/ 3 February 1999

FOREIGN MILITARY IN ETHIOPIA

FOREIGN military experts are serving in Ethiopia and presumably also in Eritrea as the two countries confront each other over their disputed border, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told said on Tuesday. “I assume the Eritreans have foreign technicians,” the prime minister said in an interview. “We have foreign technicians to train our pilots.”In January, the privately owned Ethiopian press quoted the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS as saying that Addis Ababa had bought Sukhoi-26 fighter-bombers and MI-24 and MI-8 helicopters.Diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa say the foreign military experts here are believed to be Russian or Ukrainian.