This conclusion, he explained, is based on “our assessment that Ethiopia harbours expansionist ambitions and will act on them,” the Eritrean radio reported Monday night.

He then asked the assembled senior officials “should we, knowing this, give them the opportunity to strike first?” Even if one does not believe war is imminent, continued the president, “hijji win aydeqesnan” (“we are not content”) with the no-war no-peace situation.”

The assembled officials should know, he explained, that the 2005-2006 national budget and programmes are going to be designed with the assumption that there will be war. An informed source tells Gedab News that the president “only fell short of declaring a war.”

This opening statement was then followed by the establishment of discussion groups headed by ministers and generals, but the tone had already been set by the president. In these meetings, there was an “air of dread and apprehensiveness” with “everyone meekly echoing the president’s assessment.”

According to our sources, the level of discourse was so muted that the closest the participants even came to challenging the president’s assessment was when the group chaired by Brig-Gen Tekle Manjus questioned the war-preparedness of Eritrea’s defence forces.

All able-bodied residents of Senafe southern Eritrea have been instructed to dig trenches and, according to our source, with the message of “war is inevitable” being carried at the regional levels throughout the nation, a sense of foreboding has engulfed Eritrea.

Material provided by the BBC Monitoring Service

UN investigates recent clashes

ADDIS ABABA, 21 April (IRIN) – UN peacekeepers are investigating two recent armed clashes on the Ethiopia-Eritrea border that left up to four dead, a UN official said on Thursday.

Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte, spokesperson for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said the incidents on 9 and 11 April were probably caused by cattle rustling.

She added that Ethiopian authorities had categorically denied any involvement, and that UN peacekeepers had no evidence that Ethiopian troops were involved.

Eritrean authorities said they had killed one man in the first clash and captured another, while a third had escaped. In the second incident, they said three men were killed and two escaped.

UN peacekeepers said they had seen the bodies of three men, and interviewed the captured man, having been informed of the fighting after the second clash.

“Further investigations are continuing,” Sainte told journalists in Addis Ababa and Asmara, the capitals of Ethiopia and Eritrea respectively, via video link from Asmara.

The two incidents occurred in Om Hajer, a region on the far west of the two countries’ border, and close to neighbouring Sudan. “This is a known area for cattle rustling,” Sainte said.

“Any incident on the border [that] threatens the security of the temporary security zone is one that is of concern to us,” Sainte warned. “The situation right now is such that a little incident could turn into a much bigger incident.”

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war between May 1998 and December 2000, in which tens of thousands of people were killed. An independent commission was established to resolve the simmering territorial dispute.

However, Ethiopia rejected the commission’s ruling, in April 2002, that certain territory, including the Ethiopian-administered village of Badme where the war first flared up, belonged to Eritrea.

The UN has warned that the ongoing stalemate could spark another conflict, although it recently began scaling down its peacekeeping troop numbers from 4,000 to around 3,300 because of the stand-off.

Sainte said UNMEE was looking at whether the reduction in its peacekeeping force was affecting its monitoring of the 1,000 km border.

Ethiopia has recently increased troops numbers along the frontier, which it says is a purely defensive move. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Ethiopia to pull back.