ETHIOPIA – Intl tribunal finds Eritrea responsible for war against Ethiopia
Dec 20, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — The Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission finds Eritrea responsible for the 1998-2000 war against Ethiopia exposing it as the aggressor.
According to a statement the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent to the official ENA, in its awards made public on Monday, 19 December 2005, the commission decided that Eritrea was liable for starting the two-year war with Ethiopia.
The commission also held Eritrea liable for intentionally killing, beating, and abducting Ethiopian civilians and for widespread looting and destruction of civilian property during Eritrea’s attacks and occupation of Ethiopian territory in border regions.
The ministry said, these awards are of monumental significance in exposing Eritrea as the aggressor and the belligerent nature of the regime in the current impasse in the peace process.
In finding Eritrea responsible for the outbreak of the crisis between the two countries in 1998, the commission stated that Eritrea had violated international law when it attacked Ethiopia without provocation and occupied Badme and other undefended areas of Ethiopia in May, 1998, the ministry said.
In paragraph 16 of the awards, the commission rendered its decisive determination on the party that started the war and hence was responsible for the bloodshed that was caused between the two countries.
The commission said, … Eritrea violated article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United nations by resorting to armed force to attack and occupy Badme, the under peaceful administration by Ethiopia, as well as other territory in Tahtay Adiabo and Laelay Adiabo woredas — districts, northern Ethiopia — of Ethiopia in an attack that began on 12 May 1998.
The commission went on to say that Eritrea is liable to compensate Ethiopia, for the damages caused by that violation of international law.
The commission said, “The evidence showed that, at about 5:30 a.m.[local time] on 12 May 1998, Eritrean armed forces, comprised of at least two brigades of regular soldiers, supported by tanks and artillery, attacked the town of Badme and several other border areas in Ethiopia’s Tahtay Adiabo Woreda, as well as at least two places in its neighbouring Laelay Adiabo Woreda.”
The commission was categorical in dismissing all the arguments by Eritrea to justify its unlawful act on 12 May 1998. “Given the absence of an armed attack against Eritrea, the attack that began on 12 May cannot be justified as lawful self-defence under the UN Charter.”
The Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission finds Eritrea responsible for the 1998-2000 war against Ethiopia exposing it as the aggressor.
The Eritrean government has tried to mislead its own people and the international community about the origin of the crisis between the two countries by using the decision of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Boundary Commission for creating confusion, the ministry said.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are where they are today because of one incontrovertible fact that has now been made unambiguously clear by the claims commission, the ministry said.
“This decision has an extremely important bearing on the current status of the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” the ministry added.
“This latest decision by the claims commission makes it clear beyond any doubt that Eritrea has absolutely no ground for claiming the moral high ground in this conflict,” the ministry said.
There is a determination by the claims commission which, not only puts to rest whatever doubts people might have had about the genesis of the crisis, but it also sheds useful light on the nature of the challenge the peace process between the two countries still faces, the ministry said.
It also said there is as well no justification for what Eritrea is doing currently to escalate the tension along the common border, and to create obstacle to the resolution of the crisis and to normalization of relations.
(ENA/ST)