Word: ethiopias
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...requisite niceties aside, it was not the friendliest audience that Issaias Afewerki faced as he addressed his partners in Ethiopia's new power elite last week. Many of the others oppose his plan for Eritrean independence, preferring to keep the coastal province firmly within Ethiopia. Issaias had a message for them. "Forget history," he told the conference in Addis Ababa. "Men make history, and we have made an independent Eritrea...
...moment, his fellow leaders were willing to go along. Under a charter adopted by the 81 delegates representing 24 different groups, the Eritreans, as well as any of Ethiopia's dozens of other nationalities, will have the right to self-determination and even secession. The delegates agreed that in two years Eritreans would vote on whether to break away from Ethiopia. Those who oppose the province's departure are plainly hoping that by then ^ independence will have lost its allure. Within that time, they anticipate, the Eritrean leadership will have failed to create a workable state...
...wishful thinking. Ever since 1890, when Italy officially colonized the province, Eritreans have considered themselves more advanced than Ethiopians. Eritrean rebels began fighting for independence in 1961 and since then have done an impressive job of providing health care, education and other services to rural areas under their control. Ethiopia's dilemma, however, is acute: without Eritrea, the nation of 53 million has no access...
Although the E.P.L.F. has promised to allow the rest of Ethiopia free access to the Eritrean port of Assab, which normally handles 70% of Ethiopia's trade, about the only thing now moving through it is food. A Shell Oil installation, which is under the front's control, is sending only 10% of the usual fuel supply to the rest of Ethiopia. Says a Western businessman at the port: "There is the definite feeling of a squeeze play here." Wary of the Eritreans, Ethiopian producers of coffee, the country's biggest export, are not sending their goods to Assab...
...Addis Ababa and the rest of the world may need some time to mature. Despite the tensions between their two camps, Issaias still speaks by phone every day to his old friend Meles Zenawi, leader of the rebel group that took control of Addis Ababa and now head of Ethiopia's provisional government. If a new multiparty transitional government -- which was agreed upon last week -- approves, ties between Eritrea and the rest of the country will be defined under an accord that calls for a mutual defense agreement and joint consultative committees on issues of security, economic affairs...