Lloyd Axworthy Acting as Ethiopia’s Special Envoy

These days Lloyd Ax worthy seems to have an axe to grind with the Eritrean Government for its refusal to give him a green light to visit Asmara and conduct his shuttle diplomacy to achieve Meles’ proposal for an alternative mechanism to settle the Ethio-Eritrean border conflict. His several remarks in the media portraying Eritrea as party responsible for the stalemate and the latest trip to knock state department’s door to sell Meles’ 5ppp where Seyum failed to find a clear response for the initiative are few examples that show the good envoy is slowly being transformed from UNSG’s special envoy for Ethiopia and Eritrea to Ethiopian special envoy.

In my humble opinion, there is no doubt that Axworthy himself was the victim of UNSG- Koffi Anan, and other guarantors of the Alger’s peace deal who exploited his stature in the international mediation arena to pave them an escape route from carrying out their duties and responsibilities, i.e., to impose tangible measures on the party that refused to abide by provisions of the Alger’s agreement.

Mr. Lloyd’s mission was caught in a catch-22 situation right from get to go. On several occasions, he reiterated that his mission wasn’t to implement Meles’ plea to UNSG to come up with an alternative mechanism to “redress” misrules made by the border commission but to create a conducive environment for dialog to unravel the stalemate that is preventing the border from being demarcated. However, when he is challenged by Eritrean government (GOE) to lay out his points for the dialog, the special envoy decided to hide under the radar. According to the government of Eritrea , Mr. Axworthy hasn’t responded to its request to lay out his points for dialog to unravel the stalemate created by Ethiopia’s refusal to honor international laws and norms. Had he had a concrete plans to unravel the obstacles without dipping his nose in the final and binding nature of the border commission’s verdict, he wouldn’t have find himself in the dilemma he is in at the present.

His hostile attitude toward Eritrea began when he was refused entry to Eritrea to meet GOE officials to discuss his obscure plan to create conducive environment for a dialog between the two nations. The special envoy still doesn’t have any good explanation for the most repetitive question he has been bombarded by Eritrean officials – and the question is “Dialog on what?” and the good envoy seems to run short of words on this important question because from get to go he assured Eritrean officials that his mission will not tamper with the final and binding nature of the border commission’s verdict and at the same time he couldn’t invoke points like normalization and other issues as Eritrea never refused to talk on these points as long as Ethiopia is willing to abide by the border commission’s decision. Eritrea is only rejecting the idea of holding the demarcation hostage or put it as a precondition to dialog on host of issues that lead toward normalization.

So Mr. Axworzy’s failure to present his mission’s salient points in crystal clear manner has tainted his mission as dishonest and one-sided which is primarily designed to save faces of the UNSG and the guarantors of the Algiers agreement from calling spade a spade and use the leverage at their disposal to pressure Ethiopia to swallow the bitter medicine and accept the border verdict without ifs and buts.

To make matters worth, Mr. Ax worthy and UNSG, instead of accepting the failure of their ill-started mission, they seem that they are bent on going ahead with their mission regardless Eritrea’s misgivings on the appointment and mission in general. In fact, it is confusing to see the UNSG’s insistence to continue seeking mandate for his appointment of the special envoy after promising Eritrea’s president that the special envoy’s mission was a non- starter as Eritrea didn’t accept the legality of the mission.

His latest remarks like confining the peace ball in Eritrea’s court while fully knowing the fact that Ethiopia has always been the main stumbling block in settling the border conflict is ample evidence the good envoy is out there to settle scores with Eritrea for tampering with his international reputation and for its refusal to lay red carpet for him regardless the legality of his mission. These types of remarks alone would deny him the opportunity to set his foot on Eritrean soil as a tourist let alone as a special envoy who is appointed to find a remedy for the tragic border conflict. In his campaign, to corner Eritrea, the special envoy assumed the role of Ethiopian special envoy when he took it up to himself to go to the state department to help Ethiopian foreign minister convince American officials to accept Meles’ 5PPP.

In the latest news release by Ethiopian government media (ENA), in his trip to Addis to update Meles Zenawi about his discussions with state department officials to promote Meles’ 5PPP, was quoted saying that the peace plan has received a wide international acceptance and branded it as an important measure to solve Ethio-Eritrean dispute.

To sum up, all these remarks by the so called special envoy solidify the fact that he is determined to unjustly portray Eritrea as stumbling block for questioning the legality of his appointment and mission. Now after all these uncalled for attacks by special envoy, even if he comes up with details of his plans , it would be very hard to convince Eritrean officials that he is sincere and impartial man. So for all intensive purposes, UNSG has no choice but scrap this whole special envoy circus and do the right thing--pressure Ethiopia to abide by border’s commission verdict for the sake of peace and development for the people of both countries and the region in general.

(Million Semere)