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Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Office of the Government Spokesperson

Ethiopian Defense Forces consolidate their positions

May 26, 2000 (8:55 pm local time)

The heroic Ethiopian defense forces have today consolidated their positions at Forte and Senafe which they captured last night. On the Bure front there has been exchange of heavy artillery fire. Fighting has, however, subsided at the Zalambessa - Egala front.

Whilst celebrating the wonderful news that the victorious Ethiopian defense forces had liberated Zalambessa came the tragic news that the once attractive town was now mere rubble, totally destroyed by Eritrean troops. A Reuters journalist reported from Zalambessa today, "every single house in town has been destroyed, torn down by Eritrean forces" that had invaded the area nearly two years ago.

On 28 August 1999, the Ethiopian government reported that Eritrean troops were seen forcefully removing corrugated tin roofs from a number of local buildings in the town of Zalambessa and had also moved bulldozers into the area in an attempt to destroy "evidence" of the Ethiopian town. In addition to this destruction, the Eritrean soldiers had also burned down churches, stole sacrosanct property and destroyed important health and education infrastructure when they first invaded the town in 1998. As a result, "there is nothing left (of Zalambessa) apart from rubble," according to the Reuters correspondent. Confirming what Ethiopia had reported months ago, the Reuters journalist noted that "the houses, built of rock, were first stripped clean with their corrugated tin roofs ripped off and then they were bulldozed." After demolishing Zalambessa town, which had always been under Ethiopian control, including after Eritrea gained its independence in 1993, the Eritrean government tried to argue on 1 October 1999 that Zalambessa was sovereign Eritrean territory. This assertion was particularly absurd considering that several months prior to that, the Issaias regime admitted that it was only occupying Zalambessa for strategic military reasons (having no legitimate claim to the territory). If it was criminal of the Eritrean army to invade and occupy Zalambessa, it was cruel and ruthless to deliberately destroy the personal and communal property of innocent Ethiopian civilians.

Fighting at the other fronts subsided today.