End Sanctions As First Step To Normalize Eritrea-US Relations

There is a popular Eritrean song titled “Abey Alo Btsay Tegadalai” (where is my comrade freedom fighter) that poignantly describes the sheer level of sacrifice and difficulties endured, voluntarily, by Eritrean freedom fighters. The song rhetorically asks “but by whose order” did the Tegadalai risk life and limbs. Of course, it was to right the injustice, to live as free men and women, free of any oppression and foreign domination. For who would choose to be dominated by a monstrous foreigner!

I have listened to this song countless times. It is one of the classic songs of the Eritrean struggle for independence. Conversely, one is hopefully inspired to ponder for what purpose had the powerful countries chosen to subjugate the Eritrean people to such cruel occupation and hostility. What do they gain from it but the indelibly hurt feelings it leaves on the Eritrean people? What has the US achieved through the forced federation or the rush by its officials to prevent independence in the last seconds or the numerous inhumane sanctions regime it has implemented since 2009?

Eight Decades of Hostility Without Gain

One can objectively conclude that these countries, who have enabled and financed our oppression, have nothing to show for it. Sure, they have held the country hostage, preventing the economic prosperity we so desire. But the Eritrean people march forward, get tougher when the going gets tough, confident in the belief that they will overcome all obstacles and finally reap the benefits of their independent foreign policy and principle of self-reliance.

That is why it doesn’t make sense for US policymakers to continue their hostility towards the people of Eritrea. Over 80 years of hostility for no discernible gain should be a powerful lesson. In fact, it’s obvious that US interests are best served by having cordial and respectful relationship with the people and government of Eritrea. The two share various interests, including stability and security of the Red Sea arena. That is why it makes sense for the Trump administration to set in motion that positive relationship by immediately lifting the unwarranted, inhumane broad sanctions on Eritrea.

The U.S. Role in the Forced Federation

As is widely known, it was the USA that concocted the dubious “federation” proposal that brought Eritrea under Ethiopian control. As Alemseged Tesfai notes in his latest book An African People’s Quest For Freedom and Justice (pp. 128–129), the US delegate to the UN Ad Hoc Committee, Philip Jessup, in October 1949, was the first to suggest this vaguely defined “federation” as a way to bring under their control the heated debate on the disposition of Eritrea.

This was likely motivated by an August 8, 1948 memorandum prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which indicated that:

“As to the nature of the rights in Eritrea, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would state categorically that the benefits now resulting from operation of our telecommunications center at Asmara—benefits common and of high military importance to both the United States and Great Britain—can be obtained from no other location in the entire Middle East-Eastern Mediterranean area. Therefore, United States rights in Eritrea should not be compromised.”

If this tone-deaf statement – for its obvious disregard of Eritrean rights – was not enough, John Foster Dulles followed it up, in 1952, with another callous statement indicating that justice and Eritreans’ desire to chart their own destiny was secondary to US national security interest in the Red Sea arena.

Washington’s Attempts to Block Independence

US hostility towards Eritrean independence did not stop even when Ethiopia ditched the United States in favor of the Soviet Union. Ambassador Ahmed Tahir Baduri (Eritrea: My Journey’s Memoir, p. 487 onwards) recounts an incredible event of March 1991 that illustrates US officials’ dogged determination to prevent Eritrean independence.

Washington’s Herman Cohen played host to an EPLF delegation that included Ahmed himself and was led by the then EPLF secretary general, Isaias Afwerki, and Ethiopia’s Derg delegation led by Ashagre Yigletu, chairman of the Council of Ministers.

On the first day of the meeting, the US, via Herman Cohen, tried to prevent the Eritrean people’s right to exercise their self-determination by proposing yet another shoddy “improved federation” solution. But the Eritrean delegation masterfully outfoxed the other two parties and asked for two months’ time in order to engage their central committee colleagues for their assessment.

That was March 8th. The US delegation put tremendous pressure on the Eritreans for quicker turnaround but the EPLF stuck to its guns, eventually agreeing to reconvene six weeks later, near the end of May 1991.

The US delegation feared, and knew, a lot can happen in six weeks. Thus, Robert C. Frasure, the Africa Director at the National Security Council, followed the EPLF delegation to Sudan one week later. In Khartoum, he told the Eritreans:

“If you are just looking to meet and discuss with your leadership in the field, we can quickly fly you to anywhere your colleagues are located. Then we can return to Washington as soon as possible.”

It was a ludicrous and desperate proposition that the EPLF delegation turned down. The “btsay tegadalai” that paid incalculable sacrifice for freedom couldn’t be tricked and defeated by such gimmickry and pressure!

After Independence: The Hostility Continued

Ahmed Tahir Baduri’s recounting of the event illustrates the level of US machinations to prevent the inevitable independence of Eritrea. But if the inevitability was clear to Washington, then by what logic did they justify their actions at the last second? Shouldn’t they focus on building cordial relationship with the coming Eritrean leadership? It seemed a clear example of US officials losing sight of their national interest and being bogged down in myopic motives. This, sadly, has been the hallmark of misguided US policy actions against Eritrea for several decades!

For even after independence, the unwarranted hostility continued. As Brownyn Bruton of the Atlantic Council noted in January 2022, the TPLF-led Ethiopia “militarily occupied the sovereign territory of Eritrea for 20 years in violation of a peace agreement and UN ruling. Annexation is an act of war—one that Western officials actively abetted in the case of TPLF, at the expense of a generation of Eritreans.”

Not only was the US-led West enabling and funding this forced occupation of sovereign Eritrean territory, but the US even engineered a brutal UN sanctions regime to choke off the victim, Eritrea, from 2009 until 2018. And yet, it obviously didn’t achieve its intended goal of Eritrean submission—as that is not in the nature of that “btsay tegadalai”!

The Ongoing Sanctions: Punishing Eritrea for Self-Defense

As we speak, the United States maintains a drastically inhumane sanctions regime against Eritrea for defending itself. The Biden administration, in early November 2021, implemented via an executive order, inhumane and unwarranted economic sanctions against the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) plus two other government entities that handle the majority of imports, including education and medical supplies, into the country.

Strangely, sanctioning the EDF effectively reflected US stance that the right to self-defense that all UN member countries enjoy should not be extended to Eritrea. More importantly, it is not hard to imagine that these sanctions would negatively affect the livelihoods of the general public.

Numerous studies, including by CEPR and UNICEF, have laid bare the notion of the so-called “targeted sanctions”. These studies show the biggest burden of the sanctions are borne by the most vulnerable of the society (i.e. the poor, elderly, children and women). It is also widely believed that economic sanctions do not achieve their intended target of regime change.

A Call for Policy Change

There is no justifiable purpose for the US to maintain these inhumane sanctions on the people of Eritrea. What exactly does it even intend to achieve by choking the Eritrean people from their right to enjoy economic benefits that the rest of the world takes for granted?

If it’s regime change or the collapse of Eritrea into chaos, that has utterly failed. In fact, Eritrea is the only peaceful and stable country in the Horn of Africa region. The Trump administration needs to assess these sanctions seriously and consider lifting them immediately—as it benefits the US too!

Brownyn Bruton aptly observed on November 25, 2021 that it was a major win for China to have Eritrea finally sign-on for the Belt and Road Initiative. Considering that this was mere three weeks after the Biden administration’s unjust sanctions, it is not hard to grasp the relevance of lifting these harmful economic sanctions.

As the two countries start engaging in honest discussions with the goal of re-establishing a mutually beneficial relationship, the non-renewal of these killer sanctions would play a huge role in building the confidence between the two countries. Indeed, they should have never been implemented in the first place. But as the Eritrean people are forward-looking, the expiry of these sanctions would herald immensely positive and beneficial relationship for the two peoples!

It would be a major win for the Trump administration as much as for the Eritrean government.

Awet N’hafash!