DATE=6/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA / ERITREA (L-UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-263169
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: There is more fighting Monday in the
border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. This as
both countries are considering the latest
regional peace effort. VOA's Scott Stearns has
the story.
TEXT: Shelling continued Monday across the
southern Bure front. Eritrea says the artillery
exchange also included action from Ethiopia's air
force. Ethiopia's government confirmed fighting
on that front but called it "low scale."
Eritrea withdrew from contested areas along their
border near Djibouti, areas it occupied at the
start of the war two years ago. Ethiopian troops
who regained that ground say they are now being
attacked from Eritreans across the border.
Eritrea says it is fighting-back an Ethiopian
invasion. Eritrea says it "decimated" an
Ethiopian ground attack near the Red Sea port of
Assab Saturday. Eritrea says it killed, wounded,
or captured more than 3 thousand 700 Ethiopians
in what was sometimes hand-to-hand combat.
Diplomats from both countries are in Algeries
discussing the latest regional plan to stop the
fighting. They are considering an Organization of
African Unity (O-A-U) plan for a full cease-fire
and withdrawal of troops before separate talks on
settling their border dispute.
Past O-A-U efforts over the last two years of
this war have amounted to little. The only reason
for any hope from the latest round of talks in
Algeria is that the diplomatic situation has
changed over the last three weeks since
Ethiopia's invasion of Eritrea.
Ethiopia retook by force the land at the center
of long negotiations, ending the question over
when Eritrean troops would leave those areas.
Having reclaimed land taken by Eritrea two years
ago, Ethiopia says the war is over and it is
ready for a cease-fire.
The problem is that Ethiopia took more than just
its own land. It drove deep inside Eritrea,
scattering the western army and advancing to
within 100 kilometers of the capital, Asmara.
Ethiopia has pulled-out on that front, but it
continues to hold Ertirean land on the central
Tsorona front, land that Ethiopia says it will
not leave until international troops are ready to
take over.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his
government must have international guarantees
that Eritrea will not attack it again. He wants
an international peace force to control strategic
areas inside Eritrea that could be used to attack
Ethiopia. Until that happens, he said, Ethiopian
troops will stay.
Eritrea says there is no chance for a cease-fire
until Ethiopia withdraws from all undisputed
Eritrean territory, returning to the pre-war
border as Eritrea has. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/GE
05-Jun-2000 06:56 AM EDT (05-Jun-2000 1056 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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