Ethiopia’s PM says building army to defend against Eritrea
June 28, 2007 (ADDIS ABABA) — Ethiopia’s prime minister said Thursday he is building up the army’s capabilities because he fears an imminent attack by Eritrea, which he also accused of arming Ethiopian rebels. Eritrea issued a strong denial.
“It is deemed necessary to make the necessary military preparations for deterring a possible Eritrean invasion and to repulse such an invasion should it occur,” Meles said. “We have now come to the point where neither Eritrea or others could ignore that at present our defense forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred and that this is being strengthened by the day.”
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war. Following a 1998-2000 border war that left tens of thousands dead, the neighbors initially promised to accept the U.N. boundary commission’s 2002 ruling awarding the town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not handed it over.
Meles reiterated his government’s position that the commission’s findings were wrong, but insisted his government was ready to accept them.
“We believe the ruling was wrong, we still believe it is wrong, but we accept the ruling even though it is wrong,” he told lawmakers.
The Eritrean information minister, Ali Abdu, denied his government was planning to attack Ethiopia.
“It is totally fabricated and political posturing with the intention of diverting the attention of the Ethiopian people,” he said. “Instead of pointing fingers at Eritrea, it is better for (Meles) to accept the reality of the Ethiopian opposition. It is Meles who is destabilizing and disintegrating the unity of Ethiopia.”
Abdu called Ethiopia’s acceptance of the border ruling a “semantic game.
“They refused five years ago and now they say they accepted with precondition of negotiating during the implementation,” he added.
An Ethiopia-based spokesman for the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea declined to comment on Thursday’s address.
Meles also said that Eritrea may try to disrupt or strike during Ethiopian Millennium celebrations in September. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church’s calendar is seven years behind the Roman Catholic calendar.
Eritrea’s “strategy is mainly based on spreading chaos in Ethiopia by organizing, arming and deploying Ethiopian opposition forces which it uses as instruments for this objective,” Meles said.
The government is currently fighting two rebel forces, one in the eastern Ogaden region and the other in the southern Oromia region. The Ogaden National Liberation Front has recently carried out several attacks along the Somali and Eritrean borders.
(AP)
Fonqolcha Nura
Ethiopia’s PM says building army to defend against Eritrea
Typical Abyssinian, the land of war heroes, would rather starve 10 millions people than live in peace and improve the economic situation of the empire.
Without war the Abyssinian ruler won’t make it even for a few years. It’s the EPLF in first place who assisted TPLF to be the master of the Ethiopian empire without taking in consideration that Eritrea isn’t an Island except the country that neighbours warminded Abyssinians and I hope that the EPLF have learn their lessons the hardway by now.
Under TLF, Tigreans were more Eritreans than Ethiopians and the naïve EPLF officals not only killed the dream federation with Eritrea but also endangered the security of their liberated homeland.
Above all the TPLF regime is an illegal government which anybody with common sense will never understand how on the earth TPLF became the ruling power with only 35 seats out of total 547 seats.
So inorder TPLF to stay on power by guns, war is the system of survival.
Go a head and make the 512 seats day!
Kifly Merhu
Ethiopia’s PM says building army to defend against Eritrea
It that the only knowledge what those entities in the Horn Africa possess, warmongering and destruction. Bravo, you deserve a noble prize!