Eritrea dismisses Ethiopian border announcement as time-buying ploy
ASMARA, Nov 25 (AFP) — Eritrea on Thursday dismissed Ethiopia’s announcement that it had finally accepted a ruling on the neighbours’ disputed border as a “futile” time-buying public relations ploy.
Earlier Thursday, lawmakers in Addis Ababa overwhelmingly adopted a five-point plan to kickstart the peace process between the two countries, who fought a bitter border war between 1998-2000.
The highlight of the plan was the acceptance in principle of the 2002 ruling by a special commission on the exact path of the border, a decision Addis Ababa had adamantly rejected since September 2003.
Until border posts actually start getting hammered into the ground, and until Ethiopia “withdraws from sovereign Eritrean territories,” for the Eritrean government, this apparant policy reversal is just another example of the “futile attempts by the regime in Ethiopia… solely aimed at promoting public relations exercises and buying more time.”
“It also prolongs the suffering of the peoples of both Eritrea and Ethiopia in its worst form,” according to a statement posted on the Eritrean information ministry’s official website.
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The Following is a statement released by Eritrean Ministry of Information’s Shabait web site on the Ethiopian proposals regarding the disputed border, in its full text:
Before: 1. the Algiers agreements are respected and the prevalence of the rule of law is guaranteed;
2. the [Eritrea-Ethiopia] Boundary Commission’s final and binding decision is honoured in accordance with the rule of law;
3. the regime in Ethiopia withdraws from sovereign Eritrean territories it continues to occupy; and
4. the border demarcation is implemented on the ground based on the boundary commission’s decision;
these futile attempts by the regime in Ethiopia are solely aimed at promoting public relations exercises and buying more time, as it also prolongs the suffering of the peoples of both Eritrea and Ethiopia in its worst form.
[Issued by] Ministry of Information,