http://eritreanamerican.org/node/79
Eritrea- An Anchor for Peace in the Horn of Africa
September 14, 2016
Eritrea: An Anchor for Peace in the Horn of Africa
Eritrea is a new developing nation in the Horn of Africa region; but,
a regional threat it is not. Far from it and quite to the contrary; in
a region ravaged by war and ethnic tensions, Eritrea is an anchor of
peace. It has a secular government with a progressive vision that is
determined to save the region from becoming a “social basket case”.
Despite the 15-year long occupation of its sovereign territory by
Ethiopia, a neighbor twenty times its size, which enjoys an
unprecedented diplomatic, political and military support from such
major powers as the United States, and despite the sanctions that have
been imposed on it based on fabrications, and a well choreographed
vilification campaign, Eritrea has managed to stay a sanctuary where
its people live in one accord while pursuing policies that promote
national harmony, political democracy, economic development, social
justice, cultural revival and regional cooperation.
Depicting Eritrea as a regional threat can only come from the twisted
minds of Ethiopia’s lobbyists and their enablers in Washington in a
futile attempt to protect their client in Addis Ababa from the
condemnation of world opinion it deserves. The officials of the
minority regime in Addis Ababa are experts at using everyone and
everything to implement their agenda of demonizing Eritrea, while
diverting attention away from Ethiopia’s domestic conflicts.
Eritrea’s population is equally split between Christians and Moslems
from nine ethnic groups. This is a recipe for fragility in many places
in the region, but not for Eritrea which has embraced its diversity as
a blessing. Surrounded by nations that are ablaze because of ethnic
and religious divisions, from a minority regime orchestrated genocide
in Ethiopia, to clan-fueled chaos in Somalia, to religious-based war
in Yemen and ethnic conflict in South Sudan, Eritrea with its strong
dedication to national harmony, commitment to equitable development,
and zero tolerance for corruption has emerged as a stable model of
hope for the region and if it is allowed to live in peace it would
write the first chapter of success story in Africa.
It has to be noted that young Eritrea was the first target of Bin
Laden’s Al-Qaeda when it was barely 3 years old as a sovereign
country. Sensing the threat of international terrorism and religious
extremism, Eritrea had then shown the world how it should be handled.
Sadly, no one, particularly those in the US administration, took
Eritrea’s warning seriously and here we are with the scourge of
terrorism haunting our world.
Similarly Eritrea had warned how Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia would
plunge the region into chaos. Again, no one paid attention and today
the region is being threatened by the menace of Al-Shabab. The irony
of it all is that those who were responsible for the creation and
resurgence of Al-Shabab in the same vein accused Eritrea of supporting
Al-Shabab and orchestrated to impose sanctions on it. As if this was
not enough, Western powers led by the US, sponsored a discredited
Commission of Inquiry under the auspices of the UN Human Rights
Council in order to accuse Eritrea through unfounded and exaggerated
accusations of human rights violations. All these were designed to
punish Eritrea because it had the audacity to warn the powers that be
that their wrong policies are a threat to peace and stability in the
region.
Since its independence a quarter century ago, and despite the
hostilities it is facing, Eritrea has managed to cut illiteracy rate
from over 80%, down to under 15% and access to education in Eritrea is
now over 90% up from about 30%. Annual production of vegetables in
some regions has grown four-fold. Water conservation by way of
reservoirs and dams has increased twelve-fold and the percentage of
Eritrean citizens that have access to clean drinking water is the
highest in the entire region. Furthermore, Eritrea is one of four
countries in Sub-Saharan African countries that met the UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) in time. In this effort Eritrea had managed
to successfully to cut infant and maternal mortality rate. Not only
that, at this time every Eritrean has access to some health facility
within 5 km of where he/she lives, and malaria, one of the chronic
disease of tropical Africa, is near elimination. The total length of
road networks in the country has also grown by 300%.
Without a doubt Eritrea's challenges are many, but as in 1991, when it
got its independence through sheer determination, Eritrea will again
surprise everyone by successfully liberating itself from dependency.
Indeed, far from being a regional threat, Eritrea is demonstrating
that it can be a good partner for peace for all those powers that are
working to bring peace to the Horn of Africa. As a secular government
Eritrea is a reliable partner for peace and the European Union,
Finland, Germany and Norway are working alongside Eritrea towards this
end and many others are showing interest. How about the United States?
The US has repeatedly allowed itself to be used in this game of
victimizing Eritrea in an attempt to prop up successive dictatorial
minority regimes and keep a tattered empire, Ethiopia, together.
Washington must learn from the errors of such misguided policies of
the past that seem to benefit neither the US nor the region.
In addition, rewarding a regime that is conducting mass massacres,
genocide and other crimes against humanity against its own people and
is brutally suppressing the peaceful protests in the Amhara and Oromo
regions of Ethiopia, with seats on the UN Security Council and UN
Human Rights Council does not show concern for justice or any of the
other values Washington says it fights to protect. It is about time
the US government realizes this and works towards a bilateral
cooperation with Eritrea, for Eritrea is a safe anchor of peace for
the Horn of Africa that one can count on as a reliable partner.
As Americans of Eritrean origin we have a vested interest in seeing
peace, stability and security returned to the Horn of Africa region.
However, demonizing the only nation that is serving as an anchor for
peace in the region in an attempt to protect the real regional threat,
Ethiopia, does not help maintain security in this troubled region.
Therefore, we strongly believe that it is high time that the USA
re-strengthen its relationship with the State of Eritrea so that peace
can and must prevail in the region and, by extension, the USA’s
national security and interests could be respectively maintained and
advanced.
Organization of Eritrean Americans (OEA)
***In PDF format
http://eritreanamerican.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/OEA-Anchor-of-Peace%2009-14-16.pdf
Received on Wed Sep 14 2016 - 07:12:39 EDT