HENOK MERHATSIDK 1.pdf - Addis Ababa University

The Addis –Asmara- Kampala axis had shortest life span because the Asmara regime
invaded Ethiopia in 1998. It was a great blow for the US and Uganda who firmly believed
that the strong Ethiopia and Eritrea can contain the influence of Sudan in the region. US and
Uganda tried to settle the conflict peacefully. However, the former friends EPLF and TPLF
were not narrow down their gap and this became cause for the death of 70, 000 young and
productive forces from both sides. This time is important in changing both the internal and
external political dynamics of Ethiopia. One of the clear incidents was the rise of Ethiopian
nationalism that cooled down after the TPLF come to power. According to some spectators,
Ethiopians all over the country jointly fought and defeated the Eritrean belligerent forces and
forced Eritrea to withdraw from Bademe. Nonetheless, Ethiopian was able to control the
Bademe area and forced the Eritrean government to accept peace deal mediated by
international community. The outcome of the war was that Ethiopia and Eritrea deported the
citizens of each other. However, the most dangerous of all incidents was the rift between the
executive committee of the TPLF. During this time, the attention of the Ethiopian
government was highly devoted to the war with Eritrea and its internal matters rather than
fighting terrorist groups (Tronvoll, 2009: 208-212). Additionally, Eritrea becomes another
source of terrorism it is always accused of training, arming the UIC (Union of Islamic Court)
that controlled Mogadishu and known for its Islamic extremism. Eritrea does not share any
border with Somalia but its intervention is to create another front to weaken Ethiopian
government by providing military assistance to the UIC (Medhane, 2001: 77-87).
When the May 2005 election was held the TPLF had not recovered fully from the war with
Eritrea, and the rift in its inner core, and the dissatisfaction of large size of Ethiopian
population feeling that the government sold the military victory for the rhetoric of ‘peace
deal’. EPRDF lost all seats in Addis Ababa, but one; the government declared state of
emergency even before voting was finalized. The two main opposition parties CUD and
UEDF opposed what the government has done. And when their supporters went to streets,
security forces opened fire and killed mainly demonstrators. When the new government
established in September 2005, the situation was not solved, rather the CUD leaders were
jailed (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010; Balsvic, 2007:168-184).
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