UN General Assembly
2004

Eritrea, however, is of a different mind. It continues to be preoccupied with the hope of getting the Security Council to impose sanctions on Ethiopia and with the satisfaction that it would derive from such an outcome. Eritrea should be made to realize that that is unlikely to happen. Not because Eritrea is not big enough to have its way, but because the idea is too inappropriate and too unrealistic. Formality aside — and Eritrea’s oft-heard refrain of “final and binding” notwithstanding — no fair-minded person can forget what happened in May 1998 and up through May 2000, and what the OAU said about Badme and its environs. But talking about the past is not going to help Ethiopia or Eritrea. The two countries cannot continue spending so much time on their preoccupation with each other. That will leave no time for thinking about their future and the future of their hungry and destitute peoples. There is one other important point that Eritrea should not be allowed to continue misleading the international community about. Nowhere in the whole