That's an anti-human-sacrifice story. It says "even if people are prepared to carry out human sacrifice for God, he doesn't really want it"
Well shame on me for looking at it negatively :o) Naive that I am at time I didn't look at it that way. I see your point.
No Ethiopia/Eritrea is vast majority Christian and Somalia Muslim, religion isn't involved in the chaos there.
oneworld.org
Ethiopia
Ethiopia is landlocked. It has a 1,000 kilometre long, imprecisely demarcated border with Eritrea in the north and northeast, and elsewhere shares borders with Djibouti, Somaliland, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. The country has a diversity of peoples, cultures
and religions. It lies at two crossroads: that of the Arab world and Africa and that of the Christian and Muslim world. About forty percent of the population is Muslim, while half is Christian, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most important religious
institution. There are no serious religious tensions.
Since the centralisation of the administration (from 1850 onwards) most Ethiopian rulers have faced the same challenges: they have tried to further centralise their administration and expand their territory. Ethiopia has rarely presented a united front in fights with
foreign aggressors and its rulers have usually combined a policy of divide and rule with a culture of intolerance and violence. Ethnic differences have often accentuated these tensions.
According to the most recent census (1984) there are 76 ethnic groups in Ethiopia. These include the Oromo, Amhara, Tigray, and Somali. Ethiopia’s traditional ruling class is drawn from the Amhara and Tigray groups who have often fought each other. The
Oromo, by far the largest ethnic group in the country, have traditionally felt themselves to be oppressed by the Amhara rulers. Much of the area they inhabit was conquered by the Amhara around 1850. Some Oromo also feel oppressed by the Tigray, who
dominate the presently ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF) government. Others have little trouble accepting the ‘ethnic federalism’, the decentralisation and regionalisation of power in the country, which was introduced after 1991.
Eritrea
At the end of the nineteenth century Eritrea was colonised by Italy. In 1941 the British assumed the role of the Italians. In 1952, endorsed by a resolution, Eritrea was put into a federation with Ethiopia on an equal footing. Ten years later it was brutally annexed
by Emperor Haile Selassie. This act of aggression marked the beginning of a war which was to last for three decades. During a National Convention in Ethiopia in 1991 the new Ethiopian government, led by Meles Zenawi, accepted the ‘de facto’ independence
of Eritrea. Following an UN-supervised referendum the State of Eritrea formally acceded to independence on May 24, 1993.
Eritrea has nine ethnic groups, the Tigrinya being the largest. The population is equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Ethnic and religious tensions are negligible. The country borders Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti. The Eritrean port of Assab, with its oil
refinery, was a free port for Ethiopia until the border crisis. Eritrea’s long coastline has enabled it to develop close ties with the Arab world over the centuries.
As long as they found a common enemy in the Mengitsu Haile Mariam administration, relations between the rebel organisations in Tigray/Ethiopia and Eritrea were close. After 1991 both countries continued to be led by former rebel leaders, Meles Zenawi in
Ethiopia and Isayas Afewerki in Eritrea. They were personal friends. However, their friendship could not prevent the continuation of the underlying tensions created by the differing aspirations of their organisations. These tensions surfaced in 1997 when Eritrea
introduced its own currency, the nacfa. Previously the Ethiopian birr had been the common currency. The new currency came to be seen as an expression of Eritrea’s sovereignty and an indication of economic differences between the two countries. Ethiopia
believed that the nacfa had been overvalued by Eritrea, and demanded that all financial transactions between the two countries be expressed in American dollars.
This was a serious setback for the traditionally close trading relations between the two countries. Migrants and small traders from both sides had crossed the border freely for centuries and Eritrean merchants were used to buying large parts of the coffee-harvest
in Ethiopia and transporting it to one of the Red Sea ports for export. This trade ended with the de facto closure of the border. Poor families on both sides suffered severely, some losing half of their income and being forced to become dependent on relief. On
both sides of the frontier police and military patrols were stepped-up and occasional armed exchanges were reported. This was the situation in early 1998.
Ethiopia - International Relations
Ethiopia’s relations with its other neighbours have also been strained. Credible sources report that Ethiopian troops have been raiding the Gedo Region in south-west Somalia since 1996. Ethiopia justifies these incursions as responses to AlIttihad AlIslam, a
Somali Muslim-militant group, accused of bomb attacks in Addis Ababa. In 1999 Ethiopia and Eritrea expanded their border conflict into Somalia, initially by arming a number of local warlords. Ethiopia then captured several towns. In June 1999 the Ethiopians
captured Baidoa to the north west of Mogadishu. Baidoa had previously been held by the warlord Hussein Aideed, an ally of Eritrea.
Ethiopia’s relation with Sudan remains complex. Both countries support each other’s rebel factions. After the outbreak of the border conflict with Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan tried to normalise their relationship.
In Ethiopia’s relations with its neighbours different issues are at stake. Ideology and stability seem to be central to the conflicts with the radical-Muslim government of Sudan and militant-Muslim groups in Somalia. In the conflict with Eritrea it is the demarcation
of borders which is critical with economic motives also playing an important role. Many Ethiopians had great difficulty accepting the secession of their Northern Province in 1991.
Eritrea - International Relations
Eritrea has had poor relations with Sudan since 1993 when armed Muslim-radicals were reported to have entered Eritrea from Sudan. In late 1995 the two countries accused each other of harbouring and training each other’s rebels. Khartoum was upset about
Eritrea’s decision to host the Sudanese oppositional NDA (National Democratic Alliance) in Asmara. The NDA is a coalition of the southern and northern opposition groups in Sudan. Another strain on the relation has been the continuing presence of some
320,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan.
In late 1995 Eritrea sent troops to some of the Hanish-islands in the Red Sea, claiming they were not Yemenite but Eritrean territory. Yemen and Eritrea finally agreed to seek a decision from the Permanent Court for Arbitration. In 1998 the Court declared
some islands as Yemenite, and others as Eritrean. The two parties reconciled themselves to the decision. In this conflict Eritrea combined a show of military force with willingness to accept the decisions of an internationally recognised body.
Several issues, apart from power and politics, are at stake in Eritrea’s relations with its neighbours. Ideology has been at the centre of the conflict with Sudan. Eritrea adheres to a strict demarcation between state and religion. Eritrea accused Sudan of trying to
export its fundamentalist revolution. After mediation by Qatar however, since May 1999 the two countries have begun to restore diplomatic relations, to live peacefully together and to refrain from adopting a policy of exporting ideologies.
In the clashes with Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia, the demarcation of borders has been the issue. Economic motives are also important. For example, in the conflict with Yemen, the possibility of discovering oil in the Red Sea and the potential for tourism, were
contributing factors. In general, the Eritreans whose fight for independence lasted three decades, are very sensitive about any threat to their sovereignty.
regards
Kastel
a cute and cuddly Canadian |
