Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of ‘arrogance’ over border

Feb 2, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s prime minister accused neighbouring foe Eritrea of “arrogance and warmongering” on Thursday for refusing his offer of negotiation to break a stalemate over their disputed border.

Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa’s top military power, was boosting its defences should its tiny but highly militarised neighbour start another war.

“Eritrea would not hesitate to launch another cycle of war if it is convinced it would achieve a military victory,” Meles said in a speech to parliament.

“Ethiopia has to bolster its defence capabilities to defend against possible attack by Eritrea.”

Some have feared a renewed war as Eritrea has grown angrier that world powers have not forced Ethiopia to accept a binding ruling that awarded a flashpoint town to Eritrea in 2002.

Rhetoric has flown back and forth and troops moved closer to the border on both sides, although Ethiopia moved its forces back in December to comply with a U.N. Security Council demand.

The two nations fought a 1998-2000 frontier war that killed 70,000 people and Ethiopia has said since December 2004 that it will comply with the ruling even though it does not agree with it.

But Meles wants negotiation over how the border marking will happen, saying this had been the case with a similar dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon.

Asmara has said a deal is a deal and has rejected any initiative that does not force Ethiopia to let the border be marked.

“Ethiopia has always been committed to resolve the border conflict with Eritrea through peaceful dialogue based on international law,” Meles said.

“The real cause of the border conflict is the arrogance and warmongering of the government of Eritrea.”

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Meles acknowledged that the enormous cost of the war and subsequent defence spending had affected Ethiopia’s limited budget. “One of the major problems affecting our economic and democratic development is the conflict with Eritrea,” he said.

But despite that, Ethiopia’s agriculture-dependent economy was booming thanks to a bumper harvest that sent crop production up 15.1 percent to an all-time high of 13.7 million tones in the first half of the 2005-2006 year, Meles said.

Agricultural exports from Ethiopia, Africa’s top coffee grower, have diversified away from near total dependence on coffee which has accounted for as much as 70 percent of foreign exchange earnings in the recent past, he added.

The strong growth of oil seed production and other crops meant that coffee now only made up 24 percent of the total, he said. Coffee exports did fall by 2.4 percent in the first six months of the 2005-2006 fiscal year, he said, without providing further details.

Ethiopia’s overall crop exports rose 33 percent to 33,700 tonnes in the same period, mainly because of diversification of the products it had to offer.

Overall imports grew by 30 percent, he said.

“Comparative growth between exports and imports shows the country’s trade is healthy,” Meles said.

Total investment in the first six months of the fiscal year was 14.6 billion Ethiopian birr ($1.67 billion), compared to 10.9 billion birr in the comparable period last year.

(Reuters)