First I would like to congratulate our heroic soldiers for their superb deeds in Somalia. I wish them a victorious return to their home!

To Mr. Alem:

I have read your article carefully. Firstly, I am very grateful for your concern about the activities of Shaabia to ruin our land; it is also the concern of all genuine Ethiopians. AS you strongly put it, Shaabia never leave any stone unturned to enjoy the collapse of our country. This isn’t a delusion about Shaabia at all. Shaabia is infamous for its infiltration of anti-Ethiopian elements through all our porous boundaries after its futile attempt to conquer us was astonishingly repelled. To strength my argument, in the last few years, they were able to squeeze in to anti- Ethiopian elements through Tigray, Gondor , and Somalia. Moreover, they are the masterminds behind the resurrection of the torn out extremism in Somalia. It is well stated in the UN report that Eritrea has been providing military support including around 2000 soldiers, in addition to all kind of weaponries including an anti-aircraft missiles. Even in these last days of UIC, Shaabia were furiously distributing anti-war-plane artilleries in Mogadishu to shot down our attacking war planes. No mercy for Shaabia!

Now let me start with your question, which seems it is purely arising from a genuine patriotism and defiance for the benefit of our country, about the succession of Eritrea . Given the mistake (still some don‘t accept it as a mistake) the EPDRF did at its infancy as the governor of the country in relation to the independence of Eritrea ,we need to ask ourselves the question are there pragmatic ways to claim back the port(s) (it is on equal footing as claiming the whole Eritrea; for they have nothing but the port). Unfortunately, the answer isn’t totally at our disposal; It depends on the vision , the interest, and miscalculation of the Eritrean people/regime. Do Eritrean people like to rejoin their “mother land” Ethiopia? My guess isn’t a simple NO but an absolute NO! These people had fought for thirty years to claim independence and I don’t see there is any ruminant of “ethiopiawinet/ethiopianism” blood in their arteries. Next, Is there a possibility to lure them to think about “ethiopiawinet” and rejoin us? My answer is possibly YES. If we manage to build a very strong economy (which devilishly what they don‘t want to see at any cost) , we may attract them for their own sake. However, still this requires a very long time; may be some good decades!

Is there a possibility to use military might to force them join us? We have the power, but we don’t have the permission. We will be under the scrutiny of UN, and other nations who don’t want to see great Ethiopia such as Egypt and other Arabic countries. However, still there is a glimpse of hope to use military power to bring Eritrea back. If our government is an opportunity taker, it is possible to use the evitable war between the two country which is bobbling around recently. As the PM put it, the next war between the two countries is the last scenario to ensure that there is no more war between the two nations. What does it mean? Though it is difficult to read the mind of our PM, it is something more than toppling the Afworki’s regime. I bet that removing Afworki doesn’t ensure a long lasting peace in the region. It should be a message more than that! Well let us leave this for the test of time.

Regarding article 39, I don’t see the effect of its presence or absence. Practically, EPDRF has ruled out any succession requests raised by OLF and other ethnic based guerrilla fighters. Unless we are uncomfortable by its very existence, the presence or absence of the article has no practical meaning. To sum up, From practical point of view, article 39 is a living dead!

As to your argument which we should hate more, shaabia or UIC? For me we need to see according to the urgency and importance of the situations. Right now the threat for our security comes from the east, so urgently we have to respond to the malevolent act of UIC which is vociferously and militarily backed by the Eritrean regime. That is what the Ethiopian government doing! However, our long and important target should be to break the backbone of the Eritrean regime. We never ever get a long lasting and convincing peace as long as Shaabia is allowed to dance in our politics. We need to do something to dump the regime for good! The time to do that isn’t so long, I think we are waiting for Shaabia’s miscalculations once more.

In the last paragraph , you stress that the suffocating regime (EPDRF) has an end. Well no one will have objection on this unless he/she is blinded by the “milk” he/she is sucking from the “breasts” of the regime. However, our mind set should be to have a more vibrant and open minded regime in the place of EPDRF. Currently a genuine party standing for the interest of the majority of Ethiopians isn’t yet born. I don’t see a better replacement in the coming few years. Or unless EPDRF let its rank fall much below the rank of the existing political parties; which is unlikely, if not impossible.

I have left your allegation about Aiga editors to them. I hope they will have a sound response to your worries, which sometimes I myself share. I don’t know why we are so obsessed by each and every breath of Shaabia! Is it a retaliation for what their media did against us? They are a bunch of lunatics who never ever cure from their hallucinations by responding to their articles, allegations and fabrications! I would have loved to give more of our time and energy for the problems and developments in our country. Lastly, I appreciate the stand taken by Aiga and most other Ethiopian media outlets about the crises in Somalia.

Binzer,(12-29-06)