Ethiopia: war is over
Ethiopia-Eritrea, Politics, 6/1/2000

Today, Ethiopia said that the war is over as far as it is concerned.

Eritrea on Wednesday accused Ethiopia of occupying " Teseini city and of not withdrawing its forces from Barento city, in contradiction to the claims launched by Addis Ababa on Tuesday.

AFP quoted a statement by Eritrea's foreign ministry as saying that the Ethiopian army started withdrawal from the areas of Senavi, Tsourona, Mimeni and Midima where intensive and heavy military pressure exist, adding that the Ethiopian forces have not withdrawn from Barento and other areas it occupies in West Eritrea despite the false Ethiopian claims released on Tuesday," SANA reported.

The statement added that contrary to that the Ethiopian troops occupied Teseini and other cities situated on the road to Barento and that the Ethiopian soldiers are stealing properties of these area fall under their occupation.

However, at a time when the two countries delegations started on Tuesday indirect peace talks in Algiers under the supervision of the African of Unity Organization, the Ethiopian and Eritrea's forces continued on Tuesday the exchange of artillery bombardment in the surrounding of Senavi, on the central front, 100 Km to the south of Asmara.

Two days earlier, Ethiopia announced its withdrawal from the territories in occupies to the South West of Eritrea since the resumption of battles on May 12 while Asmara withdrew from Bada and Boryeih, the two areas Eritrea used to occupy on the Eastern front since the beginning of the war in May 1998.

Meantime, the UN security council also called on Ethiopia and Eritrea to halt their fighting and to continue indirect negotiations currently held in Algiers and to concentrate on the diplomatic efforts aiming at settling the disputes between the two countries.

Today, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles said "As of today, we have verified that all our territories have been cleared from the invading army. That means our objective of reversing the aggression, by peaceful means if possible or by force if necessary, has been fulfilled. As a result, we have changed the instructions and the mission of our army from one of attacking the enemy to get our territory, to one of a sort of a troop stand down and one of securing and protecting the liberated areas. So as far as we're concerned, as of today, the war is over. What remains to be done is to consolidate this into sustainable, regional peace through negotiations and dialogue."

He said "We are committed to delimiting and demarcating the border on the basis of colonial treaties and on the basis of the UN Charter. We insist on the fulfillment of the provisions in the peace agreement that dealt with compensation. And we feel that there are other issues, such as the excessive militarization of Eritrean society, that we need to address in the context of a final peace agreement. While we recognize the fact that the invasion has been reversed by non-peaceful means and what remains to be done on the peace table now is to recognize this fact, take note of this fact. We remain committed to the principle of the return to the status quo ante. In this case, the change to the status quo ante of May 6, 1998 is no longer on the Eritrean side. We admit that we have our army in indisputably Eritrean territories at this moment."

He added "In the meantime, until we have such an arrangement that will allow us to redeploy our troops to the May 6 line, until we have such an arrangement, our troops will remain in positions that they deem are necessary for military purposes, whether they are inside Eritrea or outside. But, we are willing to redeploy to the May 6 positions without too much fuss. What we need is an agreement, cease-fire, cessation of hostilities agreement, which would guarantee that when we redeploy, the Eritrean army will not fill the vacuum left for the purpose of mounting attacks on our army."

He said "We have learned our lessons. There may be international law, but if you are on the receiving side of those who want to ride roughshod over this international law, you're on your own. That's the lesson that we have learned since 1998. Either you defend yourself or you submit to invasion. There's nothing in between. We have learned that lesson and we are not going to forget that lesson any time soon. And so we will have a robust defense capability even after the end of this war. That level will depend to a large extent on what the international community is prepared to do to enforce the rule of law in this region. If the international community is happy with a country which has 10 percent of its population in the army and which has the proclivity to provoke everyone and anyone, if the international community is not prepared to do something about the militarism in Eritrea, then obviously our defense posture will have to be higher than what we would have liked to have. If, on the other hand, the international community recognizes the folly of allowing the street gangsters in Asmara mobilizing 10 percent of their population into the army in order to intimidate all their neighbors, and if they decide that this Saddam in Asmara needs to be contained and that they should not be given toys, should not be allowed to have toys that are dangerous to himself and to his neighbors, if the international community is prepared to do something about that, then obviously we can have a robust defense at a much lower level. If that is not the case, a robust defense will necessarily imply a much higher level than we would like to have. So, in effect, the demobilization will depend on two things. First, how fast the peace process moves--and we want to move very fast. At the very least, we want to move very fast on the cessation of hostilities agreement. It will also depend on whether the peace agreement and the international community are going to address the real issue of removing some of the toys, very dangerous toys, that the regime in Asmara has. And scaling down the excessive militarization of Eritrean society. If something is done about it in the context of the peace process or otherwise, then we would demobilize and demobilize in a big way because we can have a robust defense at a much lower level. If the appeasement of the clique in Asmara continues, as it has done in the past, then unfortunately, it means we are on our own again and this time around, we do not want to get caught with our pants down."

Meantime, The negotiation talks between Ethiopian and Aritaria, which took place in Algeria - were concluded yesterday without achieving a substantial progress.

Ahmed O'yehia the Algeria president's envoy to the negotiations between the two sides said that the main dispute is still in every country's demand for lands inside the borders of the other.

Previous Stories:
  Ethiopia withdraw from Eritrean lands   (5/31/2000)
  War continues between Ethiopia and Eritrea   (5/30/2000)
  Ethiopian aircraft today bombed the airport in Asmara   (5/29/2000)

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