Village boundary dispute threatens Ethiopia peace deal

By Declan Walsh in Asmara
05 April 2003

Fears are growing that a dispute over a remote village could reignite the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea that ended three years ago.

An argument over Badme, a mountain hamlet in a barren border zone, provoked the 1998 conflict, which in more than two years of trench warfare claimed at least 80,000 lives.

Both sides subsequently agreed to accept the findings of an international panel to determine the border issue. The Boundary Commission, based in The Hague, said last month that Badme belonged in Eritrea. That decision angered the Ethiopian government, which threatened to renege on the deal on borders.

The ruling was unacceptable, an Information Ministry spokesman said, adding that the commission's failure to correct its "mistake" was viewed with grave concern. In contrast, Eritrean state media has carried reports proclaiming its victory in Badme.

Observers are concerned that the stand-off could deteriorate and bring an end to a peace deal struck in Algiers in 2001. "This is a very sensitive time," said a senior Western diplomat in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Most of the 620-mile border is now peaceful but Badme remains a sticking point. The commission failed to pinpoint Badme's location when it issued its findings one year ago; then clarified that, under a 1902 Italian colonial treaty, it belonged in Eritrea.

This ruling provoked Ethiopian officials, who issued veiled threats of violence if physical demarcation of the new border went ahead in July.

"It is possible there will be trouble when they come to put the pillars in. We cannot imagine the consequences," Tsirgay Berhe, President of the Tigray region, said. The threats have alarmed peace workers in the region. An official working for the United Nations in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, admitted: "We are a bit lost. It is not clear where to go from here."

One possible solution under consideration is to put Badme under international supervision while the remainder of the border is demarcated. But those behind the plan were not optimistic. "Personally I don't think it would work. But we don't have any better ideas," said the UN official.

Badme has crystallised rivalries between the neighbours, who once fought together to overthrow the Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Both countries can ill afford further confrontation. More than 11 million Ethiopians and 1.4 million Eritreans – 40 per cent of the population – are at risk of starvation this year because of a severe drought. "We Can't Afford Another War" read the headline on an article in the Addis Tribune newspaper.

Many ordinary people feel the same way. At Binbina, an Eritrean village populated by displaced families from the Badme area, elderly farmers lamented the war.

"If there is no demarcation we can never go back," said Andom Mehanjel, 75, who lost a son in the fighting and is dependent on food aid from the World Food Programme. "We just pray to God that war will not come again."

This small piece of barren land brought about the death of almost one hundred thousand soldiers and hundreds of thousands of displaced people and shattered the economies of two nations who could afford anything but a war, furthermore poisoning the relations between peoples who, one way or another have been living with mutual dependence since the dawn of history, before the idea of boundary-creation entered the minds of man and colonizers spread throughout Africa splitting it in diverse nations.

Important as this small village can be, now it has become still more important, a symbolic stretch of land which may ignite more dissent and conflict.

Eritrea and Ethiopia are now helplessly in the pangs of drought and famine, depending from donor’s help with about fourteen million person facing starvation, illness, misery and death. Getting back to arms would be utter suicide for both countries.

What man sometimes lacks is good will and a bit of imagination. Why not turning Badme into a symbol of peace, regained friendship, mutual respect and collaboration? Why should not Eritrea and Ethiopia find a solution, exemplary for other nations and the world?

How much less than another war would it cost building a twin-Badme across the border, bridging the two villages together both materially and ideally, a frontier-less island, creating a common focus of stability and development by investing and having investors in this desolate spot and turn it into a source of common welfare and into an exemplary historical milestone?

The above is just an idea, there could be other creative and realizable solutions.

Whoever reads these lines is warmly invited to submit, free of political on nationalistic bias, whatever valuable hint he may have that an exemplary landmark might be created in history, an example for the world and for generations to come. War is an historical fact which has accompanied humanity throughout its path from the ancient darkness of utter barbarism to this very moment and war, whatever the ills it has brought about on humankind now has become something untenable, the planet is racing towards its own doom.

Little gain to repeat it here as this drum, utopia’s drum, has been beaten innumerable times, yet, it is time to channel resources into the protection and welfare of humanity instead of continuing in channeling them in arms and possible irreversible doom.

Send your suggestion and this site will publish it: mailto:delloro@tse.com.er