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Conflict Should be the Main Focus
For Eritrea, Africa’s youngest sovereign state, the most important issue that should have been tackled by the special session of the UN General Assembly on social development, is conflict resolution
But according to Hiwet Zemichael, Eritrea’s director of social affairs in the Labour and Human Welfare Ministry, conflict resolution has received the least attention during the conference sessions.
‘’Conflicts pose serious obstacles, threat to attainment of social development,’’ he told the plenary.
“Ambitious targets and policy objectives articulated in this special session of the world body will remain mere platitudes for many countries unless they are accompanied by concrete measures of collective action and solidarity against injustice, war and aggression ,” he added.
Classified among Africa’s poorest countries, Eritrea which, attained independence from Ethiopia in 1993, inherited numerous social and economic problems.
For Eritrea, social development meant starting all over.
The current conflict with Ethiopia and the famine which has devastated much of the Horn of African region has however, taken much of the gains made in the last nine years of the country’s development efforts .
The war, which broke out in 1998, over a strip of territory on the common border with Ethiopia, resulted in a serious humanitarian crisis, displacing up to 1.6 million people, a third of Eritrea’s population .
Zemichael has accused the international community of turning a blind eye on the ‘crimes’ Ethiopia has committed against his country by not only targeting its human resources during the fighting but also by destroying development gains it made since 1993.
“This is indeed a crime. What is more painfully unjustifiable however, is the apparent silence of the international community in the face of this naked crime,’’ he said.
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Has the world lived up to its 1996 commitments..?
Solidarity 2000 starting 17th of June!
MS's big summer event Solidarity 2000 will start very soon now, with a week-long variety of debates and arrangements. The activities range from encounters between young people from Balkan, Africa and Central America to big conferences on the planet's social development and environment.
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The 1996 Copenhagen Social Summit final report in English, French and Spanish.