ADDIS ABABA – The Ethiopian government should close the loopholes in GERD talks before reaching any binding agreement, AAU School of Law, Associate Professor of International Laws Dereje Zeleke (PhD) said.
In his exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald he further said Ethiopia’s commitments to the declaration of principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in 2015 is a major setback in the ongoing efforts to make deal that enjoys Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan consensus .
As to him, the declaration also puts the Ethiopia’s water interests in the Nile at risk.
“Signing the declaration was a wrong turn to country’s long term stance on the Nile. Ethiopia signed the declaration when it was facing a number of interna instabilities and unrests,” he said.
Even after the declaration, allowing mediation is another grave mistake from Ethiopian negotiators. The three countries had to have continued tripartite negotiation between their leaders before they directly sought mediation, Dereje noted.
In addition, the mediators are U.S. and WB which are not suitable from the perspective of Ethiopia’s national interest, he believed.
The mediators possibly stand in favor of Egypt and they are just powers that can tend or influence the negotiation even without speaking a word. “Even it is Egypt that initiated the mediation and the mediators too. They cannot be impartial due to their national and strategic interests. This is not a good choice for Ethiopia.”
The other major problem in the negotiation process is absence of government transparency. For instance, the role of World Bank and government of U.S. is not clear yet whether they are mediators or observers, he mentioned.
The government needs to be transparent in each stage of the negotiation as the people ought to have information on their national affairs. It should inform the public about problems, solutions and procedures in each step of the negotiations, according to Dereje.
On the other hand, there is a pseudo-intellectual culture. Scholars tell the government what makes it happy than providing genuine solutions to the problems. However, the government should gather many ideas and choices especially in such national interest affairs that can even affect the generation.”
“It should listen to different voices. It can get more inputs for its decision making process. This is very important to avert lasting impacts on future national interests. Therefore, intellectuals ought to come up with valuable and genuine suggestions to the government than mere admiration,” he suggested.
Currently, the country is not in good position in terms of peace and security, and will conduct national election.
The domino effect of these internal problems plus the notable influence from the mediators would warn the government not to hurry up to agree on the proposal of the negotiation, Dereje underlined.
On February 13, 2020, United States Department of The Treasury published a joint statement of the negotiation between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan about Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that held on February 12-13, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
According to the statement, The United States, with technical support from the World Bank, has agreed to facilitate the preparation of the final agreement for consideration by the Ministers and heads of state for conclusion by the end of the month.
Water, Irrigation and Electricity (MoWIE) Minister Engineer, Sileshi Bekele (PhD) said that there has been positive progress in the negotiation. He tweeted last Friday that “Ministers reviewed progresses on technical issues and legal articles. Progresses are made but the agreement still needs more work to be finalized by end of this month”.
However, the social media has been reporting that the negotiation that is taking place between the three countries in U.S. let Ethiopia to be influenced by negotiators and even observers.
Buying Dereje’s suggestion, Sileshi said the government will meet with the people to discuss the issues. He tweeted that MoWIE with Ministry of Foreign Affairs will make national consultation with relevant institutions, professionals and concerned citizen in the coming week and build consensus on results and way forward.
Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have been discussing the water release, filling, and operation of the GERD while notable final agreement is not reached yet.
The Ethiopian Herald February 18/2020
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
