Ethiopia and Eritrea: Think twice before using force

Ethiopia and Eritrea: Think twice before using force
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Conflicts over border disputes have flared up recently between the two brotherly neighbors of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Both countries built up forces along the border area in bitter confrontation.
For the safety of the peacekeepers, the first batch of 90 peacekeepers of the United Nations (UN) withdrew from Eritrea on Dec. 15.
Peace-loving people, who cannot help worrying about a war that can be ignited at once, sincerely ask the two countries to think twice before taking any action.
Ethiopia and Eritrea had better first of all consider the consequences of resorting to force.
The conflicts between the two neighboring brothers arise from the border issue.
Ethiopia and Eritrea once were one country. Eritrea announced independence in May 1993 after a referendum. However, the two countries have serious differences in the issue of border demarcation, which unfortunately fell as the last straw before the war. Five years later, the author went to Eritrea and saw sadly women plowing on pell-mell fields.
The two brothers, both poor, should have made use of the already limited resources and capitals to develop their economies and improve people's livelihood. Against people's expectation, the war erupted and made the situation even worse. In retrospection of the war, the two sides should have been more sensible and less impulsive before using force.
Second, both sides are advised to look forward to the benefits brought by a peaceful solution.
It has just been out of the understanding that war can be destructive for both sides that has cooled the clashes in some hot spots on the African continent over the recent years. From the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan to Somalia, fighting parties are replacing explosive with bread, gunpowder with fence. Peacefully solving conflicts and defusing enmity with talks have become the top choice of the wise which has received wide appreciation from the international community.
Back on the Ethiopia-Eritrea issue. The border conflict in 1988 could be appeased not because of forceful attacking but peaceful negotiation. It was ended with both sides signing an all-round peace agreement. Practice has proven once and again that war can only seed hatred and create new contradictions, therefore is of no help to a permanent resolution of any problem.
Third, the two countries should take into consideration the necessity of conducting cooperation with the UN.
In today's world, the UN is playing a growingly important role in a number of issues such as safeguarding global peace and eliminating regional conflicts and has won universal support and trust from its large camp of members. Going with one's own way and bypassing the UN have been regarded as illegal and unjust and will definitely be condemned by the international community. The superpower United States has been widely and severely criticized for waging the Iraq war without the UN authorization.
The UN authority should be respected and the UN members should observe UN resolutions.
In recent years, no gunshot has been heard in the border area between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which is closely attributed to the UN setting separation belt and stationing peacekeeping personnel there. Of course, a permanent solution to the Ethiopia-Eritrea border issue will also be impossible without UN coordination and participation. At present, Eritrea, having prejudice against the UN, issued "no-fly order" for the peacekeeping helicopters in the separation belt and demanded peacekeeping personnel leave. The forces of the two countries are again gathering at the border area.
For this, the UN Security Council has adopted the Resolution 1640 (2005), demanding both countries withdraw their forces and Eritrea immediately revoke its "no-fly order". The Security Council also issued a chairman's statement, once again calling for Ethiopia to accept the judgment made by the independent boundary commission on the Ethiopia- Eritrea border.
At the moment when the border area is at the swords' points, Ethiopia and Eritrea should keep a sober mind, listen to the advice from the UN, bury the hatchet with efforts to peacefully solve their border dispute.
By People's Daily Online