Eritrea & Ethiopia
Ethiopian-Eritrean mass expulsions studied

afrol News, 30 January - Close to 100,000 citizens of Eritrea and Ethiopia were uprooted and deprived of their residence and nationality without a semblance of due process during the 1998-2000 border war. A new report documents their mistreatment and lack of compensation.

In a 64-page report, 'The Horn of Africa War: Mass Expulsions and the Nationality Issue,' presented in New York today, the plight of the large number of Ethiopians and Eritreans uprooted during the war is recounted. The report documents cases of mistreatment typical of the mass expulsions, including prolonged detention, lack of food, water, and medical care, beatings, and other physical abuse. 

With final demarcation of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea set to take place in May, there is hope that peace will hold between the two countries. "For tens of thousands of Ethiopians and Eritreans, though, the human rights consequences of the war are still devastating," comments the US-based Human Rights Watch, publishing the report. 

- The expulsions and ill-treatment was inhumane, said Peter Takirambudde of the group. "Unless the nationality status of those expelled is resolved, lasting peace and reconciliation in the Horn of Africa is unlikely," he added. 

The plight of some 75,000 ethnic Eritreans who were living in Ethiopia when the war broke out in 1998 has yet to be resolved. Tens of thousands of civilians were summarily deported to the newly independent Eritrea in 1998. 

Their Ethiopian citizenship was revoked, their identity documents confiscated or marked "Expelled — never to return". Many were interned and detained under harsh conditions and some were tortured, the report documents. 

People were forced to leave their families behind, and many lost all their property. "I told them that I was an Ethiopian, and mother of Ethiopian children, but no one would listen to me," one witness had told Human Rights Watch. 

Ethiopian nurse "B.H." was in her mid-fifties when the war broke out and had lived in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa all of her adult life. Being a widow of an Ethiopian and raising her two children in Ethiopia however did not change the fact that she had Eritrean ancestors. In June 1998, B.H. was taken into custody, denied her Ethiopian nationality, separated from her children, and deported to a purported homeland with which she had only distant ties.

Ethiopians living in Eritrea had suffered a similar plight in 1998. A few months after the war broke out, the Eritrean government interned some 7,500 people and deported thousands. Some of those expelled reported torture, rape or other degrading treatment at the hands of Eritrean officials. 

In contrast to Ethiopia's campaign of expulsion, Eritrea did however not expel its own citizens. This notwithstanding, Eritrea's roundups and mass expulsion, too, were founded firstly on ethnicity. Individual petitions to remain were not heard; there was no legal redress for those making such claims; and administrative decisions apparently disregarded an individual's personal ties to Eritrea or its citizens.

The Ethiopian government is known to have forcibly expelled an estimated 75,000 people of Eritrean origin during the war. The Eritrean government forcibly expelled or took part in the voluntary repatriation of an estimated 70,000 Ethiopians, "notwithstanding persistent Eritrean government claims that it had no expulsion policy comparable to Ethiopia's," the Human Rights Watch report notes. 

- There is no justification for the horrendous treatment these people suffered in 1998, said Mr Takirambudde. "What is worse is that, despite all the international assistance since the war's end, they still have no resolution: property claims remain unresolved, families are still separated, and many now have no nationality."

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia after a referendum in 1993. Relations between the two countries deteriorated after that, culminating in the 1998-2000 border war. A December 2000 peace agreement ended the war and established a boundary commission and a claims commission and provided for release of prisoners of war, but failed to address the plight of those who had been deported. Since then, relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have remained calm but tense. 

According to the US group, "the human rights situation in both countries remains abysmal - near-total denial of freedom of expression, executive manipulation of judiciary, arbitrary detentions, abusive security forces, and use of torture." Mass expulsions have not been committed since 1998, but discrimination on ethnic grounds remained "a problem." 

Sources: Based on HRW and afrol archives

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