Eritrea slams U.S. for “evil” moves

January 28, 2006

“Some spoke of how they were taken away in mass round-ups in Addis Ababa and how they suffered appalling beatings at the hands of the security forces. Witnesses spoke of seeing people tortured and killed at Dedesa camp in west Ethiopia, where about 50,000 people were detained.” – The Observer; Jan 2, 2006

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Eritrea has launched a fierce attack on U.S. policy in the tense Horn of Africa region, alleging “evil attempts” to derail an international ruling awarding it a disputed town on the border with old foe Ethiopia.

The Information Ministry published an editorial effectively accusing Washington of siding with Eritrea’s neighbour, ten days after a U.S. mediator said she had been barred from travelling to the border where a 1998-2000 war cost 70,000 lives.

Tensions along the 620-mile (1,000-km) border have increased in recent months, sparking fears of a resumption of hostilities.

“The current extremely saddening and dangerous situation is the outcome of the erroneous U.S. foreign policy,” said the article, published on the ministry’s Web site late on Friday.

Eritrea, 10 times smaller than Ethiopia and with 20 times fewer people, is angry that world powers have failed to use their considerable leverage with aid-dependent Ethiopia to push it to honour the peace treaty that ended the two-year war.

Under the accord, both sides agreed to abide by a ruling by independent experts on the border row, but Addis Ababa called for further “dialogue” when the decision was issued in 2002 because it gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.

The top American diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, visited the region this month in a bid to restart the paralyzed peace process. But U.S. officials said she cancelled a trip to Eritrea because it refused to help her travel to the border.

Eritrea, which won its independence from Ethiopia 15 years ago, has repeatedly rejected any diplomatic initiative that does not focus on enforcing demarcation of the border.

“The evil attempts made to derail the verdict of the international body by creating different intriguing proposals has encouraged the (Ethiopian government) to ignore and discard the decision of the Boundary Commission,” the editorial said.

Trying to force action on the border, Eritrea last year cranked up its rhetoric, ejected Western personnel from the U.N. mission, restricted U.N. troop movements and banned helicopter flights over the buffer zone on the border.

“MISGUIDED U.S. POLICY”

The editorial also accused the United States of involvement in provoking and igniting the 1998-2000 conflict, “resulting in bloodshed affecting a great number of people”.

It did not elaborate, but hit out at U.S. policies in the region after World War Two, when it said Eritrea was “made to suffer the fate” of becoming part of Ethiopia.

“Due to this grave historical error the Eritrean people were subject to an unparalleled suffering,” the editorial added.

Washington feared during the Cold War that an independent Eritrea would come under Soviet influence and arranged for it to be yoked in a federation to U.S. client Ethiopia in 1952.

Emperor Haile Selassie annexed Eritrea in 1962, triggering a guerrilla struggle that ended in its independence in 1991.

“The United States policy towards Africa is designed to divide the continent into specific regions and designate one country out of each region as regional giants and thereby safeguard American interest,” the Eritrean editorial said.