Conformist,

Minilik never gave away Djibouti to the French. It was lease for 100 years for the railroad deal. Mengistu gave it away when the lease was up and Djibouti supposed to be returned back to Ethiopia. Minilik made a deal at the time when Ethiopia had no means of transportation to be connected with the outside world.

1. Meles too is talking about a 99 year least, just like Menilik.

2. An honorable leader would never lease a square inch of land to European power which was a threat to Ethiopia.

3. If you need a railway build it yourself, if you can't build it you don't need it.

Conformist,
You nailed it on the head. This is what me and Halfmenged have been saying. Isaias, the Arabqit, got the entire Eritrea including ports by force and he will lose everything by force.

You want to get Assab by force, but at what cost. You don't even have the support of the Ethiopian people. What's the point of endlessly spilling blood for an undefined goal. Besides we don't want to harm Eritreans, they are our people, we need them alive because they will help us build a better future together.

The issue of Ethiopia having a full access to the sea will never be compromised whether Meles lives or dies.

Meles is the cause of the problem, when he is gone the Isaias regime will have no reason to antagonize Ethiopia, I think Isaias is an intelligent man, he will solve the issue of the sea outlet to our mutual satisfaction. The forcible liberation of Assab could have been justified in the past, but no more. As soon as Meles and the Woyane regime disappears, the Assab issue will solve itself.

Conformist writes,

As soon as Meles and the Woyane regime disappears, the Assab issue will solve itself.

Not really, it will never solve itself. No Arab or an Arab slave has any right to define Ethiopia. Ethiopians need to stand up to define themselves; and, they will do so. There is no need for blood shed as long as Isaias Afeqit keeps on doing what he is doing -- dismantling Eritrea.
Sixty thousand Afars have 700 kms but ninety million Ethiopians are landlocked. Arabs and their slaves can not keep humiliating Ethiopians, this has to stop.

Ethiopians never gave Djibouti to the French. There was an Ethiopian dream to capture Djibouti. But, Djiboutian with support from Somali people says in an action “NO” and they win and got their freedom from all enemies, incoming the French. For your information Abyssinians (Tigray and Amhara) dream was and is that, all Africa nations and countries are under their kingdom (Abyssinia), which is not realistic, far from logic and reality. If they still dream to include Somalia, Djibouti, Nigeria, Sudan, Mozambique and Arabs to the Abyssinia kingdom, I think they are sick people and no one will cooperate and support them, and they never reach their dream and also contribute to the development and integration efforts in the region and content.

Now what we want is actual regional confederation, through establishment of common governance system for common action in relation to the states under the confederation. The confederation will adopt a common constitution for dealing with critical issues (such as defense, foreign affairs, or a common currency), with the central government being required to provide support for all state members. The nature of the relationship among the states constituting a confederation varies considerably. Likewise, the relationship between the member states, the central government, and the distribution of powers among them is highly variable.

This system will stop fighting and separation issues, and also the conflict between Tigray / Tigre and Amharas in Ethiopia and Eretria, and stop Abyssinians dream on everything is under Ethiopia! Eretria and Djibouti will lead tourist and fishery sectors; Kenyans, Ethiopians and Ethiopian in agriculture sector, Somalia and Sudan in livestock, telecommunication, and natural resources. So, peace and development will come soon, let’s hope like that and end our internal problems and our problems with the international community.

Twenty years ago we were given the chance to solve the HoA problems by seeking self-determination for all ethnics in Ethiopia, we failed then, Woyane's mismanagement was the result of that poor choice. Now again Ethiopia is at the fork in the road, it is time again to make a choice, we can choose peace by going for self-determination and by dissolving Ethiopia peacefully. But if we choose forced unity, we will never have peace.

We will get a very strict authoritarian leader who will not even enter into any discussion with us, he will issue orders and they will be obeyed on pain of death. Such a leader will not bring the kind of peace we all dream of, because a united Ethiopia is inherently expansionist, he will use patriotism to resume the interrupted expansionism of Ethiopia. So the choice is up to us, if we want peace we will choose self-determination for every ethnic, otherwise we will have an expanding Ethiopia. Ethiopian men are not tired of war yet, a war like leader will have plenty of followers.

Twenty years ago we were given the chance to solve the HoA problems by seeking self-determination for all ethnics in Ethiopia, we failed then, Woyane's mismanagement was the result of that poor choice. Now again Ethiopia is at the fork in the road, it is time again to make a choice, we can choose peace by going for self-determination and by dissolving Ethiopia peacefully. But if we choose forced unity, we will never have peace.

We will get a very strict authoritarian leader who will not even enter into any discussion with us, he will issue orders and they will be obeyed on pain of death. Such a leader will not bring the kind of peace we all dream of, because a united Ethiopia is inherently expansionist, he will use patriotism to resume the interrupted expansionism of Ethiopia. So the choice is up to us, if we want peace we will choose self-determination for every ethnic, otherwise we will have an expanding Ethiopia. Ethiopian men are not tired of war yet, a war like leader will have plenty of followers.

You are right. There no need for forced unity, we must avoid that by any means. The unity and the confederation should come from all communities, not from one ethnic community, and all should protect and contribute to the common interests and values. We need to learn from the past, respect each other. The Woyane was created and brought by Eritreans with support from Somalis and Sudanese people, and that's way there is Woyane fire in the region, as well as in Somalia and Sudan.

you Ethiopians are mentally sick in the head seriously...how long Ethiopia will be landlocked?...they will be landlocked forever , its that simple...i dont understand why you Ethiopians think you have some sort of divine right of using assab.
Assab, tio and Massawa and our 1000km coast line is Eritrean land. nothing can change that and nothing will change that.

No law can change that and no future proposal change that
All you ethiopians know that massawa and assab belongs to eritrea...i know that and more importantly deep down EVERY ETHIOPIAN knows this to.

Thats why firstly in 1952, the un refused to give us independence, and instead made us join u guys as one country...thats why mengistu never wanted eritrea to be independent, thats why meles went to war with us in 1998, and thats one big reson why ethiopians hate meles.

you ethiopians need to wake up and realise this is 2012, not 1985, todays world is very different, while the world today is talking about economic development...you ethiopians are still thinking about assab and war , i feel sorry for you people, it seems its not just your prime minister that is backward, its your whole damn country, no wonder why you people are the least developed country, even though your country is the only country in africa to never have been colonised.
what has ethiopia done for ethiopia for 3000 years?...nothing except going to war witrh its neighbours

Long live eritrea

The confederation of the Horn of Africa countries (UNITED HORN OF AFRICA NATION) is coming soon. So, no need to worry about this issue. There will be regional integration ‘of course after peace”, free movement of the citizens and trade in the region, no fighting and conflicts, and also shuftas in our region. So Ethiopia will not landlocked country.

ስራ የፈታች መነኩሴ ቆብዋን ቀዳ ትሰፋለች ኣሉ - That is to say a jobless monk tears her hat and sews it.

Conformist,
You nailed it on the head. This is what me and Halfmenged have been saying. Isaias, the Arabqit, got the entire Eritrea including ports by force and he will lose everything by force.

You want to get Assab by force, but at what cost. You don't even have the support of the Ethiopian people. What's the point of endlessly spilling blood for an undefined goal. Besides we don't want to harm Eritreans, they are our people, we need them alive because they will help us build a better future together.

Are you able to distinguish between Eritreans as people and their current leadership, which lived as a guerrilla movement for nearly thirty years, and took its movement to the civilian population?

The issue of Ethiopia having a full access to the sea will never be compromised whether Meles lives or dies.

Meles is the cause of the problem, when he is gone the Isaias regime will have no reason to antagonize Ethiopia, I think Isaias is an intelligent man, he will solve the issue of the sea outlet to our mutual satisfaction. The forcible liberation of Assab could have been justified in the past, but no more. As soon as Meles and the Woyane regime disappears, the Assab issue will solve itself.

I think characters like you are more of the cause of the problem than Meles or Isaias. You clap to no tune of your own all the time, and that is not healthy, to say the least.

Are you able to distinguish between Eritreans as people and their current leadership, which lived as a guerrilla movement for nearly thirty years, and took its movement to the civilian population?

In the case of Eritrea it is difficult to distinguish between Shabia and the people, they are so intertwined. In the case of Ethiopia, only the people of Tigray are intertwined with Woyane. Woyane is simply the enemy of non-Tigrayans.