Open Letter From An Eritrean Citizen to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Open Letter From An #Eritrea|n Citizen to #Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Dear Prime Minister Abiy, please accept my warm fraternal greetings. Knowing how busy you are, permit me to get directly to the point of grave concern I have regarding the historic Peace & Friendship Agreement signed between our two fraternal countries, Eritrea and Ethiopia, on 9 July 2018 in Asmara.

I feel obliged to bring to your attention the wanton provocation that the #TPLF rulers of your northernmost province of #Tigray are engaged in, in a desperate attempt to undermine the recent historic breakthrough Agreement of Peace & Friendship between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

As a citizen of Eritrea and ardent supporter of peace between our two fraternal countries, I am very much concerned by these TPLF-instigated repeated violations in recent days, pushing some Tigrayan peasants to dare to make illegal border crossings and infiltration into Eritrea through various routes.

What’s alarming is also that recently a known anti-Eritrea regime-change activist, a Dutch woman called Mirjam van Reisen, is also claiming to have made illegal entry into Eritrea from Tigray via the Rama Mereb crossing. This is a very serous violation of Eritrea’s sovereignty and breach of the Eritrea-Ethiopia peace agreement.

I’m afraid that such repeated illegal border crossings and infiltrations from Tigray into Eritrea would be deemed as threats by Eritrea’s local border guards and members of the Eritrean Defense Forces, provoking them to react with appropriate force to deter violations of Eritrean sovereignty. Thus, TPLF’s reckless provocations must be stopped right away before they escalate out of hand to derail the whole peace process.

As you are well aware from bitter experience in the 1998–2000 war, the TPLF minority junta, which was then ruling Ethiopia, ignited “a border war” against Eritrea claiming that Badme was invaded—a pathetic lie later proven in an international court of law that Badme has always been sovereign Eritrean territory. In its futile “border war” then, as you definitely will remember, the TPLF army commanders used “human wave” tactics to breach Eritrean defense lines. This failed miserably, but at a huge cost to human lives.

It seems to me that what the TPLF is trying to do now is to use same “human wave” tactics, albeit with civilians peasants of Tigray to derail the peace. But such futile attempts may have negative consequences unless they are nipped in the bud.

I hope your excellency will give this serious matter your government’s utmost attention and order the TPLF rulers of Tigray, as well as the Ethiopian army commanders in the border area, to cease and desist from such reckless provocations of illegal infiltrations and border crossings to Eritrea, and allow the final demarcation process on the ground to proceed as per Algiers Agreement and Eritrea and Ethiopia Boundary Commission’s “final and binding” delimitation and demarcation decision.

Please accept my most sincere gratitude in advance for your kind attention and assistance in this most important matter of peace and friendship.

Sincerely,

Elias Amare