Once More on Negotiating Strategy   Mr President, please accept my cordial salutations. Multiple signals are indicating that the Yemeni fiasco is revisiting us!   1. Accepting the arbitration method of conflict resolution means accepting the instrumentality of bargaining. What is Eritrea going to give in the game of give and take?       2. What is the task of the UN boundary commission if the case is, in the end, going to land on the laps of an arbitration court?   3. In arbitration it is wrong to surrender your case to a legal firm whose very reason for their corporate existence is to maximise profit and enhance reputation. The case should be in the hands of Eritrean strategists and experts: lawyers are a supplementary resource. If foreign lawyers have to be hired at all they should be recruited individually from several walks of life: law firms should never be recruited!   To require the demarcation of the entire border between Eritrea and Ethiopia is to question the sovereignty of Eritrea. In order to avoid this dangerous predicament, the Eritrean government should insist upon the following points. Firstly, the findings of the boundary commission should be deposited with the UN official structure and not with officials (even if it involves the person of the General Secretary itself). Secondly, it is the relevant official agency, and not the officials of the United Nations, that should communicate, in written form, the findings of the boundary commission to the Eritrean and Ethiopian sides. Thirdly, the boundary commission should have no official contact with both side of the conflict as regards its findings. Fourthly, the disputed areas that should be defined 2 prior to the commencement of the work of the commission of arbitration. Lastly, the authority of the arbitration commission, and the rules governing its procedures, should be defined and agreed upon before hand. In this way it is possible to preserve the principle of Eritrean sovereignty. If the ethnic principle (Ali Tena or Za’al Ambessa) is accepted, in lieu of the territorial principle, then Eritrean sovereignty shall be open to future infringement. This trap should be avoided at all cost.   In view of the fact that the sovereignty of Eritrea has been legitimised by the Eritrean people and the UN via the instrumentality of a referendum, changes that affect it are not acceptable to Eritreans and the world community. It must also be pointed out that the transitional nature of the Eritrean government, and the absence of constitutional blessing by the Eritrean people, make it incumbent upon the government to inform this noble and trusting people about how things stand instead of asking them to accept accomplished facts. Mr President don’t you think it is sad that the Eritrean government should fail to mobilise the available capabilities of its citizens? Cordially yours,   Herui T. Bairu Stockholm/00-04-09

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