Ethiopian soldiers defect to Eritrea in Israel

Dec 1, 2005 (JERUSALEM) — At least seven Ethiopian soldiers have defected to Eritrea during a training course in Israel, at a time of growing tension between the two Horn of Africa countries and fears of a new border war.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the soldiers went missing several days ago after a course run by a private company and then decided to go to Eritrea rather than Ethiopia.

Israeli media said the men had family in Eritrea and had requested political asylum from Eritrea’s ambassador in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. They were then flown to the Red Sea State on a private plane.

“In Israel we were surprised and we had nothing whatsoever to do with this whole episode,” said spokesman Mark Regev. “Foreign nationals entered Israel legally and foreign nationals exited Israel legally.”

Neither Ethiopian nor Eritrean diplomats in Israel made any immediate comment.

Tension has been growing between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed an estimated 70,000 people from both countries. The United Nations, which has peacekeepers at the border, describes it as “tense and potentially volatile”.

In October, Eritrea banned U.N. helicopters from Eritrean airspace to focus international attention on Ethiopia’s failure to demarcate their common border.

In a peace deal to end their border war, the two Horn of Africa countries agreed an independent boundary commission would make a “final and binding” ruling on where their border should be.

But Ethiopia rejected the April 2002 ruling, and the border has still not yet been demarcated.

(Reuters)