--- SPEECH OF HON. JOE WILSON OF SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2005 * Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, five years ago a border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia that killed approximately 100,000 people seemed to have ended. Hope for peace emerged as both countries agreed to resolve their dispute through international arbitration. After two years of debate and discussion, the Ethiopia-Eritrea Border Commission, EEBC, issued its final and binding decision in 2002 to resolve the long-standing border dispute. * Ethiopia did not agree with the EEBC's decision, which was meant to be final and binding on both countries. For the past three years since arbitration ended, Ethiopia has refused to implement the EEBC decision, and the border between the two countries has not been demarcated. * Both countries should abide by the decision. I believe our new Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Jendayi Frazer, can assist Ethiopia and Eritrea in working together toward implementing the EEBC decision. * The time to address this issue is now, and not after hostilities begin again. The EEBC decision needs to be fully implemented without any precondition. Eritrea is ready to implement it, and Ethiopia must be urged to do so. * As a Member of the Armed Services Committee and the International Relations Committee, I see this issue as the kind of challenge that America can no longer afford to ignore. The Horn of Africa is a strategic location with strong implications to our success in the Global War on Terrorism. Another border war in the Horn of Africa would undermine the hope for peace in Sudan and weaken American influence with other border disputes in Africa.* American leadership should not pressure both sides to renegotiate the final and binding decision. Eritrea is unwilling to renegotiate the EEBC findings, while Ethiopia is calling for ``dialogue.'' The EEBC articulated the demarcation process and directives needed to determine the exact locations on the ground for border markers. Eritrea supports full implementation of the EEBC decision and demarcation directives and is therefore ready to work out these technical issues of exact placement of border markers as stipulated in the EEBC decision. Ethiopia's calls for more dialogue are superfluous. The claim that the EEBC used a map that was too great a scale to permit clarity of intent is unfounded. * Eritrea is a society almost evenly divided between Muslims and Christians. Eritrea has long been a target of al Qaeda and renewed fighting in the Horn would produce opportunities for it to further undermine America's interests. * Many of the fundamental political decisions made by the United States on resolving the border matter were a product of the previous Administration. It is time for our diplomats who agree with President Bush when he says that the spread of democracy, respecting the rule of law and freedom are key to future security, to focus on this issue. * Mr. Speaker, I respectfully urge the Administration to convince the Ethiopian government to abide by the EEBC's final decision on the border to be mutually beneficial for Eritrea and Ethiopia.