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afrol News, 22 June - Eritrean President Isaias Afewerqi for the first time has made a public statement on the losses his country suffered in the two-years was it fought with neighbouring Ethiopia. The death toll had reached the unexpectedly high number of 19,000 Eritrean soldiers. This is the first time the Eritrean government admits the enormous death toll produced by the border war between the two ex-allies, Eritrea and Ethiopia, which ended without any results in May last year. Additionally, the civilian losses at the ravaged border zone were great, still producing victims due to the large numbers of landmines used. In reaction to the announcement, made at a ceremony to mark Eritrea's Martyrs' Day, Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yemane Kidane told the BBC he believed the Eritrean figure to be ridiculously low - but declined to give any official figures for Ethiopian casualties, saying few governments would give out such details. The countries at the Horn of Africa reached a cease-fire June last year and signed a peace treaty in December. Now, over 4,000 UN peacekeepers are stations along the still troubled border, controlling the cease-fire. The reasons behind the devastating 1998-2000 border war have never been properly understood. While the war was triggered by mutual claims over a small disputed border area low on resources, analysts believe both the Addis Ababa and Asmara governments needed to divert attention from home affairs. The warring governments had been allies in the Ethiopian civil war, which ended with the toppling of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and the independence of Eritrea in 1991. A BBC correspondent in Asmara said the impact on Eritrean society of the recent war had been enormous "not least because every Eritrean family has someone in the armed forces". Although the number of wounded was not announced, it is thought to be very high, the BBC said on Wednesday. Civilian losses were also high in the brutal war. The capital city of Asmara fell victim of aerial bombing and the front line, close to the border, was brutally looted and later mined. The consequences are still felt by the civilian population, which cannot cultivate its fields due to the landmines. The problem is enhanced by the great numbers of long-time refugees currently returning from Sudan - thousands of them have no place to return to. Meanwhile, the Eritrean-Ethiopian peace process is a quagmire, none of the governments' being cooperative with the UN peacekeepers. Tensions and enmity are kept high to avoid addressing internal problems in Ethiopia and Eritrea. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier this week warned of the remaining "serious difficulties" between Eritrea and Ethiopia and stressed the need to move forward on unresolved matters. "It is imperative that the parties resolve the outstanding issues, in particular those pertaining to the Temporary Security Zone, so as to ensure that it is clearly defined and effectively demilitarised," Annan wrote in a report released on Tuesday at UN Headquarters. Annan says he made that point in separate letters dated 1 June to Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerqui and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Specifically, he called President Isaias' attention to the deployment by Eritrea of "an excessive number of militia and police" in the Zone, and noted that the status-of-forces agreement for UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) had not been signed. At the same time, Mr. Annan expressed concern to Prime Minister Meles over "the continued presence of Ethiopian troops in parts of the eastern sector" of the Zone. The Secretary-General also mentioned "the continuing restrictions imposed on UNMEE's freedom of movement." The UN Secretary-General also voiced regret that "despite some softening of the hostile rhetoric in the media, neither Government has yet displayed publicly much openness to a normalization of relations." Political developments in both countries, he said, "should not distract them from their commitments to a peaceful settlement of their differences." Source: Based on press
reports, UN
sources and
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