Esayas and Gangs' destructive behavior

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By: Dibaba Regasa
07/13/06)

The Eritrean government has been engaged in destabilizing its neigbouring countries for some time now. It started with Yemen and continued with Sudan,Djibouti and finally Ethiopia. Eritrea is a small nation governed by a North Korea - style government with no political pluralism what so ever. Esayas’s inflated ego and bush mentality have caused death and destruction in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Instead of allowing the poor Eritreans and Ethiopians to benefit from their long and painful struggle against the Fascist Dergue,the Esayas Regime has been engaged in fomenting conflicts that took the two countries backwards.
As if the 1998-2000 war was not destructive enough, the Esayas regime is now directly assisting the Ethiopian opposition groups by training and supplying them arms to overthrow the Ethiopian government. Not only that,it is also directly involved in the Somalia conflict by providing the Islamist extremists all the weapons they need according to a recent UN monitoring group report made public. Esayas’s involvement in Somalia has nothing to do with bringing peace to Somalia but to fight a proxy war with Ethiopia. At this time in Eritrea, there are close to eight Ethiopian opposition groups being trained including the CUD. The recently formed ADF is a good example.
Esayas has concluded that it can not last long if it started a frontal conventional war against Ethiopia.The only option he has is to invite Ethiopian opposition groups to Eritrea and coach them how to wage an armed struggle in all border areas. Eventhough this futile exercise by Esayas will not succeed, it will obviously create a temporary minor security problem in the border areas. Nothing more.
The Eritrean economy is in ruins. The empty dream by short sighted Esayas of making Eritrea the Singapore of Africa will be a winner in the “best joke of the century” category. Strategically located in the Red sea area with ports that can serve Ethiopia, and with far-sighted leadership,Eritrea would have been truly a prosperous country.No doubt about it.But Isayas and cohorts totally betrayed their own people and their good neigbours and made Eritrea a pariah and a failed state. It is totally isolated from the international community.The moto of “self-reliance” which worked during the struggle in Nakfa mountains can not deceive the Eritrean people any more.A blunder Esayas made when he invaded the Ethiopian territories is haunting him back.That was a fatal mistake he did and he will regret it for his life.However, he still has a chance to rectify his mistakes and negotiate with Ethiopia on demarcation and total normalization instead of organizing and arming disgruntled opposition groups to destabilize Ethiopia.
Recently, Donald Yamamato said that the root cause of the Ethio-Ertrean conflict must be resolved if there is going to be a lasting peace.He is right. Awarding Badme,this one and that one to Eritrea or Ethiopia will not solve the problem. The reasons why Eritrea invaded Ethiopian territories are well known and they must be presented to the negotiating table and be discussed to bring peace and harmony to the region.We can not deceive ourselves on this issue. I doubt if Esayas’s nature will allow him to do a soul searching but he should not continue with his destructive behavior in the region.Why does this lunatic dictator always plan to dismantle Ethiopia (an impossible task) while two thirds of his people are living on food handouts? While Djibouti,Mombasa,Port Sudan are having a thriving business, ,the port of Asab is in shambles and the port of Massawa is operating under capacity due to Esayas’s fatal miscalculation in 1998 when he invaded Ethiopia.Eritrea has lost close to one Billion USD revenue from port activities in the last eight years due to short- sightedness of Esayas and gangs.
Eritrea does not have enemies in the region other than poverty, HIV/AIDS, illiteracy and poor governance. While African countries, including Ethiopia are now engaged in designing policies to come out of poverty, increase trade, develop infrastructure and improve social services, Esayas is engaged in digging trenches, spending 60% of Eritrea’s budget on military and his people are totally dependent on food aid. What a crime!
Eritrea’s radio and TV stations are also transmitting hate propaganda against the Ethiopian government day and night.Esayas is striving hard to create animosity between different ethnic groups in Ethiopia.His targets are his blood brothers and sisters in Tigrai.Esayas has chosen to ally with the hard liner racist CUD to implement this racist agenda.Esayas’s new love affair with the CUD can not last long for sure.
The international community is totally disappointed by Esayas’s behavior.The Americans, according to a senior diplomat in Addis, have openly warned Esayas that his destructive behavior in the region can not be tolerated any more. His heavy handed involvement in Somalia to help Islamist extremists who gave a save haven to international terrorists is a case in point. Eritrea was considered to be an “ally in anti-terrorism coalition” by the US.The US has handeled Esayas with kids gloves so far with no justification what so ever.Esayas continues to vilify the US day and night because he knows that the US will not take any negative measure against him.
Finally, Ethiopia must know that Esayas is a desperate Mafia who wants to destroy Ethiopia by what ever means. Ethiopia,while pushing dialogue with the Eritrean government, it should be alert enough to protect the country from any damage that can be inflicted by this dictator who is totally isolated from his own people and the international community.

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