The study explores the phenomenon of conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia
during 1941 and 2011. The Eritrean Liberation Organizations (ELO)
did not only fight against Ethiopian governments for thirty years; they
also fought against each other for supremacy. The role played by the
Ethiopian Students Movement (ESM) in propagating a Marxist revolution,
and forging a generation of Ethiopian revolutionaries, is also discussed. ESM
branched out into two parties known by their acronyms: MEISON and EPRP. This
book also aims to improve our understanding of the struggle against the Eritrean
dictatorship.
The study demonstrates that the claim the Unionist Party sabotaged the Biet Ghiorgis
Conference is not sustained by facts. Similarly, the book concludes that none
of the Eritrean political parties, measured by the values of national unity, and anticolonialism,
were nationalists. Proper Eritrean nationalism was formulated by the
Eritrean Revolution. We also found that Eritrean irredentists, who conducted armed
struggle against the British Military Administration and Italian settlers, were not
mere bandits. Finally, we uncovered that the first elected Chief Executive of Eritrea,
Tedla Bairu, resigned on his own volition.
It is useful to keep in mind that the United Nations sanctioned the Eritrean/boundary
twice: a) the 1950 UN Resolution on the Federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia
and its implementation in 1952; and b) the Referendum of 1993. From this perspective,
the so-called “Boundary Issue” has to do with the existing state of war between
Eritrea and Ethiopia and not the already established Eritrean/Ethiopian boundary.
In the concluding chapter, the book proposes a peaceful resolution to the Eritrean
conflict within the context of Eritrean/Ethiopian cooperation.
Herui Tedla Bairu, a political scientist, is one of the founders, organizers, and theoreticians
of the Ethiopian Students Movement (ESM) in the early 1960’s. He was also
the Vice President of the Eritrean Liberation Front and the head of its Political Bureau
for the period 1971-75. Later, he, became the General Secretary of the Eritrean
Democratic Movement (1977-90). After independence Herui served as a member of
the Eritrean parliament. He later became Secretary General of the Eritrean Alliance,
consisting of sixteen organizations, for the period 2002-2005. He is presently the
chairman of the influential Eritrean Congress Party.
THE RED SEA PRESS
www.theredseapress.com
RSP
Politics, History/AFRICA
RSP
and Eritrea
Ethiopia A front row look at issues of conflict and the
potential for a peaceful resolution
herui tedla bairu
Book_FC_BC.indd 1 2016-04-18 09.49