Justin Pearce
Ethiopia’s breakthrough into Eritrean territory two weeks ago ended a lengthy stalemate between two once-friendly neighbours, who had first gone to war almost exactly two years earlier.
In May 1998 Eritrea moved its troops into several areas of disputed territory which had up to then been under Ethiopian administration. Heavy fighting, at the cost of thousands of lives, ended only when the rainy season flooded the trenches and made the roads impassable for military vehicles.
The following February Ethiopia hit back. In tactics that have been compared to World War I, Ethiopian soldiers fought their way through the Eritrean trenches at the western end of the front line, reversing the Eritreans’ earlier gains and pushing the death toll into the tens of thousands.
But Eritrea still retained the town of Zalambessa in the centre of the front line, and some desert around Bure in the east.
For more than a year both sides have voiced a commitment to peace. Both accepted in principle a deal proposed by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in October 1998 – but have failed to find common ground on the terms of the deal’s implementation.
The two countries cite different arguments in support of their claims of sovereignty. Ethiopia argues on the basis of the actual limits of Ethiopian administration before the war began. Eritrea stakes its claims on the century- old treaties which defined the boundaries of the Italian colony of Eritrea.
Eritrea was incorporated into Ethiopia after World War II. When in 1993 Eritrea gained independence with the blessing of the new Ethiopian government the boundary was never properly demarcated.
This posed no real problem provided relations between the two states remained friendly. But as disagreements over trade, finance and the Ethiopian use of the Eritrean ports deepened, the relatively small amounts of disputed territory became matters of national pride that flared into war.
As the OAU tried to put its peace plan into effect, Eritrea wanted to negotiate without withdrawing its forces from territory it had occupied during the course of the war. Ethiopia insisted that no direct talks could take place until Eritrea had pulled back. Successive international attempts at mediation failed to sway either side.
Earlier this year, reports of widespread famine in southern Ethiopia further enraged international opinion – both sides were spending millions on arms and the war prevented the use of Eritrean ports to bring emergency supplies into Ethiopia.
Threats of an aid embargo brought the curt response from Ethiopia that it would not “exchange bread for sovereignty”.
The last peace mission, sent by the UN Security Council under the leadership of the UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, apparently realised that the Ethiopians were not going to budge and tried to persuade Eritrea to withdraw its troops so as to bring the Ethiopians to the table.
Eritrea proved intractable – the UN delegation returned to New York – and days later, a midnight offensive by Ethiopia left the Eritrean army floundering.