Burdened by the Past and Stranded in the Present. The Weight of History in the Relations Between Eritrea and Ethiopia

Abstract

Some twenty years ago now, after two years of bitter fighting, the Eritrea-Ethiopia war ended. On 19 June 2000, in Algiers, an Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities was concluded followed on 12 December of the same year by a most elaborate Peace Agreement. The international community really had invested both in stopping the hostilities and in this Agreement. The warring parties had agreed to allow three international bodies to investigate their conflict and to decide on such vital matters as violations of humanitarian law, their mutual border, on responsibility for the war and on compensation. Two of these three bodies, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (EECC) were in fact founded and did their work. In 2000, both states had agreed to abide by the decisions of these international commissions. Whilst all the preliminaries for a lasting peace seemed present, it was not to be. Notably, the delimitation decision of the EEBC was not implemented by way of a proper demarcation of the long boundary. As a consequence, tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia were not resolved; in fact, for 18 years, a highly detrimental situation of no war-no peace resulted.The first edition of this book consisted of a detailed, and critical, examination of the work of both the EEBC and the EECC, as well as an assessment of the complicated situation in the first years after the war. Apart from examining the 1998-2000 war in the light of existing international law, it also offered 'a thorough introduction and critical assessment of the complex history, as well as of the modern state of Eritrean-Ethiopian relations from the perspective of history, geography and political science.' 1 In this second edition, the focus has shifted, as the new title tries to reflect. On the one hand, the chapters of the first edition have been maintained and updated in view of new developments and new literature relevant for the understanding of the war and its aftermath. For instance, at the moment of publication in 2009, the last two decisions of the EECC had not been delivered. Of course their analysis has now been added. On the other hand, the book has broken some new grounds by analysing the relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia as they have developed in the period until most recently. This has been done in the updates of the chapters of the first edition,