In Support of the H.R. 2760

To:  US Congress

We, the undersigned Eritrean-Americans and friends of Eritrea, as your constituents from the State of Washington, would like to draw your attention to the recent development in the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. As you recall, in 1998 under the pretext of border conflict, Ethiopia declared war on Eritrea and unleashed three offensives that resulted in tremendous human and property destruction.

Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a comprehensive peace treaty, the Algiers Peace Agreement, in December 2000 with the US, OAU and the UN as the peace guarantors to which both parties, Ethiopia and Eritrea, agreed to abide by and accept the result of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Border Commission to legally settle the dispute. The Ethiopian-Eritrean Border Commission gave its ruling in April 2002 to which Ethiopia had happily accepted at the time.

Despite its signed agreement to the peace treaty and acceptance of the commission’s ruling, Ethiopia now has negated its acceptance of the Algiers Peace Agreement and the ruling of the border commission. In his letter of September 19, Prime Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia asked the UN Security Council to create another commission that would satisfy its demands, which is to award the town of Badme to Ethiopia as its war trophy. Even in the face of strong disagreement and rejection by the Security Council, Ethiopia has unilaterally announced the Algiers Peace Agreement null and void. We believe tolerance of such behavior by the international community not only puts the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea at harms way but would also set precedence for other countries to violate the law in similar manner.

Eritrea never wanted to be part of the two and half year devastating war that still has some 70,000 of its citizens displaced and saw the total destruction of its bread-basket region in Gash-Barka and many more cities and villages; the loss of its 19,000 young men and women who fell in defending what is rightly their land. Eritrea never believed the border conflict could be resolved in the battlefield and worked very hard every step of the way to see to it that it was legally settled once and for all.

As part of the peace loving peoples of the world, and especially as citizens of Eritrean origin, who know first hand of what Eritrea has suffered in the last five years under Ethiopia’s war of terror, the recent development concerns us very much. We feel that Eritrea and the international community have fulfilled their obligation to see to it that the mechanism of a just and legal means of resolving the conflict is established and ready to be implemented.

We believe that the time has come when the international community must address Ethiopia’s disregard of the law and the wild appetite for war the Ethiopian leaders exhibit. We believe this time around Ethiopia’s total disregard of the law is not only in violation of the sovereign integrity of Eritrea, but is a strong statement of disrespect to the international community that worked so hard to give the Ethiopian and Eritrean people tools for peace making.

We further believe that the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia need guaranteed peace and tranquility to build their shattered lives; to work against poverty, HIV/aids, and for a better life for the next generation.

Therefore, as our representative in Washington D.C., we would like to have your strong support for a lasting peace, the demarcation of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and total support of H.R. 2760 (Resolution of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Dispute Act of 2003) that would impose sanctions to the party who is not complying with the Algiers Peace Agreement and the demarcation of the border as the commission had established in April 2002."

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The In Support of the H.R. 2760 Petition to US Congress was created by Eritrean American Association of Washington and written by Dr. Abraham Araya.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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