Isayas Afewerki

Speaking on Kenyan television KBC, Eritrean president Isayas Afewerki has condemned the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia. Isayas said the Ethiopians were working at the behest of the USA, and that it was Eritrea's right to support Somalia.

He said the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) was "removed by an invasion, in spite of the decisions of the Security Council, which called on neighboring countries not to intervene or even contribute. The government in Ethiopia had its agenda to serve the options put in place by the USA, and went into this quagmire, removed Islamic courts, in spite of the preference of the Somalis."

"We are their neighbors, their partners in this sub-region, we should help, we shouldn't be interfering in their own affairs. The history of Ethiopia and Somalia is a long one. This time it was not even justified for the government in Addis Ababa to go and invade Somalia to serve the interests of the USA. We are against that. We are open and we will say, we are not hesitating at any one second to support the Somalis and support their choice."

"Anyone who wants to address the issue of the Islamic Courts will have to address the issue in Mogadishu. We are not fools. We have to be realistic... Why would Eritrea be blamed for allowing Somalis to stay here in this country?"

Border dispute with Ethiopia

Isayas said the border dispute with Ethiopia had been resolved some years back, and therefore called on the Security Council to remove "the occupation".

"And we have been appealing to the international community, the Security Council, that since we had the problem resolved and the border demarcated - everybody knows every point on the border - we would ask the Security Council to remove the occupation that exists after all these years. That, probably, is one of the challenges, but we hold to our legal position and continue to find a resolution to this problem without being distracted or held hostage to this problem.

"Our relationship with Ethiopia is historical. No one can ever change this relationship... The government of the day is responsible for all the problems. The opportunity we lost the last 10 years - we could have worked together to achieve more... That opportunity lost because of the choice or preferences or miscalculations of this government, and now again with this occupation we can't possibly imagine that we do normalization under the circumstances. First things first. These things need to be corrected. The occupation needs to be resolved, then we can imagine things will naturally take their due course."

Ties with USA

Although he said "we have no problem with the USA", Isayas however added that "its influence, its global hegemony, its influence on regional and international institutions, its veto power, its intervention, its misguided policies are what people call the international community.

"Unwanted interventions will have to be prevented. If there is going to be economic cooperation, it has to be based on impacting programmes that enable this continent to do on its own. We don't need the protection of the USA. We don't need spoon feeding from the USA. We don't need solutions from the USA. We can solve our problems".

Terrorism

He said that the definition of terrorism had been distorted and that terrorism in Africa could be handled by Africans themselves. "The definition of terrorism has been distorted... We don't want terrorism in this region... We need to address this issue locally. We don't need any outside help. We know better than anyone else. If there is any trouble anywhere or any activity, we are aware more than anyone else. We have an interest more than anyone else on this matter... We know who is a terrorist and who is not a terrorist.

"After 9/11 this issue has become a pretext for US intervention and complication of problems here and there... When you have internal domestic problems, any opposition and anyone who has a different idea is a terrorist. So, both the definition and the orientation has been distorted. We are not party to that. We remain committed to fighting any activity that brings in instability and complication in this region, from outside and from within, without any justifiable reason".

He, however, said that "if we are talking about international terrorism, that is a different matter."

Aid

He said Africa and the West needed to have a genuine partnership, and that at the moment this wasn't the case because Africans gained nothing in the end. "It's not that we are against aid. We don't need aid. We have our own resources... Aid should not be crippling. Aid is a temporary solution for problems."

He called for the strengthening of African institutions and the breaking of the dependency syndrome. "Rather than strengthen our own institutions we depend on institutions from outside."

At a time when some AU heads of state met recently in Tanzania to promote the setting up of an AU government, Isayas rubbished the administration of the organization saying it "is stuck in so many problems. It does have the organizational capacity. The diverse opinions and the mismanagement of this organization has become a liability."