We are outraged that the US ambassador to the United Nation; Dr. Susan Rice; is illegally pushing the UN Security Council to place more sanctions against the people of Eritrea. This latest call for sanctions, like the one in 2009, is politically motivated and doesn’t serve the national interests of the United States.

The allegations being thrown at Eritrea are pure fabrication. The charges, concocted by Ethiopia, are groundless. For example, the Ethiopian accusation of a “bombing plot of an African Union session in Addis Ababa” like what a US embassy cable from 2006 exposed is a pure fabrication by the Ethiopia government. The Somalia Monitoring Group (SEMG) report’s main actor of this fictional plot, Colonel Gemetchu Ayana, is in fact an Ethiopian army officer, not an Eritrean as the report falsely alleges.

The draft resolution being pushed by the US Ambassador to the UN itself was drafted and is orchestrated by Ethiopia and those who want to prop up the lawless regime in Ethiopia at the expense of the people of Eritrea. We would like to remind you that Ethiopia is a country that had brought untold suffering on the people of Eritrea for six decades and it continues to do so.

The Eritrean population, which suffered seven decades of repeated UN injustices, shouldn’t be made to suffer more injustices by illegal policies. Besides, putting more sanctions against Eritrea and the innocent people of Eritrea will not bring peace to the war ravaged Horn of Africa; in fact, this is a reckless act designed to reignite existing simmering conflicts and to create new ones.

Finally, the solution is not in scapegoating or isolating Eritrea. The solution is on constructive engagement. That is why we strongly urge your administration lift the sanctions that were imposed on this young nation on Dec. 23, 2009 and push Ethiopia to implement the final and binding demarcation decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) without preconditions or further delay. Ethiopia’s refusal to implement this decision is at the heart of the entire crisis in the Horn of Africa. It is this issue that must be addressed first and foremost.

Again, we strongly believe that the solution relies on positive engagment rather than a hasty, illegal and unfounded accusations; therefore passing unwarranted sanction resoltions.

Eritrean Sanctions Must be Annulled and Repealed Today!