DATE=6/2/2000
TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=ETHIOPIA-ERITREA BORDER WAR (CQ)
NUMBER=6-11852
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, two of
the world's poorest nations, appears to be slowing
down -- at least for a while. Ethiopia this week
claimed victory in its two-year border war with its
former province, Eritrea.
The claim came after a two-week long Ethiopian
offensive that some observers say recaptured most of
the territory occupied earlier by Eritrean forces. At
least one journalist, observing the battle, compared
it to a pair of "bald men, fighting over a comb" as a
way of portraying its uselessness to the populations
of both countries, already facing a deadly famine.
Here now is ___________, with a sampling of
international press reaction to the latest
developments in the Horn of Africa, on this week's
World Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: Several newspapers around the world focused on
the Organization of African Unity-sponsored peace
talks under way in Algiers, wondering whether Ethiopia
will be allowed to use the military gains from its
recent offensive to dictate peace terms.
At least a few newspapers feel that what was really at
stake in this war was Ethiopia's desire to get a Red
Sea port again. After Eritrea gained independence in
1993, Ethiopia was left landlocked. And more than a
few analysts feel the country wants to retake Assab,
one of Eritrea's deep-water ports, as a "spoil of
war."
Most editorials criticized leaders of the two nations
for engaging in such a costly and lengthy war during a
time of serious and growing famine. We begin our
sampling in Addis Ababa, where the English-language
weekly Reporter compared this latest conflict to the
Gulf War after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait.
VOICE: Fortunately or unfortunately ...
conflicts like the Ethiopia-Eritrea war do not
quickly catch the attention of the world powers
and entice their involvement, obviously because
such conflicts do not have much of a
repercussion on the interests of these powers.
Nevertheless, security is as essential to the
people living in this region as it is to those
living in the Middle East, Europe or North
America. Who, then, should act for the sake of
security in the Horn of Africa?
TEXT: In an editorial before Ethiopia's claims of
victory this week, the English-language daily
Ethiopian Herald noted:
VOICE: Increasingly active on the scenario are
also outsiders with little or no conception of
the real causes and effect of the war ...
TEXT: Turning to West Africa, we read in the Cameroon
Tribune:
VOICE: Ethiopian troops will retire only after
an agreement has been signed. The beginning of
indirect negotiations in Algiers between
Ethiopia and Eritrea has not resulted in a
cease-fire. In Algiers, each country is calling
on the other to be the first to pull out of the
occupied territories ... While discussions are
going on in Algiers, fighting continues on the
front ... What importance should be given to the
statement ... by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles
Zenawi who told foreign diplomats ... the war is
over?"
TEXT: Still in Cameroon, in the city of Buea, the
English-language weekly Post sounds disgusted as it
writes:
VOICE: The story of Ethiopia and Eritrea is
seemingly a tall tale of two countries fighting
over scorched earth. Far from it. It is a
reflection of cosmetic political and military
alliances for expediency. The war ... brings to
focus the myth of nation-state, colonial
trespasses, the inability of the Lion of Judah
(Haile` Selassie) and the Red Negus (Mengistu
Haile Mariam) to give soul to desperate people
and the geostrategic interests of neighboring
states.
TEXT: Farther to the South, in Lusaka, the Zambia
Daily Mail says:
VOICE: The renewed hostilities ... has once
again brought to the fore one of Africa's
biggest failings, and the chief cause of chronic
suffering by its people ... The two ... states
have yet again elected to settle their
...dispute on the battlefield instead of using
established diplomatic channels ...
TEXT: To the Middle East now, where Cairo, Egypt's Al
Ahram carried this column:
VOICE: The ... war was described as a fight
between two bald men over a comb, which
[neither] will use. The two countries are
suffering from poverty, famine and backwardness,
but they are ready to spend millions to buy
weapons and sacrifice hundreds of lives for a
barren border area ...
TEXT: And for European reaction, we go to Germany,
where the regional daily Thueringer Allgemeine of
Erfurt commented in a recent editorial.
VOICE: Hunger and weapons -- both Ethiopia and
Eritrea have enough of them. They do not know any
compassion. Neither the leadership in Addis Ababa nor
... in Asmara care whether hundreds of thousands of
Ethiopians or Eritreans die because of malnutrition or
die on the flight from the armies. This is why we
cannot have too much hope in the Ethiopian
announcement of withdrawal and the willingness for
peace.
TEXT: Turning to Germany's financial capital, the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also sounds a somewhat
frustrated note, as it suggests:
VOICE: Ethiopia ... celebrating the ninth anniversary
of the expulsion of dictator Mengistu these days,
seems to forget in its triumphant mood that the
willingness of the former donor nations to provide
assistance to the country will decline with every bomb
that is dropped on Eritrea.
TEXT: In South Asia, where hardship is also not
unknown, The Independent in Dhaka, the Bangladesh
capital, editorializes:
VOICE: At this point, the Ethiopians will seize all
the advantages they can from an offensive which has
been scattering their enemies in all directions. That
certainly leaves the men in Asmara in a state of
worry, if not panic. For all the right reasons. The
tragedy for both Ethiopia and Eritrea is that it was
only seven years ago that they stopped clobbering each
other when the latter achieved freedom after a
decades-long guerrilla war against the former. ... It
was a friendly parting of [the] ways. But then
economic issues came between the two countries.
TEXT: Turning to North America, we find The Ottawa
Citizen, the major daily in Canada's capital, upset
with the United Nations for its seeming inability to
be more effective in ending this fight.
VOICE: The United Nations Security Council is
woefully unprepared to try to end the fighting... In
fact, it can take partial blame for the intensity with
which the war is being waged. Despite the clear
evidence over the past two years that both countries
were importing hundreds of millions of dollars in
armaments, the Security Council waited until the
conflict was rumbling along at full-speed before
imposing a mandatory arms embargo on both sides. This
is closing the barn door after the horse has bolted,
and it is an all-too-common occurrence with U-N arms
embargoes ... [which should] stop the flow of weapons
before conflict erupts, not after the bodies start
falling.
TEXT: On that somewhat caustic comment from Canada,
we conclude this sampling of world journalistic
reaction to the latest events in the Horn of Africa's
nasty border war.
NEB/ANG/
02-Jun-2000 15:19 PM EDT (02-Jun-2000 1919 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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