Victimizing Eritrea, the US does it Again!
The latest US manifestation of its disregard to the rule of law was
personified by the US Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Susan Rice, pushing yet
another illegal and unjust UN sanction resolution against Eritrea for no
justifiable reason. The sad thing is that it remains mind boggling on
how a Super Power finds it amusing to do harm to a small and principled
country. The result of such sanction action would harm first and
foremost the hard working people of Eritrea regardless of what the
motives behind it may have been. It is even sadder that the UNSC cowed
in to this naked and blatant US aggression against the people and
government of a UN member state!
Putting aside the entire mambo jumbo that Dr. Susan Rice felt
appropriate to gleefully place on the so called African initiative
resolution, let's just look at the main essence of the alleged "Causes"
for the need of the ill-advised and ill-conceived sanction resolutions:
1) Eritrea's "Continued support" of the Al Shabab of Somalia. Of
course, this is an old and tired lie that neither the US nor its
shameful messengers could prove otherwise. In fact, in many occasions,
Al Shabab has gone out of its way bragging of its intention to "Bomb
Asmara". Why Asmara would then want to support such an evil minded
group is beyond comprehension!
2) Eritrea's role of destabilizing the countries in the region.
Again, it is simply a regurgitated story concocted by Ethiopia and
swallowed by the US, but of course with no credible proof either. As a
matter of fact, it is Ethiopia that has openly announced of its
intention to "Regime change" in Eritrea by supporting a bunch of
opportunistic losers whose only interest is to usurp political power by
the military aid of the sworn enemy of the Eritrean people. Moreover,
the US is perfectly in bed with the Ethiopian regime that has refused to
vacate sovereign Eritrean territories awarded to Eritrea by the
international commission, which was mandated to demarcate the Ethio
Eritrea border under the 2000 Algiers Agreement in which the US is one
of the signatories as a witness and guarantor.
3) The lack of progress of solving the border issue between
Djibouti and Eritrea. I don't know how on earth the US could justify
being concerned about that issue any more than the people and government
of Eritrea. But, the US knows perfectly well that the government of
Qatar has been working to help solve the problem with the agreement of
both the governments of Djibouti and Eritrea. So if the US feels there
was a lack of progress on the border issue, then the reasonable thing to
do would have been to consult with the mediators or facilitator instead
of making it a convenient ploy for the imposition of sanction. Why is
the need for expedited solution of the border issue with Djibouti, which
is 3 years old, more important than the 12 year old border issue with
Ethiopia?
4) And here is a conundrum of the US and Ethiopia's desperate
moves: the alleged Eritrean plan to bomb the AU meetings in Addis Ababa
that convened at the beginning of the year. Let alone for Eritrea to
"Help plan" such an evil act, Eritrea had nothing to do with such
bombings. In fact, as publicized by the Wikileaks, it was even
suggested by Ms. Vicki Huddleston, the then US Emissary to Ethiopia,
that the Ethiopian security forces may had planned and executed such
dirty and cowardly tricks to blemish its opponents and Eritrea.
So, why does the US keep on repeating all the lies to place Eritrea in
the worst possible limelight? Doesn't the US ever learn that demonizing
Eritrea and its leadership would never achieve whatever goal it is
seeking to achieve! It only makes the US look silly in front of the
whole wide world. After decades of attempting to block the Eritrean
people's right for independence, one would have thought, by now, that
the US would finally play a constructive role in the region for a
change, if not for moral high ground, to correct its tried and failed
policies of the Horn region in general and Eritrea in particular.
Finally, although it did not pass under stiff opposition by some members
of the United Nations Security Council, the minority regime in Ethiopia
and the US attempted to strangulate Eritrea by passing some
irresponsible restriction on the following economic civilian targets:
5) Discourage and restrict international companies from doing
normal business in Eritrea. Furthermore it would have placed some
serious limitations on the inalienable right of the Eritrean people and
government to conduct business in their booming mining enterprises.
Luckily, at the end of the day, some sane minds prevailed and all the
huffing and puffing of Dr. Rice came to naught.
6) Although levying of taxes on Diaspora nationals is widely
practiced by a host of countries, including the US itself, another card
in the making of the sanction would have placed some type of blocking
mechanism of the 2% tax every Eritrean voluntarily pays to help his/her
country and its people. On this one too, mercifully the rule of law
prevailed over the rule of the jungle.
Paradoxically, at a time when the UN and other international
organizations are praising the Eritrean government in its uphill effort
to help the Eritrean economy to stand on its own without being dependent
on aids and alms from other countries, it simply defies logic as to why
the US would even think of such evil deeds against the hard working
people of Eritrea. It really is perplexing since these kinds of
arrogant and irresponsible actions that Dr. Rice has been pushing are
not worthy of the great nation that she represents.
Be as it may, however, the Eritrean people, while deeply saddened by the
latest UN action, they are not deterred from their noteworthy pledge of
never betraying their country and, I assure Dr. Rice and her puppets
that Eritrea will continue to defy any conspiracy hatched unfairly
against her. As to the payment/collection of the non-issue 2% tax, I am
and will gladly continue to pay whatever my people back home require.
It is nobody's business what I do with my money, not least of which when
it is for Eritrea and Eritreans improvement of their economic lives! It
is my decision and mine alone as to whether I support the incumbent
government or not and it's, once again, nobody's business to meddle in
the Eritrean affairs, especially when the government of President Isaias
is very popular and strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of
the Eritrean people.
Berhane Alazar
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Received on Wed Dec 07 2011 - 13:46:24 EST