Asmara dismisses accusations of causing instability

NAIROBI, Dec 30, 2003 (IRIN) — Eritrea has rejected accusations that it is destabilising the Horn region as empty claims, saying history shows who the aggressor is.

On Monday, the leaders of Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen – who held a two-day summit in Addis Ababa – accused the small Red Sea state of fuelling regional instability.

“When we talk about dialogue in the sub-region we mean Eritrea should act positively with the neighbours to achieve a final good neighbourly relationship between the states,” Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told a press conference. “It is not a secret that Eritrea is exerting huge efforts to create instability in Sudan.”

And Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Eritrea “has problems with many of its neighbours”, although he denied that the three countries were conspiring against Asmara.

But Yemane Gebremeskel, who heads the office of Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki, said history showed that Ethiopia was the destabilising factor in the region.

“The facts tell the story,” he told IRIN on Tuesday. “It is Ethiopia which annexed Eritrea, it is Ethiopia which does not accept international law. It is not Eritrea which started the war. History is clear – you cannot accuse the victim.”

Tension has been steadily mounting between the two sides over Ethiopia’s refusal to accept an international ruling on where their frontier should run following a bloody two-year border war from 1998-2000.

Yemane also dismissed Sudan’s claims, accusing Khartoum of a “public policy of exporting fundamentalism”. He rejected Bashir’s specific accusations that Eritrea was helping rebels in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan, saying these were a “lame excuse to make hostile comments”. “We are not involved,” he told IRIN.

The three leaders said their alliance was open to all Horn countries, particularly Eritrea.

“Eritrea is not such a colossus of a security threat to require the conspiracy of all three countries to manage it,” Meles said. “This forum is open to anyone who wants to join it, including and most particularly Eritrea.”

But Yemane said this was a “gimmick”. “We do not need that alliance,” he said. “We already have regional groupings such as IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development].”