We have seen in the headlines how Ethiopia has been torn by tribal civil war. A few years ago I was representing the Ethiopian government in its embassy in Washington. Then it's foe was its neighbor, the poor misbehaving state of Eritrea where ancients rivalries were drawn into modern times.

  

One day a cow was killed in the sweltering border town of Zalembessa and started a shooting war between neighbors.

  

The Eritreans blamed the Ethiopians and vice versa. I counseled the Ethiopians to arrange a truce to work out which side of the border the cow was on. But no. This was the cassus belli and the Ethiopians seized the opportunity to invade their traditional enemy the Eritreans.

The Ethiopian army was the stronger and was trained by the US special forces. In no time the war was over as the Ethiopians drove well into Eritrean territory.

One morning the Ethiopian ambassador called me to come quickly to the embassy. I drive over and parked in the embassy yard since I was by then a familiar face and was ushered into a screening room in the basement of the embassy. There the embassy staff was assembled. We were to watch a film.

Soon the film started rolling and showed the victorious Ethiopian army with tanks from Czechoslavia and trucks from Albania marching towards Asmara the very capital of the hated Eritreans. The embassy staff broke into cheers and giving me the equivalent of high fives. You are our brother and we welcome you as our friend.

Every year I get some emails from Addis Ababa that starts with "Dear Brother Lawrence."

  An Ethiopian take