May 31, 2000 (9:00 pm local time)
Military Communiqué Issued by the Armed Forces General Command of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Unofficial Translation
It is to be recalled that the arrogant EPLF regime, by forcefully occupying various parts
of our country and violating our sovereignty two years ago, had provoked the wrath of the
Ethiopian people who at the time had been trying to turn into good account the peace they
had obtained by enhancing their development.
By waving aside considerations of good neighbourliness and friendship, the EPLF regime,
committed a grave historical error by trying to impose its will on the countries of the
region including Ethiopia who had dismissed as unacceptable its greedy ambitions.
The EPLF regime had no agenda of development at all. The Ethiopian peoples, following the
completion of their 17 years struggle waged in defense of their rights, diverted their
defense budget and their armed forces towards development in realization of the fact that
favorable peace conditions had then prevailed. But the EPLF regime at the same time
launched extensive war preparations for the realization of its hidden motives. Having made
every effort to build a military muscle beyond the capacity of Eritrea to carry, the EPLF
regime began to flex its muscles to try its strength and to impose its will on its
neighbours. These acts of provocation of the EPLF regime in the end targeted Ethiopia and
its peoples.
In that way, the peoples and government of Ethiopia were stabbed in the back by the EPLF
regime at a time and under conditions not expected at all. When the EPLF regime in May of
1998 carried out an invasion of our country after extensive preparations of many years,
its motive was to force our country to submit to its will and greedy dictates or, if this
is impossible, to cause the disintegration of the our country and the destruction of our
peoples.
When the Eritrean authorities, blinded by their bloated sense of self
grandeur as an invincible armed force in the Horn of Africa invaded our
country, a number of foreign governments and western media sources had come to the
conclusion that all was finished for Ethiopia assuming that the EPLF at the time had a
military superiority.
Following its invasion of our country two years ago, the enemy on the one hand tried to
employ the full weight of its superior military power while on the other hand mounted its
offensive by denying our defense forces any respite to resist the enemy.
Accordingly, the enemy carried out large scale offensive in its attempts to cut off the
Djibouti supply line at the Burre front as well as to create a condition that enable it to
take full control of the Zalambesa and Badme fronts and other towns by advancing from
these fronts. Nevertheless, the enemy which begun to suffer heavy losses even from the
very beginning by the strong counter offensives of the police forces and militiamen
stationed at the border areas, was effectively stopped and prevented from realizing its
dream as a result of the resolute defensive actions taken by our army in collaboration
with former fighters and militiamen.
In this war of self defense which was opened at a time when our heroic
defense forces were absolutely unprepared, the national defense forces
nevertheless proved themselves unbending to the enemy that wished our destruction in
betrayal of the great value we attach to good neighborliness and friendship.
In the first few days of the eruption of the conflict, the government of
the FDRE, besides condemning the unprovoked invasion, had also extended a call so that
everything is returned to its previous position and a legal and peaceful solution is
sought to the crisis. Accordingly, an order was given for our armed forces to carry out
all necessary activities for the discharge of its obligation in exercise our legal right
to dislodge the invasion forces from our territories if the EPLF regime continues to turn
deaf ears to our call of peace and refuses to withdraw from our territories.
The Ethiopian defense forces, after defusing in as short a time as possible the swift
actions taken by the enemy to consolidate itself and to broaden its horizon of invasion,
have taken various activities to build a capacity to use force for accomplishing the
mission of restoring our sovereignty with effectiveness.
Besides the efforts being made in the diplomatic arena to reverse the
aggression unleashed by the arrogant EPLF regime, the Ethiopian defense army has been
promoting a two-pronged objective. While the first of these is to achieve full restoration
of our occupied territories, the second one is to weaken the military capabilities of the
enemy.
In order to realize these two objectives, the Ethiopian Armed Forces
General Command has achieved the required results with the full support and assistance it
obtained from the government and the entire people.
In the struggle to regain our forcefully occupied territories, our heroic
defense army, during the Operation Sunset confrontation at the Badme front in February of
last year, inflicted heavy losses to the enemy forces in just four days engagement by
breaking into the heavily fortified and mine defended enemy positions which the enemy used
to boast about. At the time, most of our forcefully occupied territories were liberated.
The victory of Operation Sunset, besides the heavy military losses it had caused on the
enemy, also achieved major political and diplomatic gains.
While Operation Sunset has thus effectively broken the myth of
invincibility of the EPLF authorities, it has also forced the enemy to
accept, within 24 hours of its defeat, the peace proposals which it had
been scoffing at for nine months.
Nevertheless, the enemy, while on the one hand professing to have accepted the peace
proposals, was on the other hand acting contrary to the fundamental issues of the peace
proposals causing further crisis to a peaceful solution. The enemy did this to recuperate
from its debilitating defeat and to make another attempt to recapture and control Badme
after gaining full strength.
Accordingly, the EPLF regime launched a large-scale offensive in June of last year with
the aim to recapture Badme. But our heroic defense forces, after pounding the enemy forces
that had made another advance in the same month of June to control Badme and inflicting
heavy losses, made it irreversibly clear to the enemy that it is incapable of realizing
its dream.
Besides the desperate actions it has taken to cover its humiliating defeat at the Badme
front, the enemy, taking advantage of unstable conditions in stateless Somala, opened
another front in the eastern part of our country by organizing and arming traitorous
Ethiopians abroad and international terrorist groups and giving them direct orders and
directives. But this was rendered ineffective by the devastating attacks of our heroic
defense forces.
The heroic resistance put up by our defense forces in June of last year had also
completely shattered the hope of military superiority which the enemy had been hoping to
ascertain. It is to be recalled that the enemy,
following this humiliating defeat, announced that it had accepted the
Algiers peace talks.
But the enemy's madness was not stopped even by this. Encouraged by the failure of the
international community to take a clear position on the aggressor, the Eritrean regime has
been making major war preparations for an entire year by mobilizing Eritrean youths and
national resources. By obstructing the OAU peace efforts at every stage and by persisting
in its anti-peace stand, the enemy caused all chances of peace to be completely closed.
Following the failure of the peace efforts last April because of the
intransigence of the EPLF leaders, a major engagement took place between our army and the
enemy force during the period between May 12 to May 29 during which the enemy suffered
major defeats. During the swift and continuous offensive taken in these days, our heroic
defense forces carried out major attacks on the enemy at the Mereb and Zalambesa-Egala
fronts, and completely liberated all forcefully occupied territories at the
Zalambesa-Egala front in addition to those already liberated during Operation Sunset.
Besides, our heroic defense forces have already liberated all territories that had been
occupied by the enemy in the Afar locality of the eastern front. Therefore, our heroic
defense forces, fighting with full patriotic fervour, have successfully achieved the goal
of fully ensuring respect for our country's sovereignty.
Alongside ensuring full respect for our country's sovereignty, our heroic
defense forces have also realized, in a very satisfactory way, the
objective of weakening the enemy's military capabilities.
In the last two years of confrontation with the enemy, it was clearly
witnessed that the arrogant EPLF army could not easily defend its own self, leave alone
holding on to our forcefully occupied territories for a
prolonged time. After being totally crushed during engagements at the
western and Zalmbessa-Egela fronts, enemy forces began to abandon and flee not only the
occupied territories but also retreated from vast areas of Eritrean territory itself being
obliged to take refuge on Eritrea's
mountain tops filled with terror and anxiety.
In addition to the major human and material losses it suffered during
Operation Sunset and in the subsequent battles in the month of June, the enemy was again
dealt an embarrassing defeat during the lightning offensive mounted during the period
between May 12 and 29/2000.
During these engagements, 14 out of the 24 enemy divisions were put out of action
following heavy attacks by our defense army. With the exception of the two divisions at
the Bure front, the remaining eight divisions were also heavily damaged.
While tens of thousands of enemy forces were killed in these engagements, yet other tens
of thousands of enemy soldiers have also been captured by our heroic defense army.
In addition to these heavy human losses, the enemy also incurred
considerable material losses. A great number of enemy tanks, heavy
artillery and vehicles, thousands of machine guns and rocket launchers as well as tens of
thousands of light guns and countless shells and enemy arms ware have been captured by our
heroic defense forces. Moreover, huge quantities of enemy properties have also been
destroyed by attacks from our heroic army.
On the whole, the enemy's armed forces, which used to be its major boast of EPLF have been
severely weakened.
The role of our heroic air force in this patriotic and life and death
confrontation made to protect the country's sovereignty and to weaken the enemy's army was
significant. The heroic air force has performed a worthy patriotic feat that made
significant contribution to the success of the ground battles by engaging in various
activities including collecting
information about the enemy, providing logistical support for the ground forces,
destroying enemy forces moving from front to front as well as in and beside the trenches,
and devastating enemy command posts and logistical centers.
Our air defense forces, which is a part of our air force, by vigilantly
defending our air space day and night, has obliged enemy war planes to be restricted
to the protection of their state place alone.
Besides, our heroic air force, during a lightning and skillful strike it
carried out in a unilateral offensive dubbed "Operation Ayder" at the enemy
air force base in Asmara, inflicted major destruction on the enemy. It has also
caused major damage on the enemy's military training center in Sawa, western Eritrea, by
attacking it repeatedly. Our air force has also destroyed the enemy's anti-aircraft system
in Madefera locality and also inflicted a major damage by attacking a big military
establishment near Massawa.
Our heroic air force performed the major patriotic feats mentioned above and accomplished
it mission satisfactorily by dismantling what the enemy used to boast about saying its had
built an invincible air defense system. The fact that our air force has, ever since last
May 12, accomplished its duties skillfully and with a sense of patriotism, without
incurring any losses, with the exception of one downed fighter helicopter, shows its
strong capacity to accomplish mission. Both friends and enemies have expressed their
admiration for the fighting capabilities and sense of patriotism shown by the Ethiopian
armed forces who, since last May 12, have annihilated the enemy by their swift actions.
Our defense army managed to score the above mentioned shining victories in so short a time
was not only
prompted by its sacred motto of defending the country against invasion. The heroic defense
army scored the victories due to sufficient preparation having been made to enhance the
army's fighting capacity, the fulfillment of all conditions for providing satisfactory
logistical support for the war, and the all-round support and assistance provided by the
people and government for the realization of this goal.
The armed forces of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE), by inflicting the
above mentioned human and material losses on the EPLF army, have accomplished with a high
level of military competence the trust and responsibilities reposed in them by the people
and government of Ethiopia to protect the country's sovereignty.
At this juncture, the armed forces of the FDRE like to express their
admiration and respect for the rear support provided by the Ethiopia
peoples throughout all corners of the country especially in reinforcing the army through
manpower recruitment, financial material and moral assistance in support of all activities
made in the last two years to defend the country's sovereignty. The armed forces believe
that this matchless popular support had played a major role for the attainment of these
shining victories and for the success of our forces to accomplish mission with a sense of
responsibility.
The armed forces would also like to reaffirm to the entire peoples of
Ethiopia their readiness to stand on full alert more than at any other time before to live
up to their constitutional responsibility to protect peace, public well being and national
sovereignty and to repulse any kind of aggression leveled again Ethiopia.
Eternal Glory to Ethiopian Martyrs!
Armed Forces General
Command of FDRE
May 31,2000
Issued by the FDRE Office of Government Spokesperson on 31/05/2000
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