When one reads the latest (July 7th 2004) Progress Report on Eritrea/Ethiopia of the Secretary General (Kofi Annan) to the Security Council, one would assume that the report is an indictment of Eritrea.
I tell you it is a topsy-turvy world. Here we have a man at the helm of an organization, of peace at that, acting like a zealot prosecutor. His representative, warning ad nauseam of the upcoming war, threatening to abandon the mission, reminding us of the monetary cost (there goes peace at any price rhetoric) etc. And here is the icing on the cake. The war mongering party is encouraged by the inaction of the peace organization to hold peace hostage.
The report is a killer inch [communication terminology which refers to when team members agree on major points (e.g. final and binding) but argue over minor details (road closed to UNMEE, deteriorating relationship between Eritrea & UNMEE, staff must be exempt from national service)] etc. In other words, side tracking the issue. Instead of taking the responsibility of taking action against Ethiopia, as called for by the Algiers Peace Agreement, the report is nothing but a b-rate hoodwinking, camouflaged as a political rubix game.
As far as Eritrea is concerned, what we are witnessing now is the repeat of what happened to Eritrea over half a century ago. It is a re-run of the betrayal of Eritrea by the United Nations. Déjà vu, all over again. Groupthink, fear and intimidation ruled supreme at the UN then, rule supreme now. The international community is failing Eritrea for the second time within a generation. Eritrea believed that justice, truth and the rule of law was on its side. It stayed its course despite the insurmountable obstacles and survived. Now, it believes that the rule of law will prevail over the rule of the jungle (dog-eat-dog world). It will stay focused and on track. And surely, it will survive again.
The international community who are failing Eritrea –indirectly failing themselves – in descending order are as follows: the USA (who actually wrote the Algiers Peace Agreement), the EU, the UN and the AU (formerly the OAU). Their collective and individual inaction reminds me of the story of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody & Nobody.

Here is the story of four people: Everybody (US), Somebody (EU), Anybody (UN) and Nobody (AU formerly OAU). There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody would not do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody.


The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!

Eritrea will prevail!