Commentary
The West pushes war threat with Eritrea to hide Ethiopian crisis
By Thomas C. Mountain
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Dec 31, 2005, 00:28

The widely trumpeted threat of another war breaking out between Ethiopia and Eritrea is an attempt to divert international attention from the growing internal crisis that is the prelude to the collapse of the western backed Ethiopian regime.

The western powers, mainly the US, through the head of the UN, Kofi Annan, are attempting to play up the war threat between Ethiopia and Eritrea and accuse Eritrea of supposedly increasing troop levels on the Eritrean border with Ethiopia.

While it is undisputed that the Ethiopians have been building up their troop strength on their border with Eritrea, the charges against the Eritreans are complete fabrications. Where is the evidence of Eritrean troops on the border being increased? None has been provided, and none will be because it hasn't happened. Satellite photos are available on a daily basis, yet where are the photos to back the accusations? There would be no way for Eritrea to hide a build up on the scale claimed. Some Eritrean militia and even some members of the Eritrean Defense Forces have been helping with the harvest in the border regions, but this is nothing new, for the Eritrean military has a long history of involvement in the annual harvest.

The Eritreans know that any military provocation by them would only help the Ethiopians by diverting attention from the crisis in Ethiopia, where the regime has thrown some 50,000 Ethiopian youth into concentration camps, along with disappearing untold numbers. The very highest levels of the Eritrean leadership has made it clear that they will act, someday, to implement the border demarcation with Ethiopia, but not in the near future, no way.

Inside Ethiopia the resistance grows every day to the ethnic minority regime in power. Even in the ethnic homeland of the regime, in Tigray, the people are increasingly taking up arms against the government. Military call ups of former fighters in Tigray have been met with such resistance that the regime has had to resort to arresting the families of those ordered to report for duty, a tactic so steeped in desperation that it rekindles memories of the Mengistu regime. The western powers have no replacement for the ethnic minority regime in power and in a typical western formula for Africa, will support them until they are forced to flee for their lives due to mass uprisings and the collapse of their military.

The collapse of the Ethiopian military has already begun. The Ethiopian Air Force is seriously impaired due to the well publicized defections of their pilots, with the regime having to transport its most feared battalions by increasingly dangerous roads. The bulk of the Ethiopian army is made up of conscripts from the Oromo nationality, and Oromia is up in arms against the regime, with the Oromian leadership renewing calls for the creation of an independenct Oromia. The ethnically Somali Ogaden has erupted as well. The only part of the military the regime can count on still is their own ethnic based elite division called the "Agazzi," whose presence is required in the capital, Addis Ababa, to try to keep control of the streets.

Already reports of fighting amongst military units, or internally in units, along ethnic and political lines have been received from inside Ethiopia. The only thing keeping the regime in power is western cash, used to pay the salaries of their supporters. If word starts to spread about just how bad matters have become in Ethiopia, pressure will build to cut off that cash, with a resulting quick get away for the Ethiopian regime before their escape is cut off. To avoid this, the western intelligence services and foreign offices are feverishly plotting ways to divert the world's attention. What better way than to beat the war drums and point at the victim, Eritrea, as the source of the problem.

When it comes to Ethiopia, western readers are told stories of US military personnel rescuing abused cheetas, all the while the western-funded Agazzi elite are going house to house arresting and murdering the Ethiopian opposition. The great hope is that the Ethiopian people will sort out their own affairs. If this happens expect calls for western intervention.

In Sudan, where due to internal African mediation, mainly by Eritrea, peace and independence is breaking out, and the west is unlikely to dominate the new country, we begin to hear of the need for western intervention. When the west starts to talk of intervention it is usually a sign that Africans are working things out for themselves.

In the case of Ethiopia, a long suffering people may finally be ridding themselves of a nasty parasite, fed by western aid, finally fleeing to their mansions in the western capitals with their untold stolen aid dollars. What comes next is completely up in the air. One constant remains, and that is Eritrea. The saying in the Horn of Africa is that the road to peace runs through Asmara, and that is where I will be heading next.