Thousands of Eritreans marched through the streets on Wednesday to a cemetery atop a hill overlooking the capital to honour tens of thousands of people killed in two wars against their former Ethiopian masters.
Some holding orange flowers, Eritreans bowed their heads in silence to celebrate an estimated 90 000 people killed in a 30-year independence struggle and a 1998 to 2000 border war.
”The existence of the people and country of Eritrea is based on their martyrdom,” said the Eritrean Profile, an English bi-weekly newspaper.
Eritrea helped topple the military regime of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and achieved independence two years later.
”If Eritrea didn’t have such loving patriots … it could have long been discarded from the world map failing to overcome the massive hostility and global conspiracy it faced,” the paper said.
Eritrea has long been suspicious of the international community over what it says has been support for its larger neighbour, Ethiopia.
The two Horn of Africa countries have been locked in a bitter border dispute since 1998 which has cost tens of thousands of lives.
Analysts say the lack of resolution to the border dispute, the Somali conflict and attacks inside Ethiopia have fuelled fears of a return to war.
Music played through loudspeakers set atop street lights as passers-by looked upon a mock scene of dead bodies.
”I left part of my body on the battlefield, but so many gave up so much more,” one disabled ex-fighter said, echoing many of his comrades. – Reuters