Date: 28 June 2018

To:  The Honourable Dr. Abiy Ahmed

        Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE)

CC: Ambassador Hailemichael Afework Aberra

From:  The Eritrean Unity for Justice – UK 

Your Honourable Dr Abiy Ahmed,

At the outset, we the committee of Eritrean Unity for Justice, express our appreciation for Your Excellency’s clarion call for peace, reconciliation and development in the Horn of Africa.  It is indeed refreshing and encouraging, particularly for us Eritreans, to see an Ethiopian leader offering olive branch to reconcile the two peoples after such intractable conflict between our two sisterly countries.

While Your Excellency’s noble initiative is commendable and historic in our region, it is critical that affected parties learn lessons from past conflict. Implementing the overdue Algiers Agreement is necessary to achieve lasting peace between our two countries. Sustainable peace and reconciliation can only be achieved if the negotiation process is organized and managed based on the following principles:

1. Ensuring inclusive participation of parties to the conflict, particularly those directly affected peoples through their respective legitimate representatives;
2. It is useful to realize that the directly affected Eritrean and Ethiopian peoples were not responsible for the border war; they were not consulted. The war was instigated by both governments, but these brotherly peoples were the most affected victims for the last two decades. It is rationale and fair, in resolving the conflict, however, the role of the affected peoples should be the anchor of the negotiation process. It is these peoples who know the history of the border and could easily agree on delineation based on centuries of lived experience and practice. We believe the result would endure;
3. In the context of this Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict, letting the peace process to be dominated by the ruling political parties or coalitions of both countries, to the exclusion of those directly affected people’s meaningful participation, could only create mistrust amongst the people. This mode of negotiation could potentially narrow the acceptance of your noble initiative among the directly affected peoples on both sides of the border. The affected and excluded party/ies could also probably perceive your noble initiative as harbouring the notion of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” diminishing the sustainability of the solution.

The Eritrean Unity for Justice has huge admiration for your compassion and the goodwill you generously showed for the Eritrean people. Our intention in raising these considerations is only in order to ensure the success of your historic initiative. We want to see meaningful peace and reconciliation based on justice and mutual cooperation between our countries.

We wish you success in all your endeavours to bring peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.

Respectfully yours

Committee of Eritrean Unity for Justice – UK

London 28 June 2018