Healy and Plaut, again misrepresenting the truth and covering up the UN and the Westís complicity in the efforts to destabilize Eritrea write that:

"...the assistance from the West and the UN is spurned..."

Eritreaís foreign policy is crystal clear. It is based on mutual respect, non interference in the internal affairs of States, promoting peace, security and stability in Eritrea and the region by extension. Having relied on its own capabilities and resources for so many decades against the very hostile outside world, self reliance is an Eritrean culture developed during the long and bitter struggle for independence and one that has served it well. Allow me to share with the readers a bit of a not too distant US-UN-Eritrean history

In 2001, using food as a political weapon, during one of the worst droughts in Eritreaís history, when 60% of Eritreaís very poor were threatened, the US led international community decided not to send food to Eritrea. The Eritrean government, who is responsible for the well being of the Eritrean people diverted funds from development programs and spent 300,000,000 NKF to buy about 80,000 metric tones of food in the open market and feed its people. The US led international community that was air lifting thousands of tonnes of food to Ethiopia, ignored the plight of Eritreans right next door. The Eritrean people inside the country and in the Diaspora all pitched in to help their compatriots. Luckily, not a single Eritrean man, women or child died.

The United Nationís Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE), established in 2001, and whose mandate to monitor the ceasefire and maintain the integrity of the Temporary Security Zone, 25km on sovereign Eritrean territories all along the border, and support for demarcation activities has not been able to fulfill or complete its mandate. The Security Council has once again extended it for another 6 months but with the troop level reduced to 1700 from 2300. The Government and people of Eritrea have diligently cooperated with UNMEE and the EEBC for over 4 years. Eritreaís development programs in that zone have been arrested and thousands have been displaced from their homes and villages and unfortunately members of UNMEE have engaged in illegal activities such as human trafficking, pornography, and spying. No self respecting nation will allow this sort of activities, no matter who is conducting them-the West or the UN.

The other major US-UN betrayal came on 2 December 1950 when the US rallied its allies (Chatham House included) at the United Nations to adopt the unjust, unfair and criminal Resolution 390 V (A) that called for the federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia against the expressed wishes and aspirations of the Eritrean people. Supposedly, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia for two reasons, to provide Ethiopia with an outlet to the sea and to secure US interests in the area. Here are the words of the then US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (founding member of the Council of Foreign Relations) who said:

"...From the point of view of justice, the opinion of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea Basin and world peace make it necessary that the country be linked with our ally Ethiopia..."

On 11 September 1952, Eritrea and Ethiopia formed a federation pursuant to the unjust and unfair General Assembly Resolution 390 V (A). That was the day the 30 year US and Western terrorism of Eritrea and its people began.

It should be recalled that the then Ethiopian regime under Haile Selassie abrogated its obligations under Resolution 390 and defiantly annexed Eritrea in 1962, forcing the people of Eritrea to wage a bitter and costly 30-year armed struggle for independence. The United Nations ignored the plight of the Eritrean people and the western media, human rights groups and other inventions of CH and the CFR who are clamoring for attention today, remained mum as successive brutal and genocidal Ethiopian regimes flouted international law and UN Resolution 390 and advanced Ethiopiaís scorched earth policy for Eritrea.

For 30 years, as young men and women were murdered and entire villages burned and grazed to the ground, as an entire generation perished into Eritreaís hills and mountains, valleys and shores, and beyond, the US led international community remained deafeningly silent and actively promoted its strategic decision by propping regimes in Ethiopia who used genocidal cluster bombs to burn down entire Eritrean villages, poison water wells, rape and murder of innocent civilians for supporting the "rebels" etc. etc. The United Nations went along with the US led international community and did absolutely nothing to stop the genocide in Eritrea. Ethiopian regimes enjoyed diplomatic, financial and political support while the people of Eritrea suffered great injustice, just as they do today. So it is not Eritrea that has shunned the West and the UN, but rather it is the West and the UN that have repeatedly betrayed the people of Eritrea.

The Government and people of Eritrea have endured much in the long struggle for independence and have traveled that journey with patience and magnanimity. The Government and people of Eritrea are engaged in a nation building endeavor that strengthens their democratic ideals, the nationís unity, peace, security and stability in Eritrea and in the region as a whole, something Chatham House and its multi tentacle institutions are working hard to destroy. Eritrea is a "threat of a good example" for Chatham House and the west who do not want Africans to utilize their human and other resources for the benefit of their own citizens and their own countries. Hence the unprecedented vilification campaign against this very small and very young nation.

As if there was any doubt about the minority regimeís inability to wage wars on its own without the international communityís diplomatic, financial, economic and military support, they write:

"...A further advantage for Ethiopia over Eritrea is the very positive relationship it has built with international donors...The amount of money at its disposal does have an impact on the countryís ability and readiness to wage war. Ethiopia is an attractive target for aid donors because of the scale of its poverty, its strong economic performance in recent years and the ëpro-poorí focus of its policies..."

What is so positive about the relationship Ethiopia has with international donors if the lives of the Ethiopian people have gotten progressively worse with each successive regime? The west might supply the money for wars, but it is Ethiopiaís children that are dying in these wars. It is Ethiopian orphans that are left behind because of these wars. It is Ethiopiaís young that are maimed and disabled because of these wars. "Ability and readiness" are not justifications for war. In a civilized world, the rule of law prevails over the law of the jungle. In a civilized world, "Might is not right". In a civilized world, war is a last option, not the primary option as it is in Meles Zenawiís Ethiopia. The west is equally responsible for the deaths and destructions caused by the terrorist regime in Ethiopia

The minority regimeís ëpro-poorí policies are serving foreign interests, not Ethiopiaís. With thousands of aid workers living in Ethiopia  (in luxury I might add), while every imaginable UN entity resides in the Ethiopian capital, with the British Council and other foreign government institutions carrying out "projects" in Ethiopia, Ethiopia today is known as a "beggar nation", the "shame of Africa" and "the poster child-case of Third World misery". With all the Westís attention and largesse, Ethiopia under Meles Zenawiís minority regime:

.      ranks 170 out of 177 countries in the United Nationís Human Development Report

.      Is a country where between 6 and 13 million people are at risk of starvation each year and depend on food handouts

.      Is a country where 80% of the nearly 77 million people live below a poverty line of $2 a day

.      Is unlikely to meet any of the Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015

.      Is a country where about 3.1 million people, including those affected by the recent floods, will need humanitarian assistance in 2007

.      Is a country where 4.4% of the population (1.5 million people) live with HIV and AIDS

.      Is a country where over 65% of its national budget is subsidized by donors

.      Is a country where 64% of the population has NO access to safe and clean water

.      Is a country where more than 29,000 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea have been reported in the regions of Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and People, Tigray, Afar and in Addis Ababa and over 279 people have died.

.      Is a country where there is an outbreak of Cholera and meningitis threatening the lives of thousands more

.      Etc. etc.

Chatham House members have made excuses for successive Ethiopian regimes and advanced their interest at the expense of the Ethiopian and Eritrean people in the past.  

In 1984 the prominent international journalist and writer Robert Kaplan, in his best selling book "Surrender or Starve", expressed his frustration with "experts" at the State Department who under the pretext of "strategic ally" and "Ethiopia is a big country" etc. were looking the other way and remaining silent when successive Ethiopian regimes were violating the human rights of the Ethiopian people and international law. There were some people that voiced their concerns and Kaplan writes that he was told:

"...If the Ethiopian government does away with tens of thousands of people nobody is interested, while if the South African government does away with thousands of people over a period of several years you canít keep the media away...actually got the feeling that Europeans wanted it all swept under the rug. They didnít even want to investigate... It came through pretty clearly that their attitude was, "Whatís all the fuss about? This is the way the Ethiopian government has treated its people for centuries..."

Today, they are back, as they did then, white washing Meles Zenawiís crimes and defiance of international law... DÈj‡ Vu!

The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!