If not a diversion tactic from the ongoing infighting within the ruling party and the growing Muslim unrest in the capital, What is the message TPLF led Ethiopia wants to send by holding military exercise inside the occupied Eritrean territories?
Eritrea and Ethiopia were engaged in a bloody war instigated by the expansionist Tigrian rulers of Ethiopia from May 1998 to June 2000.
After the war ended in June 2000, the UN established the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), among other things, to delimit and demarcate the border between the two countries. Accordingly, in their April 2002 verdict, the EEBC awarded the disputed border town of Badme to Eritrea.
However, the expansionist and anti-peace Tigrian rulers of Ethiopia refused to abide by the final and binding ruling of the Border Commission and continue to this very day to occupy Eritrean sovereign territory illegally and in flagrant violation and contempt of international law, just as the Israeli aggressors have been occupying Arab lands illegally since 1967.
To add insult to injury, on the 8th of February,2013 the aggressor Tigrian rulers of Ethiopia held very highly provocative war games on the borders of Eritrea close to Badme. As far as this writer is concerned, the unprovoked military exercise that the Ethiopian defence forces have undertaken in very sensitive areas is an irresponsible act that seriously jeopardises the peace and stability of the Horn of Africa in general, and the security of Eritrea and its people in particular.
Ironically, the above-mentioned irresponsible and very dangerous provocative military manoeuvres by the Ethiopian armed forces were undertaken at a time when the Eritrean government had unequivocally declared through its Addis Ababa-based African Union Ambassador, Mr. Girma Asmerom, that if Ethiopia withdrew its army from occupied sovereign Eritrean territory — including the town of Badme — in the morning, dialogue between the two countries would start in the afternoon.
Hence, the extremely provocative military exercise just conducted by the expansionist aggressor Tigrian rulers of Ethiopia on sensitive border areas with the purpose of intimidating Eritrea is equivalent to a declaration of war against Eritrea and its people. It should therefore be strongly condemned by all peace-loving and democratic forces of the world.
Besides, it is high time now for the international community to take swift action against the totalitarian rulers of Ethiopia and enforce the legally-binding decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC) to vacate Eritrean sovereign territories without any ifs, and or buts.
