Can Ethiopia and Eritrea finally find peace?

[The_Emperior5]

Can Ethiopia and Eritrea finally find peace?
After years of hostility between the countries, Ethiopia's new prime minister explains why he is willing to start talks.
Talk to Al Jazeera Last Modified: 08 Dec 2012 10:50

inShare
EmailPrintShareFeedback

The Horn of Africa is one of the most important strategic locations in the world. Control the area, and you control the Red Sea, critical for global trade connecting Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

But border disputes between regional arch-rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia - which have been running ever since Eritrea broke free from Ethiopia in 1991 - threaten the stability of the area.

Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year struggle that is considered to be among the continent's longest and most bitter.

The animosity between the two sides frequently spills over into neighbouring countries like Somalia and Kenya.

No Ethiopian leader has held talks with Isaias Afewerki, the Eritrean president, since the end of their bitter border war in 2000, during which at least 70,000 people died.

That is, until now.

Hailemariam Desalegn, the new Ethiopian prime minister who has been in office for only three months, says he is willing to talk to the Eritrean president.

In an exclusive interview with Talk to Al Jazeera he explains: "If you ask me 'Do you want to go to Asmara [the Eritrean capital] and sit down and negotiate with Isaias Afewerki?', then I will say 'yes'."

When asked if there was a real opportunity to forge closer links between the two countries following the death of Meles Zenawi, the former Ethiopian prime minister, in August, Desalegn answered: "My predecessor Meles Zenawi had asked for more than 50 times even to go to Asmara and to negotiate with Isaias Afewerki.

"The most important thing for us is fighting poverty. The most important thing for us is having regional integration. If we two, we do that, it will be much more productive."

Desalegn also talks about how he plans to move Ethiopia and the region forward.

watch inside story video

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/tal ... terAccount

[The_Emperior5]

She even asked him about Jubbaland he first said the Ethiopian prime minister haille mariam deselegn how he feels about Jubbaland and that kenya is supporting one clan he said also its up to the govt of Somalia to lead that process. He also believes onlf should recognize the Ethiopian constitution or else no talks he also said that ONLF consists of two factions wa divide and conquer sheekadisu.

[MidriGeez]

No they can't.
especially when this new moron they have expect to follow meles footstep, meles was rejected 50 times by isaias what makes people think this ugly bantu mengistu looking Ape would get his name even printed in eritrea's newspaper let alone see asmara.lol
He was asked about the refusal of the ethiopian team not going to asmara and he jumped the topic to saying he would go to asmara to meet Isaias without the journalist asking him about it, he is a moron. No bademe = no talk. its a tactic used by desperate people, Imagine Djbouti invades a Village in somaliland and ask to talk to you before giving it back, its like stealing your wallet and telling you i want to talk about how we can become friends again and other useless crap before handing your wallet back, this issue is beyond repair now i think Ethiopians have disrespected the soverignty of Eritrea which proves they can't swallow the eritrean independence, and for eritrea its basically you don't respect our independence well we will make sure you will have to bow down to our soverignty before we even look at you let alone speak to you. Ethiopians are too dumb honestly they played their game too long that the new generation of Eritreans hate ethiopians that even if a truce were to happen ethiopians would never be welcomed in Eritrea they would get abused and swore at. Now ethiopians who are sick and tired of ethnic and religious divide in their country just waste their time thinking and talking about eritrea to escape their nightmare.

By the way did you see what he said about ONLF??? i knew then that he could be the one that under his reign ethiopia would break up. seriously Read between the lines he simply is saying nothing will change with our pre condition with the ONLF and the status quo will go on and about the muslim situation we will continue to pretend not to have a hand in the islamic majlis while under the cover we will make sure the ahbash version of islam which is the slave of the state would be in the council. I think ethiopia breakdown is near because america would rather break ethiopia then let the majority muslim rule in the near future.

[Mondey]

The two brotherly nations of Eritrea and Ethiopia should find peace and shake hands.

[eliteSomali]

She even asked him about Jubbaland he first said the Ethiopian prime minister haille mariam deselegn how he feels about Jubbaland and that kenya is supporting one clan he said also its up to the govt of Somalia to lead that process. He also believes onlf should recognize the Ethiopian constitution or else no talks he also said that ONLF consists of two factions wa divide and conquer sheekadisu.

Fuck that nigga bruh. ONLF ain't recognizing no damn habash constitution.

[Colonel]

She even asked him about Jubbaland he first said the Ethiopian prime minister haille mariam deselegn how he feels about Jubbaland and that kenya is supporting one clan he said also its up to the govt of Somalia to lead that process. He also believes onlf should recognize the Ethiopian constitution or else no talks he also said that ONLF consists of two factions wa divide and conquer sheekadisu.

Fuck that nigga bruh. ONLF ain't recognizing no damn habash constitution.

Damn right

[grandpakhalif]

Ethiopia has a Million disposable Oromos to feed into its mighty military machine, for every 1 Tigray that dies 50 Oromos perish. It is clear Eritrea does not stand a chance against such a great minion army.

[eliteSomali]

She even asked him about Jubbaland he first said the Ethiopian prime minister haille mariam deselegn how he feels about Jubbaland and that kenya is supporting one clan he said also its up to the govt of Somalia to lead that process. He also believes onlf should recognize the Ethiopian constitution or else no talks he also said that ONLF consists of two factions wa divide and conquer sheekadisu.

Fuck that nigga bruh. ONLF ain't recognizing no damn habash constitution.

Damn right

I heard he made the recognition of their constitution a precondition for the talks, is that true? If so, what will really be discussed if the constitution is already recognized?

[MidriGeez]

The two brotherly nations of Eritrea and Ethiopia should find peace and shake hands.

Eritreans don't shake hands with liars, why bother with hungry useless ethiopians when we have rich arabs and a busy sea route to make $$$, Let ethiopians shake hands with the bantu kenyans better, honestly we are better off without them with their nosy attitute.

[MidriGeez]

Ethiopia has a Million disposable Oromos to feed into its mighty military machine, for every 1 Tigray that dies 50 Oromos perish. It is clear Eritrea does not stand a chance against such a great minion army.

i would rather have 10,000 Soldiers who fight than 1 million soldeirs who i would need to feed and cloth and arm so they would get 50 meter to the front and put the white flag up. oromo are not the brightest bunch either, you capture them and re-program them and 6 months later they have a new name ending with Liberation front.lol Oromo are known to be a double edge sword although they are good at singing and dancing prior to the battle. More oromo died retreating and shot by the ethiopian army officers in the 1998-2000 war than by Eritreans at the front.lol

[MidriGeez]

She even asked him about Jubbaland he first said the Ethiopian prime minister haille mariam deselegn how he feels about Jubbaland and that kenya is supporting one clan he said also its up to the govt of Somalia to lead that process. He also believes onlf should recognize the Ethiopian constitution or else no talks he also said that ONLF consists of two factions wa divide and conquer sheekadisu.

Fuck that nigga bruh. ONLF ain't recognizing no damn habash constitution.

Damn right

I heard he made the recognition of their constitution a precondition for the talks, is that true? If so, what will really be discussed if the constitution is already recognized? [/quote]

The ethiopian habesh problem is they think that every one in the horn is stupid, How could you recogonise the constitution if it tells you to obey the state government??? That is what the ONLF fighting against. people wonder why Eritreans keep refusing to talk to ethiopians they are useless and worthless, the problem is they try to legitimate the unlegitimable and point fingers by saying " can you see the whole world they don't want to talk". Bunch of morons.

[Khalid Ali]

Midrigeez i can understand Eritrea will never bow their head for any Ethiopian Leader especially not for wolayta boy used by the TPLF nor will they give in or say that they need to talk to Ethiopia, to stubborn to much pride especially isaias afewerki particularly his clique EPLF regime his top advisers and top generals ,but if you want Badme back you need to show the international community that Eritrea is not a country that sponsors terrorism remove the sanctions because its crippling the country Eritrea currently is in sore predicament not that Ethiopia is a better situation matter infact Eritrea is not ticking time bomb like Ethiopia but my Tigre friend its all about survival. Or you can in the mean time just sponsor TPDM non Awda Tigrayan rebel groups but its a waste time energy money replacing one Tigrayan with another Tigrayan is that what Eritrea wants and than after a decade or two replace support adwa tigrayans and Amharas against the TPDM its a never ending cycle.

[MidriGeez]

Midrigeez i can understand Eritrea will never bow their head for any Ethiopian Leader especially not for wolayta boy used by the TPLF nor will they give in or say that they need to talk to Ethiopia, to stubborn to much pride especially isaias afewerki particularly his clique EPLF regime his top advisers and top generals ,but if you want Badme back you need to show the international community that Eritrea is not a country that sponsors terrorism remove the sanctions because its crippling the country Eritrea currently is in sore predicament not that Ethiopia is a better situation matter infact Eritrea is not ticking time bomb like Ethiopia but my Tigre friend its all about survival. Or you can in the mean time just sponsor TPDM non Awda Tigrayan rebel groups but its a waste time energy money replacing one Tigrayan with another Tigrayan is that what Eritrea wants and than after a decade or two replace support adwa tigrayans and Amharas against the TPDM its a never ending cycle.

Brother Khalid you should know by now that TPDM is a weapon used to break ethiopia up not replace the cuurent Ethiopian Govrenment, there is no way any eritrean would accept a talk with ethiopia without them pulling out of badme first and respecting eritrean soverignty, No eritrean would accept that its not isaias and the eplf, we don't sponsor terrorism and if we did beleive me ethiopia would have been history by now. Get TPDM INTO power and use them to allow the referndum of each region to decide their fate i doubt anyone apart from the amhara and tigrayans would want to stick around with a country called ethiopia once a geniune opportunity is presented to them.

[Khalid Ali]

Midrigeez you Eritreans created one Monster the Woyane please do not create another The Tigrayans will change their plans last minute and they will not negotiate with you when they get comfortable. Midrigeez Tigrayans don't want to declare independence yet they first want to landgrab the Amhaaras and the afars and some other Ethiopian peoples when they do that they will consider independence not now. And on other hand you have the Amhaaras waiting to rule they are just waiting for their chance. Amhaaras are not interested in independence Amhaara people Amhaaras are conquerors by nature the Ethiopian identity it self is An Amhaara christian Identity. The only thing the TPDM can do for Eritrea is use them to get back badme when you install them in Addis ababa but they can later turn their back on you and attack you again. The Eritrean top generals know this that's why some of them seriously consider to use Amhaara as a partner in addis ababa, but that can backfire two since the Amhaara consider the Marab milash just a lose Ethiopian vassal state that's what they have been thought the past few centuries and every Amhaara feels the same. because Amhaaras are not honest with you even when they are in Asmara. Why don't Eritreans especially Tigrinya speaking Eritreans just fight along with the TPDM against the TPLF and i mean in real ranks , right now isias afawerki just sponsors them with military hardware logistics and finances but if Eritreans are fighting in the highlands of Ethiopia the same way rwanda does with the Congo using the M23 rebels consisting of top Rwandan generals fighting along the rebels .that would really change something on the ground step up the game and no one can really tell the difference only the TPLF if they are vigilant which they are not. But Eritrea can only adopt that kind of foreign policy if it gets rid of the sanctions imposed by the United nations and the United states.

be well my bani amer brother from Massawa

[gurey25]

Midrigeez you Eritreans created one Monster the Woyane please do not create another The Tigrayans will change their plans last minute and they will not negotiate with you when they get comfortable. Midrigeez Tigrayans don't want to declare independence yet they first want to landgrab the Amhaaras and the afars and some other Ethiopian peoples when they do that they will consider independence not now. And on other hand you have the Amhaaras waiting to rule they are just waiting for their chance. Amhaaras are not interested in independence Amhaara people Amhaaras are conquerors by nature the Ethiopian identity it self is An Amhaara christian Identity. The only thing the TPDM can do for Eritrea is use them to get back badme when you install them in Addis ababa but they can later turn their back on you and attack you again. The Eritrean top generals know this that's why some of them seriously consider to use Amhaara as a partner in addis ababa, but that can backfire two since the Amhaara consider the Marab milash just a lose Ethiopian vassal state that's what they have been thought the past few centuries and every Amhaara feels the same. because Amhaaras are not honest with you even when they are in Asmara. Why don't Eritreans especially Tigrinya speaking Eritreans just fight along with the TPDM against the TPLF and i mean in real ranks , right now isias afawerki just sponsors them with military hardware logistics and finances but if Eritreans are fighting in the highlands of Ethiopia the same way rwanda does with the Congo using the M23 rebels consisting of top Rwandan generals fighting along the rebels .that would really change something on the ground step up the game and no one can really tell the difference only the TPLF if they are vigilant which they are not. But Eritrea can only adopt that kind of foreign policy if it gets rid of the sanctions imposed by the United nations and the United states.

be well my bani amer brother from Massawa

khalid you are forgetting one thing, the media battle which is essential.
The US is 100% with Ethiopia and wants to keep it alive, the sanctions are there to weaken eritrea and keep it contained.
If it tries to go M23 on ethiopia, the US will tighten the sanctions and they will be unbearable.
If eritrea decides to strike they cannot pussyfoot around, it will have to be a kill strike.
If it ends in a draw or if the ethiopians lose massivley but still maintain control over addis ababa, then sanctions will cripple eritrea and the Ethiopians will get another couple of billions to rebuild and recover their armed forces to strike a much weaker eritrea.

no brother , for there to be security and peace in the horn, the ethiopian empire needs to be destroyed.