By Tecola W. Hagos

As a result of my rereading and reconsideration of material overlooked by me and on the basis of new information as indicated below, I have withdrawn my recent review and commentary of Henze�s book. [Paul B. Henze, Ethiopia in Mengistu�s Final Years: The Derg in Decline, Vol. I, Shama Books, Addis Ababa : Ethiopia , 2007; Ethiopia in Mengistu�s Final Years: Until the Last Bullet, Vol. II, Shama Books, Addis Ababa : Ethiopia , 2007.] I apologize to all Ethiopians and others for my premature accolade of Paul Henze, a man who was either supportive or at the very center of the conspiracy to landlock Ethiopia by officials of the Government of the United States and bring about the independence of Eritrea . I have no respect for such degenerative policy or the authors of such destructive scheme against the oldest nation on Earth. Behind all that is the hand of Egypt and that of the Arabs, Ethiopia �s historic enemies. However, what I wrote about individual Americans for their charitable deeds and their individual concern for Ethiopia stands. Here below is one good reason for withdrawing my mistaken positive remarks about Henze in my review and commentary of his book.

Henze had made some very disturbing remarks especially whenever he met with Eritrean political leaders and radicalized Eritreans in forums organized by Eritreans. One such situation was his presentation at a conference organized by a group that called itself �Eritreans for Peace and Democracy� held November 3-4, 1990 in Baltimore . His presentation was published as Chapter IV in Eritre�s War (Shama Books, Addis Ababa , 2001). In his presentation, Henze presupposed the independence of Eritrea at least a year earlier in 1990 from the fall of the Derg and also anticipated the landlocking of Ethiopia as a vehicle for Eritrea�s economic fantastic growth by exploiting the �raw material� (resources) of Ethiopia and �the labor� of Tigray as if it is an entitlement for Eritreans, but that Ethiopians have no ambition or capacity for development. Such extremely provocative and insulting statement was the closest Henze spelled out in the open his racism if he had been hiding it all along.

Dr. Ghelawdewos Araia, who was one of the panelists at the Conference of November 1990 in Baltimore , has informed me recently after reading my Review and Commentary that he had challenged Henze, who was also a panelist at that Conference, when Henze made his outrageous and insulting presentation. The following is the critical presentation by Henze as Ghelawdewos recollected now from the actual Henze's paper presented at that Conference and latter published by Eritreans for Peace and Democracy:

"From the viewpoint of geography, culture, history, and experience, the most logical regions for Eritreans to relate to economically is the rest of Ethiopia . Tigre , e.g. is a natural reservoir of labor for Eritrea . Ethiopian regions farther to the south are a natural source of raw materials for Eritrean industries. The rest of Ethiopia constitutes a vast market into which Eritrean industry and commercial enterprises can expand. Eritrea is a natural outlet to the sea for the rest of Ethiopia , for Tigre , Gondar , and Wollo there is no practical substitute."

This precious information from Ghelawdewos, with other documentary evidence, completely changed my naively accommodating views expressed in my Review and Commentary on the role played by Henze and other officials of the United States Government in the ongoing destruction of Ethiopia . Henze�s statement contained in his 2007 Book [Henze, Vol 2, 167] that I reviewed had watered down his initial 1990 Baltimore presentation, thus he has misled me and other readers about his involvement and the intensity of his work against the national vital interest, existence, and integrity of Ethiopia . I hope readers would take into account the fact that in part my motive in reviewing Henze�s book was the desire to encourage friendly relations with influential American Citizens even when their background is questionable. I never intended to rehabilitate enemies who are camouflaging or wrapping themselves in white-flag, including Henze, who are directly responsible or supportive of schemes in fracturing and destroying Ethiopia .

Henze�s statements from such account and written records thus confirm the fact that Henze was either supportive or on the team of the conspiratorial United States Government Officials (at the very latest, since 1970) that designed the landlocking of Ethiopia in order to benefit Eritrea by making Ethiopia dependant on Eritrea for its access to the Sea and the outside World. At the very least it shows that Henze was aware of that conspiracy and also supportive of such diabolical scheme. Mind you, this conspiracy against the integrity and sovereignty of Ethiopia was incubated and nourished long before Mengistu Hailemariam came into power, and long before the newly installed Military Regime led by Mengistu became actively hostile against the United States Government.

In short, any rationalization by later United States Governments i.e., both the Carter and the Clinton Administration (even worse) support of the Liberation Fronts of Tigray and that of Eritrea as a counter measure to eradicate communism is hog-wash. Rather the United States Government used that incident to bring about its long harbored resentment of a proud �Black� independent civilization still alive and kicking to fruitation by land locking Ethiopia and strangling it with hostile forces under the sway of Ethiopia �s historic enemies. Of course, Egypt , the oil-rich Saudi Arabia , and the Arabs in General were all behind the scene putting pressure on the United States Government through their highly paid lobbyists and contacts.

For Egypt it was the precious life-giving Ethiopian Blue Nile fresh water and Ethiopian soil that yearly inundate that barren parched dessertified land the core of Egypt�s hidden agenda against Ethiopia; for the rest of the Arab world, the desire was the destruction of the only predominantly Christian nation (70%) in the region that had been a singular and stubborn check to their barbaric expansion. By contrast to the persecution and utter disfranchisement suffered constantly by Christians (particularly by Ethiopians)  in the Arab countries in Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Syria , Iraq and the Gulf States , Moslems in Ethiopia are fully integrated both in the social and economy of Ethiopia . In Ethiopia , there is no state sponsored ban or censor against Islam or limit to the building of Mosques. Moslem and Christian Ethiopians live in harmonious and peaceful society of fellowship and familial cohesion. After all Ethiopia �s King was the first Sovereign who gave refugee to the fleeing Family members of the Prophet and his followers in AD 622 when his small band of supporters were persecuted and on the brink of being annihilated by the Quarash. And contrary to the clear admonishment of the Prophet that his followers never wage war against Ethiopia , the leaders of Arab Moslem Governments have financed, trained and supported insurgencies against Ethiopia . They are still waging war against Ethiopia .  

Henze was at his worst in his Baltimore presentation. Knowingly or unknowingly he was insulting Ethiopians and literally sucking up to Eritreans. It was the most disgusting and ignoramus idea ever stated by him in all of his presentations. Even in his latest work he does not seem to realize how absurd and totally out of step he was in his supposition and his insulting of Ethiopians again in volume two of the book I reviewed, where he simply repeated his Baltimore statement misleadingly watered down some, yet without restraint about �the desirability of Eritrea concentrating on economic recovery and becoming a force for energizing the economy of all of Ethiopia, With impact on the Horn/Red Sea region as a whole, becoming �the Switzerland of Africa.�� [Henze, Vol 2, 167; emphasis mine]  What ever merit I saw initially in Henze�s book is totally eclipsed and discredited completely by his support of the landlocking of Ethiopia and his continued misinforming of the public and defending the worst brutal and treasonous dictator Meles Zenawi and his Government.

Moreover, as an issue of regional policy, the whole scheme of fracturing and land locking Ethiopia was absurd and against well established principles and norms of international law�against principles of jus cogens. As it turns out the Governments of the United States and that of Britain are now threatening Eritrea with international United Nations backed sanction. By undermining Ethiopia the West has �cut its own nose to spite its face� and plunged an upright people, �the blameless Ethiopians,� into unnecessary great hardship and permanent conflict. I hope the Obama Administration would correct the injustice in land locking Ethiopia , cutting its Afar people in two, and illegally constituting a hitherto nonexistent �State of Eritrea� to take all of the coastal territories of Ethiopia as a strategic ploy by the United States which strategy has backfired. After all, Ethiopia historically is the only Sovereign State that has legal and factual rights to all of the Afar coastal territories on the Red Sea and the islands thereof.

Everyone else, including the present State of � Eritrea ,� with any color of ownership rights over Afar coastal territories is based on some form of colonial intrusions, invalid under international law. In terms of the hierarchy of rights, Ethiopia �s claim has precedent than any other state�s claims. Ethiopia is an ancient self-contained independent sovereign state that had long, historically verifiable, sovereignty over the Afar coastal territories. It is also a founding Member of the United Nations itself, it is the first nation that suffered Fascist aggression in the prelude of the Second World War, and a nation recognized at the Paris Peace Conference as a victim of Fascism and Nazism. It is in the best interest of the United States and the West to recognize the great value and importance of a friendly powerful Ethiopia in that part of the World�a region that will continue to be the singular source of conflict and terrorism for years to come.  

Thus both Part One and Part Two of the Review and Commentary are hereby deleted from the Website www.tecolahagos.com. A revised and corrected version of the Review and Commentary, which will show the serious role played by Henze as one of the officials of the Government of the United States involved in the landlocking of Ethiopia , shall be posted at some later date.

Tecola W. Hagos

October 9, 2009