of the revised broad road-map of mobilization and that is predicated on extensive popular participation. In particular, I urge for greater participation of our compatriots abroad in view of their greater potential and particular opportunities.

Let me express our pride and gratification in our Defense Forces who continue to play pivotal role both in our national security and developmental tasks by preserving the rich heritage of our liberation war and national civilized values and norms.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

Ethiopian refugees from the Tigray conflict gather at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on Feb. 19. Hussein Ery/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is planning to target Ethiopian and Eritrean officials with visa restrictions in an opening diplomatic salvo against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government over atrocities committed in the country’s Tigray conflict, U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter tell Foreign Policy.

The visa restrictions represent a potential turning point in U.S.-Ethiopian relations, which have steadily soured since a conflict erupted in the northern Tigray region of the country last November. The conflict has sparked widespread reports of atrocities, possible mass violence along ethnic lines, and war crimes committed against civilian populations by forces in Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea.

The Biden administration has grown increasingly frustrated with Abiy’s response to the crisis after months of high-level diplomatic talks. The conflict began in November of last year when Ethiopian federal forces launched an offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the country’s former ruling party, in response to a TPLF attack on an Ethiopian military base.

The Ethiopian government has dismissed criticism of its handling of the crisis and insisted soldiers who commit atrocities will be held to account. The United Nations has said that all sides in the conflict may have committed war crimes.

The visa restrictions are seen as a shot across the bow, signaling mounting U.S. frustrations with Abiy for his handling of the conflict and failure to address mounting international concerns over the ensuing humanitarian crisis. Officials and congressional aides familiar with the matter said the Biden administration plans to further ratchet up pressure on Abiy in other ways, including upholding a halt on U.S. security assistance funding to Ethiopia and targeting World Bank and International Monetary Fund programs in the country. Officials said there are ongoing discussions about possibly leveling sanctions against Ethiopian or Eritrean officials complicit in Tigray atrocities, but no final decisions have been made.

The United States has long viewed Ethiopia as a critical partner in East Africa, but the visa sanctions could be the first sign of a strategic pivot away from Addis Ababa, said Cameron Hudson, a former U.S. diplomat and intelligence official now at the Atlantic Council.

“This is a major strategic shift in the Horn of Africa, to go from an anchor state for U.S. interests to become a potential adversary to U.S. interests,” Hudson said. “That’s a strategic shift that we have not wanted to make, and that’s what recent U.S. diplomacy has been doing, to try and salvage something that is no longer salvageable.”

The conflict in Tigray has killed an estimated thousands of people and displaced some 1.7 million people across the region, sparking a humanitarian crisis that could have knock-on effects in fragile neighboring states such as Sudan. Tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan have spiked in recent months over a border dispute and a massive Ethiopian dam project on the Nile River, which both Sudan and Egypt say threatens their water supplies.

The expected U.S. announcement on visa restrictions comes ahead of pivotal elections in Ethiopia, set to be held on June 21 and seen as a major test of whether Abiy’s democratic reforms in the country will take root.

U.S. law prohibits publicly issuing personal information on travel visas, meaning any U.S. announcement likely won’t list the names of specific individuals targeted. Several experts speculated that the list could include a range of officials, from individual Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers to military field commanders to midlevel political figures in the country.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment, including questions on who will be targeted by the visa restrictions. The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During its first months in office, the Biden administration has held multiple high-level discussions with its Ethiopian counterparts, urging Abiy’s government to defuse the conflict, open access to international aid organizations to Tigray to address the humanitarian crisis, and remove Eritrean troops from the region. Biden dispatched a key Senate ally, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, to meet with Abiy in March. He later tapped a seasoned former U.S. and U.N. diplomat, Jeffrey Feltman, as his special envoy for the Horn of Africa. Those engagements have yet to yield results, however, and a growing chorus of U.S. officials and lawmakers have voiced frustration over what they see as Abiy’s failure to de-escalate the crisis.

On Friday, the Ethiopian government announced it convicted three soldiers of rape and one of killing a civilian, the first public statement that members of its military were found guilty of committing crimes in Tigray. Over two dozen more soldiers stand trial on charges of rape and killing civilians, as Reuters reported.

Regional experts and U.S. lawmakers say the Tigray conflict underscores broader tensions between ethnic groups in Ethiopia and could portend wider instability in East Africa’s most populous country. Feltman previously told Foreign Policy that if the conflict spirals into other parts of the country, it could make Syria’s civil war look like “child’s play” in comparison.

“[T]he atrocities and humanitarian suffering in Tigray is one of many ethnic and political crises challenging Ethiopia and the broader region,” Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a written statement. “The United States should continue to press the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments to end hostilities in the Tigray region.”

The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Tigray, a move that followed a CNN investigation revealing Eritrean troops disguised as Ethiopian military units blocking humanitarian aid deliveries to Tigray.

The resolution signals a hardening line in U.S. Congress, which controls U.S. diplomacy and foreign aid budgets and funding, toward Abiy’s government. Lawmakers are pressuring the Biden administration to act more quickly and forcefully in holding Ethiopian and Eritrean officials to account, including through sanctions.

“The escalation ladder needs to jump multiple rungs,” said one congressional aide, speaking on condition of anonymity. “What we need to do is, we need to move faster. People continue to die, rapes and other atrocities continue to happen, and there needs to be an acceleration at a much faster rate here.”

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online