Eritrea says Ethiopia stokes border fears as ploy

Nov 21, 2005 (NAIROBI) — Eritrea’s president has accused Ethiopia of raising the spectre of renewed conflict between the two neighbours over their disputed border as a ploy to distract attention from Ethiopia’s domestic troubles.

Military manoeuvres on both sides of an unmarked 1,000 km (620 mile) frontier between the feuding Horn of Africa neighbours have raised international concern about a possible repeat of their 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people.

The growing tension along the border coincided with protests in Ethiopia over a May 15 election the opposition says was rigged, but which Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s government says was fair.

Ethiopian authorities have accused Eritrea of supporting the biggest opposition party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, whose leaders face treason charges and are accused of inciting the violence in which more than 40 people died.

In an interview with local media late on Saturday, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki dismissed the Ethiopian claims as a “baseless allegation”, the Information Ministry said.

“President Isaias Afewerki underlined that statements about the resumption of imminent war between Eritrea and Ethiopia are the invention of the TPLF and its collaborators designed to divert (attention from) the prevailing internal crisis in Ethiopia,” it said.

The ministry was referring to Meles’ former rebel movement, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.

Isaias said that “in a bid to escape from the current internal crisis it is facing, the TPLF regime is resorting to war as an alternative”.

Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment.

Eritrea has grown frustrated at the international community’s failure to pressure Ethiopia to implement a border ruling by an independent commission.

Under a 2000 peace deal, both sides agreed to accept the commission’s decision about the location of the frontier as final. But when the commission in 2002 awarded the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea, Addis Ababa rejected the ruling.

The Eritrean statement, on the official Web site www.shabait.com, warned that the country’s patience over the border issue was running out.

Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have said they will not be provoked by the other side into starting a new war. Top military brass from both sides are expected in Kenya this week to discuss border tensions and troop movements.

(Reuters)