Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday accused Eritrea of arrogant war-mongering behavior as border tensions between the arch-rival neighbours intensified after a recent lull.
Meles blamed the current frontier stalement on Eritrea, which has warned new conflict is looming because Ethiopia has refused to accept a border demarcation that emanated from a 2000 peace deal ending their bloody two-year war.
In speech to Parliament, he criticised Asmara for keeping the stance it held before the start of the war in 1998 by insisting it has the right to take by force territory it considers its own.
”The main reason and source of the border conflict … is the arrogant and war-mongering invader that is the Eritrean regime,” Meles said.
”Even now it is taking the same line by stating it has the right to take what it claims is occupied land by force,” he said, noting that an international panel in December had blamed Eritrea for the start of the war.
”This position, which is the same as at the beginning of the war, is as the claims commission clearly pointed out, the stance of an invader,” he said. ”This is the real source of the problem.”
On December 19, the Ethiopia-Eritrea Claims Commission, part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, ruled that Eritrea had broken international law in launching the attacks that sparked the war.
The commission rejected Eritrea’s claim that the attacks were self-defence and said border disputes were not legal grounds on which to start a legitimate war, a point Meles seized on his speech.
”Anyone with border claims must only address these claims peacefully and through dialogue and diplomacy, and never use force as an option,” he said.
”Anyone who does is nothing but an invader as the commission said.”
Ethiopia and Eritrea have been trading bitter accusations of perfidy over the border for months, leading to a major escalation in tension and fears of a resumption of the conflict that claimed about 80 000 lives.
Asmara is demanding that Addis Ababa accept the 2002 border demarcation that awarded the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea and has angrily accused the United Nations and world powers of ignoring Ethiopia’s refusal to do so.
To show its displeasure, Eritrea has slapped restrictions on UN peacekeepers monitoring the 1 000km border and expelled the mission’s North American and European staff, sending tensions soaring amid troop movements on both sides.
It has refused to respond to United Nations Security Council demands, backed by the threat of sanctions, to lift the curbs and last month snubbed a US diplomatic mission aimed at jumpstarting the implementation of the border ruling.
At the weekend, Eritrea blasted the United States for ”evil” policies that it said encouraged Ethiopia to ignore the demarcation and thus raise the risk of new war.
”The current extremely sad and dangerous situation is the outcome of the erroneous US foreign policy,” the Eritrean information ministry said in an editorial posted on its website.
Meles, who received the US delegation, praised the United States for its ”commendable and positive step” in a side-swipe at Eritrea.
He also reiterated that Ethiopia accepted the border ruling in principle but said that adjustments were necessary in order to prevent families in the Badme area from being split between two nations.
”While we do not like the boundary commission’s decision, the Ethiopian government has expressed its acceptance of the decision,” Meles said. – AFP
