Eritrea und Äthiopien haben sich jahrzehntelang erbittert bekriegt. Jetzt ist eine politische Annäherung im Gang, die Hoffnung macht.
So much harmony was never: the presidents of Eritrea and Ethiopia
COMMENT FROM
DOMINIC JOHNSONSince 2011 co-director of the taz foreign affairs department and since 1990 Africa editor of the taz.
July 17, 2018
Since 2011 co-director of the taz foreign affairs department and since 1990 Africa editor of the taz.
The reconciliation process that is currently taking place between Ethiopia and Eritrea is a positive signal for the whole world. Two nations that have fought bitterly several times - only in Eritrea's decades-long liberation struggle against Ethiopian occupation, then in a completely meaningless desert war over the border - now find themselves together again, just like that. Not only have the strong men of both countries visited each other and made peace. More importantly, the populations of both countries embrace the fraternization of the powerful.
Zu Hunderttausenden haben Eritreer dem äthiopischen Premierminister zugejubelt und Äthiopier dem eritreischen Präsidenten, und jede Möglichkeit, Kontakte über die Grenzen zu knüpfen, wird geradezu stürmisch genutzt. Die emotionale Betroffenheit der Menschen, mehr noch als feierliche Unterschriften und Bekenntnisse der Mächtigen, macht den neuen Frieden am Horn von Afrika unumkehrbar. Und das ist von unschätzbarer Bedeutung in einer der explosivsten Regionen der Welt, zwischen den schier unlösbaren Konflikten von Jemen, Somalia und Südsudan mit ihrem unermesslichen menschlichen Leid.
It is not at all remarkable, but it is worth mentioning that it did not need an external impulse - it is probably rather the absence of any external influence that allows the two rulers Isaias and Abiy to present their peace agreement as their own, sovereign decision and therefore none To lose face.
While the mechanisms and institutions of the United Nations were needed to set the neutral framework in which peace could emerge, it took the courage of two politicians to harness that framework, and it takes people's enthusiasm for it to live with. For seemingly hopeless conflicts elsewhere there is an important sign of hope.
