By Adane Atanaw

In all ages they rise up against us to destroy us; and the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands. (The Holly Bible)

After long silence, denial and deliberate misinformation, finally in a speech to the so-called parliament, Ato Meles has affirmed unequivocally the transfer of vast Ethiopian farmland to the Sudan. The decision made by Ato Meles to cede land without the participation and full consent of the Ethiopian people amply proved that foreign entities has more leverage on his decision making process over the very Ethiopian citizen he claims to represent. Furthermore, the revelation of the give-away of land to the Sudan reinforced and proved our long held view that Ato Meles is soft when it comes to the vital interest of Ethiopia.

Meles appears never thought twice when he decided to cede the Ethiopian land nor he understood clearly the profound impact of his unpatriotic decision over the very livelihood of the Ethiopian people, and its negative consequence on the relation between Sudan and Ethiopia. Currently, as facts in the ground stands, Meles and Sudan has concluded the border re-demarcation in a way that satisfy and favor the Sudanese government and people, as a result, the Sudanese forces free handedly has crossed into our territory and occupied our land, displaced and abdicated our citizens, our natural forest destroyed, our diverse wild animals chased and migrated into the Sudanese Dinder animal park.

Overview: The Sudanese side of land bordering Ethiopia, in most part – (85%), has been cleared for cultivation and after many years of intensive farming by farmers, the soil has lost its productivity and deforested, on the contrary, the Ethiopian side of borderland, settlements is sparse and 90% of the land remained intact without much human interference, natural vegetation, water and wild animals, at least until recently. Sudan is one of the world sorghum and Sesame cash crop exporter and the bulk of the produce comes from the land harvested near the Ethiopian border. Sudan gained its independence from Great Britain, in 1956, and the only incident between Ethiopia and Sudan regarding the border issue was during his Imperial Majesty Hileselasie administration, in which the Sudanese armed forces violated the Ethiopian border in the Humera side at Lugidi. In that particular incident, before things went out of control, Sudanese army retreated to its territories and potential conflict was averted. At that time it must be noted, however, the Sudanese claim of land was strictly on the Lugidi side of the border in Humera/Setit Woreda, Wogera Awurja, and was very limited in scope. Now, the secret deal covers the re-demarcation of the entire land bordering Ethiopia and the Sudan. The area ceded in Tach-Armachiho, Metema, Quara in Gondar region, in Gojjam and Illubabur covers vast untapped virgin farmland and minerals. According to well informed sources at the time of 1971 incident alleged that Sudanese claim of land on the Liguid border area was merely intended to pressure Ethiopia to stop supporting the first southern Sudan revolt for self-determination from the north rather than genuine claim of land. The end of the southern Sudan rebellion, which Ethiopia played a vital role bringing together the south and the north in1972, which brings an end to the bloody conflict was welcomed by the Sudanese government, hence after the 1971, incident in no times Sudan raised the issue of land with Ethiopia, until friendly TPLF/EPRDF leaders ascend to power.

The Dergue Era: Throughout the Dergue administration, Ethiopia and Sudan never has good relation, nor had a border conflict and in most part both governments were busy supporting opponents: Sudan supported Eritrean and the TPLF, and Dergue supported the south Sudan movement. The only notable attempt to improve relation between Mengistue and Numeri regimes was in 1980. After the vice president of Sudan visited Addis Abeba, in return Mengistu visited Sudan. During Mengistue’s speech to the Sudanese parliament, he repeatedly mentioned “there is no border issue between the two sisterly countries’ therefore, he said, “the problem of the two countries is solely created by imperialist forces that aspire to sabotage his revolution’. The normalization process did not last for long, however, and mistrust continued and both regimes turned enemy again and began supporting opponents respectively with intense and larger scope. In short, (I stand to be corrected) during the Dergue administration, Sudan never presented official or unofficial claim of land. Instead, Sudan throughout the Dergue regime was living under constant fear of invasion. It must be noted, however, Mengistue visited Metema and Humera in 1973 EC, and he made it clear to the public that the border area will be studied thoroughly and he said “our land is still remained under Sudanese administration, yet they chose to destabilize us ” he concluded. It is said to be the study of the Addis Abeba University on the border issue steamed from his directives in order to determine/recover the Ethiopian land (a perception widely held by Ethiopian), but not as a result of Sudanese government request for border demarcation.

TPLF and Sudan: Formal relationship between Sudanese government and the TPLF, started in 1977, and since then it grow steadily. As a result of work closely with government officials for long time, many of the tplf leadership has close special relationship with some influential Sudanese officials. For example, Ato Meles has very close relationship with the then chief of Sudanese foreign intelligence, Major General Osman El Sayed and Colonel El Fathi Erawa, who monitors the tplf and EPLF movement in the department of Sudanese foreign intelligence. In defiance of diplomatic norms, General Osman El Sayed after the takeover of Addis Abeba by the TPLF/EPRDF forces becomes a Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia (1991-2004). According to Sudan Tribune, General Osman was quoted as saying “If we did not recovered our land from the current Ethiopian government we ever get it back”. The special relationship between tplf and Sudan can also be traced by the Sudanese President Basher’s over eight times visit to the region of Tigray. Also the current Sudanese ambassador’s wife is the main financial and material contributor to the Tigray women’s association.

The Gwen Line: The British major who was zealous expanding the British Empire has made his own sketch – a line that crosses the Guang River/Atbara, however, there is no legal base to deal with it, because it is not endorsed by treaty. Furthermore, Minilk and the British had agreed to demarcate the border in principle, however, in no times the border was demarcated physically under Minilik, as the tplf would us to believe. Major Gwen unilaterally has made a borderline on paper at will, without consultation and presence of an Ethiopian representative at the site of the border, therefore, the Gwen line has no legal binding what so ever over Ethiopia. In short, the line drawn by Major Gwen has no legal authority over Ethiopia. If such self made line is to be considered as authentic, then, Ethiopia has its own claim of line: A document under the custody of “Mahabere Selasie Monastery” in Quara Woreda, shows Ethiopia’s border line farther deep into the Swakin and Medane about 250 km inside the Sudan.

Back Door Deal: Five meetings were held between TPLF/EPRDF and Sudan. Two times in Demazin and three times in Gedaref. In both meetings, Ato Tesgaye Berhe the Tigray chief administrator (brother in law of Sebhat Nega) led the tplf/eprdf side and the main purpose and item of agenda by the tplf side was border security, however, the Sudanese side main priority and agenda was border re-demarcation and declined to discuss other issues before the re-demarcation item is resolved. The Tplf, side agreed to hand over the land claimed by Sudan, without much emphasis, provided Sudan 100% cooperated on border security. Sudan agreed. Then after the agreement, Ato Addisue legesse, deputy to Meles, and from the so-called Amara region, Ayalew Gobeze, Misrak Mekonnen, Bereket Simon and other tplf officials were assigned to sell the agreement to the public under the pretext of Sudanese investment on the farm sector in Ethiopia and visited Gondar region, including Shehidi, Metema and Delego. They screened a film documentary in Shehidi town to the public that highlights Sudanese achievements in large scale farming of Cotton and Sorghum. Ato Addisue argued that Sudanese are welcomed to invest in the Ethiopian territory to help our economy in the farming sector (euphemism for ceding land). After concluding the visit, Ato Addisue and others headed to Khartoum by land and stayed for three weeks consulting with Sudanese officials, and in their way back to Ethiopia, also by land, picked-up many suspected Ethiopian, political refugees believed to be opposed to the rule of the Woyane, including Ato Atanaw wasie a well known veteran fighter against the Dergue and the developer of the Ethiopian border area from Metema to Delelo and Quara during the imperial government He is languishing with other fourteen associates in Addis Abeba, notorious 07 secret prison.

Why Giving Land to Sudan: A couple of things motivated EPRDF/tplf to enter a secret deal with Sudan: (1) For fear of Ethiopian political org having access in Sudan, (2) Fear of Sudan to align with Eritrea (3) the American desire to send 5,000 Woyane troops as peace keeping force along with Egypt in the Darfour conflict (4) Who cares for the loss of Ethiopian land (5) By nature Ato Meles is timid.

Natural Resources: The entire area is vast virgin untapped farmland covered with natural forest and if managed properly, it can feed the entire Ethiopian population. The soil is suitable for Cotton, Arabic Gum, sorghum and sesame. Furthermore, according to the study made by the American Geological Survey 1968/1969, from Quara to Delelo, trace of huge oil reserve was reported.

Environmental Degradation: Although previous governments in Ethiopia did not develop the area to its potential, however, they kept intact its natural beauty and never neglected to environmental degradation. Under the tplf administration, however, the area never got any attention it deserves and been left at the mercy of the tplf local cadres to manage on the fate of these vast national precious resource: With the Woyane officials approval, Sudanese intruders are permitted logging for firewood; large number of cattle and camels allowed to graze inside the Ethiopian territory, and the “WanZa” a tree known for its quality for office and home decoration were uprooted from the area due to Sudanese military officers unfettered access with special logging permit from the tplf local administrators. For the last four years, tplf has begun resettlement in Delego (Quara), Tach-Armachiho and Tegede, without proper study and preparation. Those settlers are self subsistence farmers who are not trained about the environmental effect of clearing the forest, above all, the area is not suitable for self subsistence farming, instead needs a large scale modern mechanized farming that produce surplus crops for the benefit of the entire country. If resettlement continues at the current level and the land divided to self-subsistence farmers piece by piece, then, within few years the land will turn into unproductive arid land. The very sad story regarding the effect of environmental degradation by the tplf cadres has already affected the area: the tree that produce incense (Me’ker) has been depleted after mismanaged to extract incense by tplf traders and almost 85% has been destroyed. Another sad story also is the tplf/eprdf policy on the use of fertilizer on the area: the border area land is untapped endowed with rich soil that does not need the use of fertilizer at least many years to come, however, tplf traders are forcing the settlers to use fertilizer, which is unnecessary and polluting the ecosystem.

Border Protection: While Sudan has 21 army posts bordering Gondar region alone, on the contrary, the tplf has only 3 posts away from the actual borderline at Humera, Abderafi and Metema. Instead, EPRDF has a huge military base in the town of Gondar, including the 5th Mechanized division. In previous Ethiopian regimes, local armed people who knew every piece of land in the border area were responsible to protect the border; however, tplf has disarmed the locals and prohibited possession of guns.

Sudan Prevent Border Development: Sudan has successfully impede through the tplf connection the development of Ethiopian border farm land and rivers: The River Guang which spring from the highland and crossed through the plain land of Metema to the Sudan can develop thousands of irrigated acre of land and hundreds of Mega Watts hydro power, likewise, the BahreSelam river which springs from the highland and flow through the plain land of Abderafi, also can develop thousands of irrigated acre land and hundreds of Mega Watts of Hydro power. Both rivers are left undeveloped purposely to feed big farm projects of the Sudan and are the source of drinking water for major town in eastern Sudan. The two major rivers can be tapped with little effort and resource since both flow through thousands of acre plain land suitable for mechanized farming. The two Ethiopian rivers after merged at Sefi-Wuha (the Ethio-Sudan border now under Sudanese control), flow into the Sudan and known as Atbara.

Rough Description of Ceded Land from Gondar Region: West of Abderafi vacated by TPLF forces over 50 km of land already occupied -What Sudan calls as “Fasheka”. Shimele-Gara: (North of Metema) about 30km inside Ethiopia – Sudan crossed the Guang River from Sendus army post into Ethiopia. Delelo: north of Shimelegara on the same line 35 km inside Ethiopia–also Sudan crossed from Sendus army post. Sehmelegara and Delelo both areas have no settlement, but Ethiopian farm exist prior to Dergue regime. Shekuria (south of Metema) about 35 km inside Ethiopia – Sudan crossed from Taya army post; Fazira and surroundings about 50 km inside Ethiopia (south of Shekuria)– Sudanese crossed from Bassonada army post and then all the way to Nebs Gebeya around 55-60 km inside Ethiopia (no settlement) –Sudan also crossed from Dinder and Semsem. Taya was Edu’s base in 1977, and later EPRP has controlled the area, from Shekuria, fazra all the way to Gojam region. Those mentioned places are already under Sudanese hand under the deal.

Conclusion: Ethiopia is known as drought prone country in recent years, however, as the former president Carter once describe ‘ A green Drought” – the country is endowed with enough natural resources to feed her own people. However, we cannot feed our people while ceding our fertile land to others. The Tplf leadership has a fundamental untreatable chronic disease that grow with the leadership since its incentive attributed to what social psychologist identified as “Group Thinking”- members in highly cohesive group lose their critical evaluation capabilities in organization. Hence, instead of addressing the demand and the outcry of the Ethiopian public regarding the secret land deal, however, eprdf/tplf, officials opted to ignore the Ethiopian people, the sovereign owner of the land. It is every Ethiopian hope and prayer that Ato Meles and co to correct the mistakes they made and abandon the agreement entered to cede our western frontier to Field Marshall Al Bashir of Sudan.
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The writer can be reached at [email protected]