H.E. Sir. Jeremy Greenstock

Ambassador and Permanent Representative

Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations

One Dag Hammarskjold plaza, 28^th Floor

855 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017

 

Dear Mr. President:

 

The Ethiopian prime minister, in his September 19, 2003, letter to the United Nations Security Council, has threatened to wreck the Algiers peace agreement with Eritrea. In his letter, the prime minister categorically rejected the April 13, 2003 “final and binding” ruling by the Eritrean-Ethiopian Boundary Commission on the border between the two nations. He has also threatened to once again plunge the region in a blood bath by unleashing another war unless he gets his way in the border dispute.

This lawless act is not only a material breach of the Algiers agreement, but also an affront to the international community, which has guaranteed its implementation.

As a result, the Organization of Eritrean Americans (OEA) calls upon the Security Council to take a swift and decisive action to stop Ethiopia’s reckless and dangerous attempt to damage the peace process. We believe anything less than swift and decisive action, including invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, will only lead to further deterioration of the situation on both sides of the two nations’ border, but also the rest of the Horn of Africa.

The UN Security Council should not take the Prime Minister’s threat of war lightly. Ethiopia launched three successive offensives, which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Ethiopians and 19,000 Eritreans. The Ethiopian invasion of sovereign Eritrean territories resulted in the destruction of infrastructure, schools, hospitals and churches which Eritrea is trying to repair and rehabilitate. The international community cannot allow that to happen again.

Ethiopia has violated the terms of the Algiers Agreement repeatedly and now has decided to reject the EEBC ruling further undermining the peace treaty. Clearly the time has come for the international community, and specifically the guarantors of the Algiers Agreement, to shoulder their responsibilities.  Eritrea, which has scrupulously respected the Agreement, accepted the border decision, and shown tremendous restraint and patience.

The Organizations of Eritrean Americans calls on the UN Security Council to:

•           Invoke Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which the Algiers Agreement calls for in the event of violation by any one of the parties; Declare that Ethiopia’s violation of the Agreement, its rejection of the border decision, its breach of UN Security Council Resolutions, and its threat of war, constitute a threat to regional peace and security; and

 

•        Impose comprehensive sanctions on Ethiopia.

 

•        Eritrea also calls on countries that have contributed to UNMEE, to friends of

UNMEE, to stop sending aid to Ethiopia’s war mongering regime. We ask them to help spare the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia more suffering, by denying Ethiopia the resources to wage another war.

The UN Security Council cannot allow Ethiopia to hijack the peace desperately needed by the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea as they seek to develop their countries. But, these actions must be done without delay and in a way that would force the lawless regime in Addis Ababa to stop its obstructionist strategy once and for all. 

Yours sincerely,

President - Organization of Eritrean-Americans

 

CC:

 

1.   Mr. Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General

2.   UN Security Council