ERITREA- 17 years of independence- 124 years of nation building- With history as old as humanity

Can Japan and Eritrea join hands inpeace building to ensure
prosperity in the Horn of Africa?
Special Lecture at the course of “International Co-existence”
by Ambassador Estifanos Afeworki
Tokyo Institute of Technology, 14th (Friday) May 20101

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Content
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Why is peace and stability of the Horn strategic
to Eritrea?
What were the priorities that Eritrea tackled
during the last 17 years?
What did Eritrea achieve and what were thechallenges it faced in the last 17 years?
What lesson can we learn from the 124 years ofnation building of Eritrea?
What is on the ground currently threatening thestability of the Horn?
What should NOT be the contribution of the“international community” in the Horn today?
What should be the contribution of Japan in theHorn today?
Concluding remarks
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Related papers distributed in the presentation:
1.
Ethiopia’s military occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories
2.
Eritrea’s position on relations with Djibouti
3.
Eritrea’s position on peace and justice in Somalia
4.
Position of Eritrea on UN SC arms embargo resolution 1907

205/13/10

Horn of Africa
ethno-lingual groups

Population

Eritrea

95.5 million

Ethiopia8686.0 million

Djibouti

20.5 million

Kenya

40

39.0 million

Sudan

600

35.0 million

Somalia1

10.0 million

Uganda35

32.0 million

Total of 746

Total of 203 million

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Why is peace and stability of
the Horn important to Eritrea?
Eritrea, 17 years old young nation, is in a very
crucial period of building a new state with clear
objective of building a nation of economicstrength and home grown consensus of humansecurity, culture, politics, democracy andgovernance as a main essence and benchmarkof its regional relations
405/13/10

Eritrea’s ideal strategic location straddling theRed Sea coast for more than 1400 kilometers,

Rich natural resources and generations ofbusiness/trading experience with Asia and Africa,

Innovative focused self effort of nation building
and dignity by the government and people of Eritrea isslowly but surely enabling the country and its people torise-up from the ashes of 60 years of ruins left by USand USSR
505/13/10

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•Many African countries used to export food during the 60th. Many African countries
are importing food in 2010
•Eritrea continued to work focused for a comprehensive national food security programwith a considerable achievements. Foreign food dependency was reduced by more than
90% and local production of cereals and fishery increased by 70%•For the period of 1993 to 1977 Eritrea’s economy grew by 7.4%. Inflation was kept atbelow 5%.
Eritrea achieved a 7 month reserve level for import during this period•Eritrea as well as Ethiopia's economy moved into adjustments and sustainable
development during this period• Eritrea demobilized its army to further cut its military expenditure and boost its
growth
•Unfortunately and to the dismay of all forces in the Horn of Africa who worked forpeace, both in Eritrea and Ethiopia, who is no stranger to surrogates and realities of theHorn of Africa of the post Second World, once again, Eritrea was stubbed on the back,attacked and invaded by “Weyane” and its army from 1998 to 2000

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Positive prospects for FDI inflows to Eritrea driven by thepivotal price rise of global commodity in the last tenyears.
More than 22 Trans National Corporations (TNCs) arecurrently engaged in the development oftelecommunications, gas, oil and minerals, andManufacturing activities though small, but notableaccomplishments, have been made in the re-birth of thetraditional industries : agro, food, tannery, hides, textiles,garments, chemical etc. through local investments and
FDI inflows into Eritrea in the past 17 years,

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905/13/10

For the first time after the independence of Eritrea
Bisha Mine is positioned to become the first modern
day mine in the country in 2010 for the production ofprojected metals of:
1.06 Million Oz GOLD | 9.4 Million Oz SILVER | 734
Million Lb COPPER | 1,075 Million Lb ZINC
The Bisha Mine will be a low-cost gold producer for
the first two years and a low-cost, high-grade copperand zinc producer for the remaining 10 year minelife

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Sunridge Gold Corp. a junior company has
successfully defined four independently estimatedmineral deposits on the Asmara Project, Eritrea(Nippon Mining sites in late 60th and early 70th)
Sunridge has three mineral deposits on theAsmara Project that together contain Indicatedresources of 1.28 billion pounds (580,000 tonnes)of copper, 2.5 billion pounds (1,130,000 tonnes) ofzinc, 1.05 million ounces of gold and 31.8 million
ounces of silver. In addition the Gupo Golddeposit contains 189,000 ounces of gold in theInferred category
Sunridge haｓ entered into a strategic partnershipto further expand Asmara Project with Antofagasta
Minerals S.A.
(Marubeni has 30% stake in Antofagasta)1105/13/10

Hence, these kind of developments that I attempted
to briefly mentioned here as an example and othermutual interests can only thrive in a safe, peaceful,secure, economically integrated and competitive
neighborhood
People in the Horn of Africa deserve more than any
time else in their past history peace, not war: be it
covert or overt, because these heroic and proud
people were subjected to generations of fighting
against the inhuman history of slavery, colonialism
and continued atrocities committed by superpower
expansion into the African continent including thecold war period
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What were the priorities of Eritrea inthe last 17 years?
 Rehabilitation and reconstruction of nationalinfrastructures
 Implementation of “Warsay - Yikalo Plan”
 Promoting and raising agricultural productivity
 Promotion of private investment
 Investment in education, health and nutrition
 Promotion of export Promotion of environment protection
 Mobilization of Eritrean community and resources fornational development1305/13/10

What did Eritrea achieve and what are its current
challenges?
Achievements

 Telecommunications (ICT) Infrastructure Industries
 Agriculture Mining

 Governance Education
 Health Services
 The dividend from Warsay Yekalo Plan is currently

impacting the re-birth of the Eritrean economy
significantly

Challenges:
 US position of “no-peace no war situation between Eritrea andEthiopia”

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What do we learn from the 124 years of nation building ofEritrea?
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Italian Colonialism and World War II and Eritrea
US Military Bases in Eritrea (1941- 1976)
The right of the Eritrean people to independence and their struggle
US foreign policy and military support to Federation and Annexation of Eritrea
with/to Ethiopia as a historic option from 1941 to 1976
Subsequent dark days in Eritrea from 1941 to 1976
USSR foreign policy and military support to “Regional Autonomy of Eritrea andOgaden” under the confederation of Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti
Subsequent savage war in Eritrea by USSR and its allies from 1977 to 1990
Eritrea was declared independent peacefully through a UN sponsored referendum
and through a ballot box in 1993
Ethiopian Government declaration of war on Eritrea 1998 – Claiming Badme and its
environs as its sovereign territories
Ethiopia’s spiraling military incursions/invasions to Eritrea exacted a huge lose oflife on both sides
Eritrea Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC) passed decision in April 2002 based on
the final and binding Algiers Peace Agreement (singed by Eritrea and Ethiopia withinternational community support on December 2000) awarded Badme and its
environs as sovereign territories to Eritrea
Ethiopia refused to comply with EEBC decision supported by US and the British

WHY?

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WHY?
Italian colonialism did not walk into present Eritrea or present Ethiopia
peacefullyThe Colonial Army (composed of Italians, Germans and Eritrean*)surrendered to the allied forces in Asmara, after resisting more than six
months on April 1st 1941
US Navy entered the Port of Massawa on April 11th 1941
The British Army dismantled everything of value and shipped them to its
colonies including corrugated iron sheets and nails, railway line andequipments from Bisha to Agordat, factories, dry docks, the longest
ropeway in the world, scrap etc depriving thousands of Eritrean’s theirmeager livelihood (Eritrea on the Eve by Sylvia Punkrust could be a goodreading for you guys)
The history of more than 100 thousand Eritrean soldiers who fought inNorth Africa and East Africa betrayed by the European wining or losingpowers
British and US military rule described by local folks as an administration offamine, massive displacement, unemployment and misery was imposed on
the Eritrean people (1942 – 1952)“Askari” is a name given to the South African, Eritrean and Somali black soldiers who fought in North and North Africa on both warring sides of the Second World War epitomized by “General Romel”

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Advances of Allied Forces into Eritrea
1945••

1. British Expedition
to Abyssinia 1868
From India
2. British Expedition
to Ethiopia “GedeonForce” May 1941
From Sudan

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Eritrean workers repairing Gura Airport,(Eritrea) in 1941 bombed by Royal Air
Force in World War II

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Railway workers in Eritrea during 1949 strike

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Secret Douglas military A/C assembly andmaintenance base established in Gura,
Eritrea – 1942 – Manned by more than
5000 American soldiers

2005/13/10

Track A Navy Base in Gejeret, Eritrea hostingreceivers manned by more than 1000 troops 1942

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Track E Base in Bet Mikae, Eritrea mannedby more than 10000 troops - 1955

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Track C Base – US Navy hostingreceivers in Asha Golgol, Eritrea 1955

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Track F Base – Adi Sogdo, Eritrea hosting Navy receivers manned by 1,00
soldiers and officers mainly for US Polaris Missiles

Track F Base – Adi Sogdo, Eritrea
hosting receivers manned by 100
soldiers and officers mainly for USPolaris missiles

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STRATSCOM Base – Adi Abeto (Eritrea)
manned by about 100 soldiers and officers
spying USSR space programs

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Kagnew Station – Asmara (Eritrea)
nor weapons

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Soviet Russia
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Injected in the Horn of Africa 20 Billion USD worth of armaments, more than1800 soviet generals and officers accompanied by more than 2000 generals
and officers from Bulgaria, Checkozlvakia, Hungary, East Germany andPoland, more than 3000 generals and officers from North Korea, More than
20,000 Cuban rank and file soldiers, officers and generals, more than 3,000
generals, officers and soldiers from Yemen and has also trained 1 million
army from Ethiopia to crush the right of the people of Eritrea to self
determination and independence and the right of the people in Ethiopia toself-rule and political democracy (1976 – 1990).
Israel and Chile supplied cluster bombs and intelligence intermittently during
this period
Eritrea Island port of Nakura was turned into a secret landing port ofnuclear submarines manned by more than 2000 Soviet soldiers (1977 –1990)

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What is on the ground currently
threatening the stability of the Horn?
US decision to intervene for “humanitarian” consideration in Somalia in 1992

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US military policy applied in the region especially Bush’s administration policy anchored on “either you are withus or against us” is undermining regional political will for peace building in the regionUS hanged the implementation of the legal and binding Algeria–Peace Agreement entered by Ethiopia andEritrea in 2000. Subsequently there is no peace and there is no war between the two countries for the last tenyears.

“Tigray group” (currently in power in Ethiopia) killed, suppressed and imprisoned opposition political leaders
and their movement supporters with impunity and murdered election of Ethiopia in 2005

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“Tigray group” (currently in power in Ethiopia) has a strategy and intends to divide the country into Tigray,Amahara, Ogaden, Benshangul, Oromo etc. nation states and Eritrea's position is a united, sovereign Ethiopia,

Western powers intend to divide Somalia into Juba Land, Punta land, Somaliland, Benadirland etc.

Difficulties facing the Nevasha Comprehensive Peace Agreement of Sudan by the intervention of western
powers and regional stakeholders which intend to divide Sudan into mini-statesEthiopian invasion of Somalia in coordination with the notorious Somali warlords and the US violated UN SC
Resolution 1725 (2006).

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Ethiopia and Somalia have gone, in the past, into major wars: twice in 1964 and 1977 involving US and USSR
crisscrossing roles

Subsequently rule of law in the Somalia i.e. political and peaceful solution of Somalia crisis is threatened and isgiving way to the rule of the jungle: humanitarian disasters, piracy, illegal trafficking of human, financial,material, illicit drug, arm and ammunition is spreading and engulfing Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Yemen andbeyond and players are getting sophisticated and “dangerously playing with fire power” in the region daily

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New and Old Political Map of Ethiopia

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What should NOT be the contribution of the “internationalcommunity” in the Horn of Africa today?

US and its allies or any other growing
military super power/s should desist thetemptations of militarization, proxy wars andreviving the rules of military engagement in
the region because current global economiccrisis deserves a better option and recognitionof the sovereignty and territorial integrity ofcurrent fifty three African countries.
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What should be the contribution of Japan in theHorn of Africa today?
Discuss cooperation seriously in the imminent need toreform the UN,
to join efforts in maintaining stability and ensure
prosperity since the region is a global trade corridor,
Encourage Japanese companies to invest and locate
their business in this strategic part of Africa,
Encourage Japanese tourism to tie-up to the abundant
and rich heritage sites which date back to human origin,clean coastal beaches, islands and rich biodiversity of
the region, andEncourage mutual efforts in science and technology
education, resource and energy diplomacy to build astrategic partnerships (FDI) with countries
31 of the region
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Security dilemma

1941 (90) days “Battle ofKeren” and its aftermath

69 years after this historic
battle the US and UK
need to understand theneed to step back andreflect on the need on thecontinued security
dilemma of the Horn ofAfrica and its people1945 (82) days
“Battle of Okinawa” andits aftermath
65 years after this historic
battle the US need tostep back and reflect on
the voices of the Okinawa
people32

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“exchanging local knowledge and technology”“Japan – Eritrea Cycling Friendship”
tooth care and its future33

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