BADME: An International Contest

An Assignment for UCLA 455 “Government Information”

Spring 2012

The Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) in the Horn of Africa is a hot political issue in this part of the world; it is focused in the southwestern Gash-Setit province and appears to be about the possession of the town of Badme and the Cunama people (also known as the Kunama) on the Badme Wereda plains.

1. Read up on the political situation between Eritrea and Ethiopia (see New York Times, Washington Post, etc.).

2. Locate the Badme Wereda plains in an authoritative atlas such as The Times Atlas of the World and then compare it to Google Earth.

3. Who says that the border “shall be delimited by Italian and Ethiopian delegates, so that Cunama tribe belong to Eritrea?”

4. Find the 15 May 1902 Treaty between Ethiopia and the UK, if possible.

5. Find the 1923 Ethiopian map, if possible.

6. Find the 6 March 2003 statement by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

7. On a current map, locate the classical or traditional straight boundary line at an approximate 28 degree angle from true North—between points 6 (i.e., the confluence of the Tomsa with the Setit rivers) and point 9 (i.e., the confluence of the Mai Ambessa and the Mareb rivers).

8. Where do those so-called points 6 and 9 come from?

9. Locate a copy of Ethiopia’s War on Eritrea (Asmara: Research and Documentation Center, 1999). Is it relevant or biased?

10. Who considers the Eritrean-Ethiopian Boundary Commission findings neutral; and equally important, are they binding, final, and respected by both sides?

11. Finally, read the Wikipedia entry on Badme; based on your findings, how would you evaluate the entry…

Updated: 24 April 2012.