· Eritrea and the Sana’a Forum for Cooperation
The sixth Summit of the Sana'a Forum for Co-operation took place on Tuesday, 30 December, 2008, in Khartoum . Apart from Prime Minister Meles who was the Chairman of the 5th Summit which was convened in Addis Ababa in February 2007, four other Heads of State and Government of the region took part at the Summit: Omar Hassan Ahmed al Bashir, President of the Republic of Sudan and Chairman of the sixth Summit of Sana'a Forum for Co-operation, Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of the Republic of Yemen, Isamil Omar Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti and Hassan Hussien 'Nur Adde', Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.
Prime Minister Meles spoke in his capacity as chair of the Forum Since February 2007 at the opening of the Summit . To be precise, it was a report on the activities of the Forum since February 2007 that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Submitted to his colleagues. It was a frank report that he presented. There was no concealing of weaknesses. He underlined the fact that even though the Sana'a Forum for cooperation has a "long agenda items in the economic, trade and social areas," that it has "not moved as rapidly as it "ought to in these areas." This does not, he emphasized, demonstrate that member states have no commitment to the Forum. That member states do have commitment to the process "can be gleaned" he told his colleagues" from the more than a dozen agreements, protocols and MOUs that….have [been] signed." "Indeed," he went on, "we have made significant progress in developing co-operation in the hydropower sector and towards interconnecting our electric power systems. Highlighting the critical importance of hydropower in bringing the countries of the region together, he said that this " is an area that can be expanded even further to be a firm basis for integrating our region."
The Ethiopian Prime Minister used the occasion also to say a few words on what the Forum stands for, and what it is not, "Sectarian", it is not, he said. It is not " designed to exclude some" and "embrace others selectively," he told the regional leaders and other participants of the summit. He explained that the "Forum has no parochial objectives and that it is " open to all", to all those who share those prepositions which have brought members of the Forum together -- a secure and stable Horn of Africa-Southern Red Sea Region; conviction that the countries of the region have a common destiny which makes it imperative that they strengthen their co-operation in all areas of economic activities for whose achievement the fostering of mutual trust and confidence is indispensable; and devotion to principles of international law governing inter-state relations and to treating each other with decency and constructive attitude."
With Djibouti having now joined the Forum, though as an observer, the Sana'a Forum for cooperation has now come to embrace all the countries of the Horn of Africa and Southern Red Sea, that is apart from Eritrea which is conspicuously but, not surprisingly, absent from the Khartoum Summit.
Eritrea is absent from the Forum, not because it is excluded. As Prime Minister Meles emphasized at the opening Session of the Summit , the Sana'a Forum does not exclude anyone and it is open to all countries of the region. The Forum, as he said, is not sectarian, and is not selective. The Sana'a Forum embraces all those who subscribe to the tenets that member states adhere to. Obviously, what Eritrea has been committed to in practice is the destabilization of the whole region, though no doubt its primary focus is Ethiopia . That is why the Ethiopian Prime Minister told the Summit that as far as the problem between Ethiopia and Eritrea is concerned, that "there is little new to report." " Eritrea " he underlined "has continued to be more, not less, bellicose." No doubt, he emphasized, Eritrea 's "proclivity for being a menace to peace in our region including in Ethiopia , has not been matched by its capacity to act on its belligerent desire". But still, he went on, "the damage being wrought by Eritrea cannot be underestimated" This is true, the Ethiopian Prime Minister said" whether in Ethiopia , Somalia , or in Djibouti , the latest victim of Eritrean aggression. On this latest Eritrean adventure, Prime Minister Meles told to leaders of the Sana'a Forum, "The Eritrean move against Djibouti --- which has been only mildly condemned by the Security Council --- is a naked aggression and destabilization attempt which has absolutely no justification." Mindful of Eritrea 's repeated deceptive statements on its behaviour toward Djibouti , Prime Minister Meles said, "The Eritrean aggression against Djibouti should not be mixed with, or linked to, any other issue, including the crisis between Ethiopia and Eritrea ." "Despite the mendacious insinuation by Eritrea to the contrary, Eritrea has absolutely no justification for its hostile act against Djibouti .
It is also this same attitude and behavior of Eritrea which explains its conspicuous absence from Khartoum for the Summit of the Sana'a Forum for co-operation. It is not, in other words, the nature of the Forum that one should look into to try to understand the reason behind Eritrea's non-membership of the Sana'a Forum, but rather into what the Eritrean leadership has made Eritrea to stand for in our sub-region --- a symbol of lack of decency in inter-state relations, of divisiveness rather than harmony, of proclivity for tearing each other down rather than building one another up, and of all disrespect for all those principles that are the foundation for civilized intercourse among nations and for mutual trust and understanding. These same reasons also explain why Eritrea has suspended itself from IGAD