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Readers Comments
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Hi Aiga editors,
organizing this event(asking the opinion of your readers about the most crucial issue on our country's past and future)is on my opinion the most noble idea your website have given as. May be one day you will be remembered in history for organizing this event.

People here gave you their most inside desires and all convincing arguments why we have to act against Sheabiya. I have also traveled in different regions of Ethiopia the last years specially, the regions which were affected by the wars 1998-2000. The above shared ideas and thoughts reflect that of the people i spoke to in these regions. It is my hope that finally our government hears the hearts beat of the people whom he governs and correct his past mistakes regarding Eritrea. The government would have a wide support from wide population regarding this issue. it is only the government who is against it. I hope again that our government listening to the hearts of its people in this point. Please, please pass all these contributions to the relevant government bodies, if possible as far as to the Prime Minster.
thank you
Mike

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This is only to send my greetings and heartfelt appriciation to you Aiga editors for bringing this fundamental Issue on air. Heartfelt thanks also to all contributers. I bleive and consider this issue as a question for our countiry's survival.

Though i had some additional arguments and reasons why Ethiopia have to make an END to Sheabia with out delay, from my point of view the arguments given by the first countributer (G:T) are enough why our government needs to act. Our consentration on the development of the nation (fight on poverty) can not bear fruit unlesss the prime source of all instability in our country and in the intire region is eliminated. I appriciate our government's policy to make maximum restriant not to go to wars, however, it is cristal clrear that we can not achieve the wished goals as far as Sheabia in on power. Sheabia's dream to see disintagrated Ethiopia is too big. He is producing and arming one insurgent after the other in in his Asmara factory ( OLF; ONLF, UIC, EPPF, CDU.... ) in his dream to create an instable Ethiopia. We do not need to waste our time in putng off the fire Sheabia lit here and there. We need to put the fire off from the source.
Tesfaye

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It is the Right Time now to Finish the Unfinished Business
As one writer put it perfectly, there is no point putting out a blazing flame here and there now and then. This is really costing us alot of lives, energy, time, resources, and even hindering our demostic activities to alleviate our demostic problems. We cannot afford doing these forever, life is precious. We do not have to sacrifice our people needlessly.

We better waste our lives doing voluntary work to help our country than giving away our precious lives to meaningless wars engineered by Shabia. I do not see why we must landlock ourselves by further exposing ourselves to archenemies of Ethiopia. I think a mistake has been done before, not only once, but repeatedly by Prime Minister Meles. He lobbied with the world for the Eritrean Independence. I recall OAU opposing the independence of Eritrea, but TPLF worked hard than EPLF to process the seccession. I remember we were told that Ethiopia will use the ports for free. However, time has proved that was a lie. Ethiopia was paying to access the sea even before the war. Now there is no anything hidden, all what we have been told was a lie. There is no any legal agreement put on paper about our right to use the port of Assab, and Massawa. This implies there was no even any question about it. Eritrea was just blessed by TPLF to have it all. One may ask, do not the TPLF leadership understand importance of the ports for Ethiopia economically and security wise? This is a common sense question which rings in my head always. I do not understand why the TPLF leadership sticks to its statute that Ethiopia must be land-locked. This is also in contrary to the voice of the majority of Ethiopians.

In my humble opinion, more mistakes has been done many times by the leadership; even the most recent, going to Algers agreement after winning the war was wrong. We sacrificed all those lives and we betrayed them after they gave thier lives to their mother-land. This the right time for the leadership in Ethiopia to redeem itself from its past wrong doings against the interest of Ethiopia. Sometimes, even people from outside countries ask me why do Ethiopians wanted to be landlocked? I once attended a church, and the pastor visited Ethiopia before that Sunday. He showed what he brought from Ethiopia to his Congregation.

He told them Ethiopia is a country which has never been colonized in the history of mankind which Ethiopians are very proud of. They have thier culture and everthing they own.He said," here is an Ethiopian brand product, Meskel, the CROSS." All the people were curious, and saw the cross, the cross moved from one church member to another. He said it was a gift given by an Ethiopian priest. He then continued talking about Ethiopia. He said that there is a very flashy modern air-port in Addis Ababa, but there are many people starving and begging at the side of the the flash air-port. He continued and stated that there are many things which we take for granted here, but in Ethiopia they are treasures beyond reach.

He said: we are blessed, we are surrounded by the sea all over; Ethiopia with population of about three times our own is landlocked. There is no rail-way. Taxi, heavy lorries, motor- cars, cart .... travel on the same road. The people very homely, and welcoming, but backward. I did ask why the country does not have a port, but they told me the government wanted the country to be landlocked.

Now let us learn from our past mistakes; let us put all those mistakes behind us and move forward. The way to move forward is to undo all the mistakes of the past and correct them Then we will be in a better position than before. If we see the USA, the first commandment is, American's interest is first before anything else. The leadership in Ethiopia now needs to listen to the people and do the interest of Ethiopian people than their individual ego. That is the a real leadership litmus test. They have lead Ethiopia up to now according to thier personal ambition, but now it must the turn of Ethiopian citizens to determine the destiny of their country, not one or two or three people. No Ethiopian agrees with the government's position of land-locked Ethiopia, why then the governemnt wanted Ethiopia to be land-locked?

In conclusion, Ethiopia does not have to negoiate with any Arab or Shabia, it must get its default natural rights by any viable means. I do not believe Shabia will ever sit around a table and agree for Ethiopia to have Assab or any other deal. Shabia only wants to dismantle Ethiopia into Eritrea like enclaves; Shabia will never accept the very existence of Ethiopia.

Now it is overdue, the leadership in Ethiopia must consider taking an irreversible action and decision which will guarantee lasting peace for people from both sides. No need to waste time,energy,lives, and resources on a useless and endless conflict between brotherly people.
MK

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AIGAwoch
It is good now that finally EPRDF has understood that Isaya is the prime living enemy of our beloved Ethiopia. They should have realized this from the very beginning and would have different feeling and acceptance among Ethiopians that is seen at the present time. Yes EPRDF for now has defeated Somalia's UIC and Isays's proxy war, but I hope this victory would last long at the Somalia's front.

Personally, no matter how Isayas tries to destabilize Ethiopia, EPRDF should win the mind and heart of Ethiopians and should get our trust that it stands for the betterment of our motherland and should drop the ethnic policy. It is my belief that a government should get its people trust and the people should trust its government. That is the corner stone for stable government. I do not see that EPRDF is doing that at the present time. It mostly relays on its security forces subduing all its dissents. Do you think this will last long; it only creates favorable condition for our external enemies. No matter how our past history is; we have bad and good history and should be the basis for the continuation of survival as a nation. So the removal of Isayas from power may pave a good precondition of Eritreans and Ethiopians to live in harmony. But if it is done only to safeguard EPRDF to stay in power it is hard to tell the out come of our country in the near future. Media like AIGA and its like should go down to grass roots of our people and find out what their point of views instead of assuming all that opposes EPRDF is hooligans and enemies of Ethiopia. That is what our past governments were saying.
Getnet

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Why Ethiopia needs to give a final blow to Shae'biya
First and for most, A lot has been said on this issue and as the problem is far from settled and is affecting domestic and regional politics enormously. All points seem to suggest that we have to take a decisive action sooner than later.

Defending our Interests: The obvious is respecting and defending our countries sovereignty. Ever since the Shaebiya regime came to power our country's national interest has been violated a number of times and there is no need to go to details nor is there a need to pretend as if this has not happened. If Eritrea claims to be independent in fact and in law from Ethiopia then any deal between the two countries, assuming that there will be sane governments on both sides, should be based on mutual benefits. They need Ethiopian market and resources and Ethiopia needs port access, those as a matter of international relations this should have been the simplest case to resolve. But conflict resolution is much more complex than this arithmetic.

Threat to our security: As if the pre 1998 illegal and mafia style activity is not enough, Shaebiya has continued messing up with our internal matters even after its defeat. It is not hidden agenda that the ruling elite and the hardcore of the regime has a deep psychological problem when it comes with Ethiopia. They wrongly think that if Ethiopia is strong and stable then it will become a regional watch dog and sooner or later it will concur tiny Eritrea. Out of this unjustified fear, the regime has a long term plan of breaking up Ethiopia into pieces. Thus it continued arming all kinds of puppets internal and external to destabilize Ethiopia. It is not even easy to list down the number of armed groups that are tutored by the regime.

Dangerous and racist campaigns: The regime as well, has since long, engaged itself with racist and distractive propaganda against Ethiopians. No wonder it has set up TV and Radio programs whose sole agenda is to set fire in Ethiopia and if we keep silent on this rather dangerous game there will be terrible consequences. It is Genocide in the making.

At the core of this is the self inflated image of the hard core of the Shaebya regime. I think it is an over due job to tell them that they need to know their size. They have been distorting history, markets, culture, a generation in general and have not learned a thing out of this.

Needs Fresh Negotiation after the defeat of the enemy: Further more, there is terrible similarity between what happened at the battle of Adwa in 1896 and at Badme in 1998-2000. As far as we understand the causes of War, if you win a battle, everyone assumes, and rightly so, that you will dictate the post war political and economic negotiations. Or at least you are sure that such negotiations are not harmful to your country. At Adwa we won the war but ended up dividing families and people of the same country and created the root cause of our instability: dividing Tigrayans into Eritreans and Ethiopians. No economic or political gains except the unique history of defeating the European forces. At Badme we won the war and yet we went to Algeries to create a Tribunal that came up with all the surprises and we are still in the same cycle of crisis forcing one to ask what economic and political gains it brought to us despite the heroic defense of our brave sons and daughters against the rogue regime. Even then, the regime has not respected whatever has been agreed as a result of the much contested Alger's treaty. Why should then we keep it if the very regime for which it was designed made it already obsolete? Many are saying that the present "no war no peace" situation is enough to take care of the affair but I do not think that is enough to do the job decisively.

The rationale for granting ER's Independence is already defeated: Last but not least Eritreans have abused the very reason for which they were granted independence. To be good neighbors! After Badme and the continued messing up in our domestic and regional affairs, there is no reason why we should keep their independence. They have spoiled it and they are using it to our detriment and thus they do not deserve to have it unless they behave otherwise!!! It is, as we did with the UIC, our right to self defense!!!!
Aron
Jan. 24, 2007

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