Ethiopia will not annex Eritrea's territories
Ethiopia-Eritrea, Politics, 5/20/2000

Ethiopia announced yesterday it will has no intention to annex Eritrea's territories it had occupied in its military progress into the depth of neighboring Eritrea's lands.

The spokeswoman for the Ethiopian government Saloumi Tadisi said that controlling strategic position inside Eritrea aims, basically, will shorten the period of war and to alienate the aggressors from the Ethiopian territories.

Meantime in a statement yesterday, Ethiopia said "After capturing Maidima, the Ethiopian forces have been consolidating their positions. The few remaining Eritrean troops that have survived the Ethiopian attacks have been destroying bridges in a vain attempt to halt the march of the Ethiopian defense forces ... (and) Ethiopian air force bombed the Sawa military training center in western Eritrea and returned safely to base. Fighting continued today at a low-scale.

The statement added "The Sawa military training center, which is located in western Eritrea, 421 kilometers from Asmara,... The military training center is outfitted with the best equipment, supplies, hospitals, etc. In addition, Sawa boasts ten bakeries, a police station, meeting halls, guesthouses and satellite television, as well as other amenities. A three-kilometer long runway was also installed for the use of MiG aircraft," adding that given the Eritrean government's military priorities, "it is no surprise that Eritrea has invaded four of its neighbors in the past five years."

Eritrea said yesterday in a statement "Ethiopia is at present occupying undisputed sovereign Eritrean territory in the western part of the country including the regional capital, Barentu. Ethiopia unleashed its invasion--which has so far resulted in the displacement of over 500,000 people--last Friday while peace efforts were underway by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the UN Security Council."

Eritrea accused Ethiopia of putting forth "ludicrous arguments to justify its invasion," saying "Ethiopia claims that it was forced to go to war because "the peace process hit a brick wall due to Eritrea's intransigence. This allegation is not borne out by the facts. Impediments to the peace process were not put by Eritrea, which has accepted all the OAU peace documents in good faith, but by Ethiopia which rejected the implementation plan."

Eritrea added "The fact is Ethiopia abused the peace process in order to buy time until it finished its military preparations. As it may be recalled, Ethiopia's Prime Minister openly stated last June that "the offensive will be launched at the appropriate time when preparations are complete; it will not be brought forward or delayed by a day. In pursuit of this agenda, Ethiopia resorted to dilatory tactics to frustrate the peace process until it felt that it was in a position to launch its military invasion. Even if a peaceful solution were not possible, Ethiopia has no legal right to invade Eritrea to regain disputed border posts."

The Ethiopian spokeswoman said yesterday that Ethiopia still fully recognizes Eritrea as a sovereign state and that it had backed the referendum of 1993 on Eritrea's independence and was the first country in the world which recognizes Eritrea's independence and has no greedy ambitions of any sort in this country.

Previous Stories:
  Violent fighting continues between Eritrea, Ethiopia   (5/19/2000)
  Fierce confrontation between Ethiopia and Eritrea   (5/18/2000)
  Ethiopia broke into Eritrea's territories   (5/17/2000)

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