PRESIDENT ISAIAS FOCUSES ON DOMESTIC ISSUES AND BORDER IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 ASMARA 000500

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR AFRICA WATCHERS
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958 DECL: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR ER
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT ISAIAS FOCUSES ON DOMESTIC ISSUES AND BORDER IN
INDEPENDENCE DAY SPEECH


1. SUMMARY: On May 24, the 16th anniversary of Eritrea's
independence, President Isaias Afwerki spoke at length about
domestic economic concerns and the border. The President's speech
squarely blamed the U.S. for the lack of progress in demarcating the
border and described international initiatives to resolve the
stalemate as attempts by the international community to "reduce
Eritrea into a subservient appendage" (presumably to Ethiopia). On
domestic issues, President Isaias catalogued the efforts made by the
Government of the State of Eritrea (GSE) to achieve food security
and increase economic development and self-sufficiency, but
acknowledged the areas of shortfall. Justifying the GSE's shunning
of humanitarian aid as necessary to save the country from a "bondage
of mendicancy", he exhorted the Eritrean people to remain patient,
toil harder and be prepared to make sacrifices. The President's
speech was followed by a short skit presenting the "inevitable
downfall of a superpower" - clearly targeting the U.S. U.S. Embassy
personnel did not attend any Independence Day events. Full text of
Isaias' speech is provided in Para 3. End Summary.


2. Comment: Given the President's predominant focus in previous
public interviews on Eritrea's foreign affairs initiatives, his
emphasis on domestic issues in this speech came as a bit of a
surprise -- which may indicate an awareness of the increasing
discontent among the citizens of Eritrea with their domestic lot.
President Isaias' speech aims at diffusing criticism of his regime's
policies while uniting Eritreans by calling on their sense of
nationalism, and of course blaming the international community.
Unsurprising were his anti-American comments which are consistent
with his speeches and interviews over the last year, although post
anticipated more hammering of the U.S. and international community
on issues concerning Somalia and Sudan. End Comment.


3. A GSE English translation of the speech delivered in Tigrinya
follows below. Begin text:
Dear Compatriots,
Honorable Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For the last 16 years, we have been striving, with unrelenting
resolve and without faltering in our steps, to ensure steady
economic growth in order to raise and ameliorate the living
standards and lifestyle of our people. Not to do so would have
rendered our independence, for which we yearned for more than two
generations and paid heavy sacrifices in the political and armed
struggles that we waged, symbolic indeed.
It was not easy to initially lay, from scratch, the foundations of a
devastated economy. To resurrect those foundations after the new
cycle of destruction wrought by Ethiopia 's recent invasion,
exacerbated by incessant hostilities, further amplified the hurdles
that we had to overcome. This is too obvious to merit elaboration.
Yet, because we toiled, tirelessly, indomitably, and unperturbedly,
our accomplishments thus far are beyond comparison indeed.
We had no qualms to recognize humanitarian assistance as a transient
imperative, indeed even as our right, during austere times until we
find relief and recoup the opportunities denied to us for
generations. It was this realization that prompted us to solicit
humanitarian aid in the first place. However, this was misconstrued
as a weakness to foster an attitude of: "Let us bind the hands with
which you work and eat, and, let us spoon-feed you" with all its
attendant pressures. Thus, when practical and effective alternatives
were shunned, we opted for economic liberation and subsequently
augmented our own efforts for economic development and growth, to
deliver ourselves from the bondage of mendicancy. As a result, we
stand on a more sound footing today.
This is why we have been working vigorously to ensure "Food
Security"; which we saw as primarily a transitional objective from
the outset. Indeed, food security, per se, is not the ultimate goal,
but an objective for a specific phase aimed at enabling us to
produce sustainable surplus in crop output.
The productivity of land must be increased; irrigation farming must
be developed and propagated instead of mere reliance on rainfall.
Instead of limiting and debilitating agricultural land in plots and
slopes, it must be leveled and flattened extensively. The wide
Eastern and Western plains must be redeemed from traditional
pasturage and desolation, and, be cultivated extensively with
irrigated water. High-yield seeds must be selected and multiplied.
Traditional agriculture must be substituted, in a phased process, by
modern and efficient plowing, sowing and harvesting machinery,
complemented by advanced and effective drip and spray technology.
Pesticides and fertilizers must be extensively, but scrupulously,
employed hand in hand with modern projects that enhance livestock

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production. Activities that destroy the environment must be
inhibited. Modern agro-industrial plants must be established and
expanded. Research and training capabilities must be strengthened.
Instead of being content with a single harvest a year, we should
strive, whenever possible, to obtain two or three harvests a year.
The cumulative objective is to ensure that our programmes of food
security attain surplus production and yield competitive exports.
All the aforementioned feasible and attainable programs require the
implementation of extensive and vigorous soil and water conservation
programs; construction of dams, micro dams, diversion canals and
wells; provision of machinery and essential equipment in the
adequate quantity and appropriate quality; as well as prudent
planning, efficient organization and implementation in tandem with
financial resources and tireless work.
How long will it take to implement, stage by stage, all the
objectives listed above and to secure fulfillment of our needs?
Inarguably, this cannot be achieved overnight. Nevertheless, to
shorten the time, redoubled efforts and sacrifice will always be
necessary.
Our achievement in the past years was anchored on these premises.
Still we have to ask how much of what we planned did we really
accomplish? Setting aside accurate measurement standards, we cannot
claim to have accomplished even 25% of our plans even by rough,
optimistic, estimates. Nevertheless, because we stretched our
resources and broadened our efforts, there was no lost time. And
although the various programmes we have implemented so far have not
ensured 100% food security, it has nonetheless reached an
irreversible stage, and can thus be dubbed successful. The
experiences gleaned and the efficiency honed along the way, have
moreover prompted us to focus on refinement and consolidation of
previous programmes, instead of launching many new programmes for
the year 2006-2007. To achieve the desired result and taking into
account the anticipated rains, our efforts must continue without
letup. Moreover, as our capabilities accumulate in these processes,
the prospects for higher output in 2007-2008 are more brighter.
In our aims to achieve food security, the exploitation of our
fisheries has been pursued with the same profound focus and
expectation as agriculture. However, despite our high hopes and
expectations, we have not been able to exploit even 10% of the
potential output. The opportunities that we created to encourage
foreign investment in the sector have not borne fruit. Instead, they
inhibited local growth and entailed abuse and pillage. In the
circumstances, there is no better alternative to earnest endeavors
aimed at developing our own fishing capacity in a highly organized
manner, hand in hand with the establishment of proper infrastructure
and sustenance of processing and transport facilities. At the same
time, we continue to recognize the importance of finding sincere
investors and partners, in meaningful ventures and market outlets,
and are not sparing efforts towards that end. In this regard, we
have not also underrated the substantial challenges posed by the
limitations of our human resources and management competencies. The
preparations to make the year 2008 a turning point will indeed
significantly augment the contributions of the fisheries sector to
the overall objective of food security.
We have embarked on impressive projects, throughout the past years,
in infrastructure fully realizing that infrastructure - that is
roads, air-ports, sea ports, electricity and water supply,
communications, terrestrial, maritime, and aerial transport, network
of free zones, etc. - is a prerequisite for attracting all kinds of
investment. The prospect to launch much bigger projects both by
leveraging domestic resources and through joint venture arrangements
are better than ever today. Thus, from this year onward, we shall
embark on even greater projects.
The incremental provision of residential housing to our citizens at
a fair price and with equitable distribution is one of the
infrastructural projects we have pursued with paramount interest.
But although much has been built, it still falls far short than
current and projected demand. Persistent efforts will thus be made
to expedite the process in order to harmonize supply and demand in
quantitative, qualitative and price terms.
Tourism is one of the promising sectors that will fuel economic
growth. The comparative advantages and opportunities that ensue from
our natural endowments in general and our sea coast in particular is
inarguable indeed. Nonetheless, the obvious lack of infrastructure
and proper services had limited any significant investment in the
sector in the past years. At this time however, the cumulative
infrastructural investments put in place coupled with the promising
and tangible opportunities that are already in the horizon will
enable us to launch and set in motion really big projects. Still,
our expectations must not be exaggerated and we need to recognize

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that we shall have to work with much added vigour to accomplish the
initial requirements.
In industry, various enterprises in the agro-industrial and
fish-processing sub-sectors that are primarily geared to meet
domestic demand and in which we have competitive advantages are in
their final stages of completion. The aim is not only to boost
production, but to ensure product quality and export potential as
well. If the schemes underway to increase cotton production make
good progress, they will stimulate growth in the textile and clothes
manufacturing enterprises. The same applies to tanneries. Big
investments are also underway to bolster production of building
materials, (such as granite, marble and others),for the domestic
market as well as for export.
With regard to markets, it is obvious that there are legitimate
concerns regarding the hike of prices. The impact and ramification
of unstable and rapidly rising global oil prices has of course to be
taken into account. The arbitrary hike in the price of commodities
and consumer products attributed to capricious and illegal practices
and that cannot be justified in terms of regional and international
market levels will however require better regulation. In this
regard, various assessments that have been underway to ensure the
realignment of prices will be guided towards practical measures in
order to ensure fairness.
In the mining sector, it is well-known that a lot of exciting
information has been disseminated and is already in the public
domain. True, it has been proven that our mineral resources are
large. Yet, exploiting this endowment and perpetuating its benefits
for future generations requires judicious agreements with
prospective partners and the consolidation of our national
capabilities. Suffice it to say that we are unhurriedly and
earnestly striving towards that direction lest the boon of minerals
becomes a bane and a factor of disillusion.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Economic development is not confined to economic sectors only. There
are other areas, just as important, which have shown considerable
growth and a marked significance in determining economic growth and
the alleviation of living standards. These are: the augmentation of
health and educational services in terms of their quality and
equitable spatial distribution; expanding social security programs
that rectify imbalances of opportunity and the fair distribution of
national resources; ensuring that governance and management are
efficient and effective; strengthening media outreach to increase
knowledge and awareness by disseminating timely and reliable
information; expanding cultural activities and fine arts profoundly
and extensively so as to invigorate spiritual values. Bolstering our
security and defense capabilities - at times by according it a much
higher priority - is another task for which we have exerted
unflagging efforts. This is not only to safeguard our sovereignty
but also to protect the progress of our development drives.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All the issues I have mentioned so far are not novel. They are
summaries and reminders invoked on this special annual occasion so
as to focus our attention. What have been accomplished are indeed
tremendous relative to the short-span of time and paucity of
opportunities; temporary shortage of resources; and, incessant
external hostilities. But we have never been complacent at any given
time. Even now, the prospects of a better future are not going to
delude us. Definitely and inarguably, nothing will block our
determined efforts to ensure, ultimately, irreversible and
sustainable development through harder work.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Memories are still fresh in our minds of the destruction and
retrogression wreaked by the invasion which intended to strangle our
development and progress. Our progress in defiance of the regressive
forces has not only unsettled our foes, but increased their panic.
It would be an understatement to say that these unwarranted
hostilities are today bordering on madness. Although it is possible
to enumerate many sinister plots, it is the boundary issue that
continues to be brandished as the principal instrument to keep us
entangled under constant threat and uncertainty and thereby impede
our development and stability.
Indeed, five years have elapsed since the ruling of the Boundary
Commission. During those five years, over and above the desire to
hold us hostage to uncertainty, no rock was left unturned in pursuit
of the futile hopes to overthrow the Government, create chaos and
turmoil, sanction the border invasion and reduce Eritrea into a
subservient appendage. One plot is foiled... Another plot is
concocted, and, foiled; ...without let up. The egregious objective
is transparent. The tactic employed constitutes of "buying time
through continuous deception". In the wishful thinking that the hope

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might be realized one day! But until when will this continue?
We recall last year's ploy and its outcome. This year's defunct
scheme within the "constant tactic" revolves around the last
Resolution of the Security Council.
But before we delve into the contents and analysis of the
Resolution, it is helpful to know, for better understanding, how and
by whom the Resolution was crafted in the first place.
The Resolution was drafted and proposed by officials of the US
administration. Unsurprisingly, when the draft was tabled, the other
members of the Security Council did not raise any issue with the
exception of one Member State . When this Member State suggested
amendments to imbue it with some balance, the US representative
insisted that the draft was unalterable. The Resolution was thus
adopted as is in the name of the UN Security Council.
One of the standard ploys that we find repeated in the Resolution is
the attempt to deflect attention from the cardinal border issue and
dilute it by focusing on "the Temporary Security Zone, and
withdrawal from it." Temporary means temporary. At one occasion, the
Special Representative of the Secretary General had disclosed that
the peacekeeping force, deployed then for a year and a half, would
extend its stay to five years. One may ask, "Who authorized or
prodded him to make such a statement? And is there a specific
time-frame for the term "Temporary"? That temporary meant until the
completion of border demarcation is of course apparent to everyone.
US administration officials who have rejected the "final and
binding" Award to flout the rule of law; and who have overtly and
repeatedly impeded the process from proceeding to physical
demarcation after consummating all the necessary technical
processes, have rendered obsolete, more than any other party, the
Temporary Security Zone in real terms. In the circumstances, no
party should expect the Government of Eritrea to watch idly,
paralyzed by willfully created uncertainty, while a quarter of its
sovereign territory is doomed to dereliction deprived from any
development work. To undertake development programmes with the
requisite security arrangements is the sovereign and legal right of
the Government and people of Eritrea. This does not require the
permission of any party. And, the Eritrean Defense Forces have the
obligation and right to conduct development programs and ensure
protection in this part of the country just as they do in other
parts of our sovereign territory. To insinuate that the TPLF regime,
which has been allowed to violate the Peace Agreement, obstruct
demarcation, and occupy sovereign Eritrean territory, has equal
rights in the TSZ as the people and Government of Eritrea, and to
peddle perfidious accusations against Eritrea, is an illegal and
perverse scheme that erodes the stature of the UN Security Council
and that cannot deceive anyone.
The Resolution contains a seemingly novel and significant article
acknowledging Ethiopia 's "acceptance" of the Award. This subterfuge
is deliberately inserted to sow confusion and give undue credit to
the TPLF regime. The fact is the TPLF regime was instructed by US
Administration officials to announce obliquely its "acceptance" of
the Award just prior to the passing of the Resolution. The advice
went: "the announcement will give us the necessary latitude to ram
through the Resolution at the UNSC.... Later until November 2007 and
beyond, you can revert to your usual game of buying time and
scuttling the process through equivocation".
The Article which contains the clause: "pledges support to the
Peacekeeping Force" is hollow by the same analogy as the Article
referring to the "integrity of the TSZ". US Administration officials
have rendered meaningless the Zone and its temporary essence. Issues
that crop up in regard to the Peacekeeping Force are consequences of
this grave transgression. Leaving the fundamental question aside,
the Government of Eritrea's decision to show restraint and refrain
from taking appropriate measures when it knows full well that the
underlying parameters of the TSZ have been violated, and, UNMEE's
deployment rendered meaningless and is being utilized as a cover for
other purposes, must be appreciated indeed.
The Resolution further heralds the appointment of a "Special Envoy
to normalize the relations between the two countries." This too is
another worn-out scheme. How can normalization or regional peace
possibly prevail when Agreements are violated, the Award and the
rule of law breached and sovereign Eritrean territories occupied? No
one can be deceived by this illegal notion, which can serve no
purpose other than to obscure the cardinal issue and to buy time.
The Resolution urges that "the Boundary Commission be enabled to
fulfill its mandate." But how can the Boundary Commission be
expected to fulfill its mandate, when US Administration officials
have for the past five years been concocting incessant obstacles and
"alternative mechanisms" to prevent the EEBC from conducting its
business, and when, even at this late hour, they have coerced and

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cajoled the UNSC to adopt a deceptive Resolution that has nothing to
do with legality and that is aimed at corroding the cardinal
issues.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
After 5 years of deliberate violations of Agreements, arbitration
decisions and the rule of law, the Government and people of Eritrea
cannot be expected to seriously consider an illegal Resolution that
was primarily concocted to spawn more complications. The EEBC must
be allowed to demarcate on the ground its Delimitation Decision
without illegal meddling, obstructions or meanderings. The Security
Council must also be allowed to shoulder its obligations on the
basis of Chapter Seven of the UN Charter and the provisions of the
Peace Agreement. It must otherwise be underlined that primary
responsibility for the obstructions and deleterious consequences of
the past five years, and for new obstacles and negative consequences
that may unfold in the period ahead, does not rest on the Security
Council but on US Administration officials.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I had originally intended to talk about regional issues; especially
the dangerous interventions and complications we see in the Sudan
and Somalia. However, as these matters have been broached in
numerous recent statements and for the sake of brevity, I shall only
ask you to recall the remarks I made at this time last year in
regard to the nature and status of international affairs in the post
Cold War era.
Dear Compatriots at Home and Abroad,
We have scaled formidable challenges, obstructions and complications
to reach a stage with much higher prospects and possibilities.
Still, the challenges that will confront us should not be
underrated. We must thus work with higher vigour and steadfastness.
I wish to thank and extend my congratulations to all my compatriots
at home and abroad and to all branches of the Government and the
PFDJ. Special thanks are, above all, due to our Defense Forces who
are making unparallel contributions to the security and economic
growth of our country by paying heavy sacrifices and enduring lost
opportunities.
In conclusion, I wish to thank all the artists and the youth who
have toiled hard to make the celebrations of the 16th anniversary of
our independence, like other sacred occasions, vibrant and an
occasion for buttressing public awareness and steadfastness.
My best wishes for a happy year and good rains
Glory to our Martyrs who made our existence possible
Victory to the Masses!
End text.

MCINTYRE