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DATE=6/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA / ERITREA (L)
NUMBER=2-263386
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Ethiopia says it has recaptured ground inside 
Eritrea. Fighting in their border war continues while 
the Organization of African Unity tries to make peace. 
VOA's Scott Stearns reports.
TEXT:  Ethiopia says it has retaken the Eritrean town 
of Guluj in a counter-offensive against Eritrean 
troops that continued into Monday. Ethiopia says it 
voluntarily withdrew from Guluj earlier this month as 
part of its pull out of western Eritrea. But that only 
led to more fighting, with Eritrea saying it had 
Ethiopia's army on the run.
Eritrea says it "liberated" towns in the western 
lowlands occupied by Ethiopia during its offensive 
last month. Eritrea called its recapture of the 
garrison town of Tessanie near the border with Sudan a 
"major defeat" for Ethiopia.
Ethiopia says Eritrea was attacking retreating troops, 
so Ethiopia says it stopped retreating and started 
fighting. In addition to Guluj, which is 50 kilometers 
inside Eritrea, Ethiopia says it has also recaptured 
positions farther north along the road to Tessanie. 
None of those claims could be independently confirmed.
Eritrea says it inflicted "staggering losses" on 
Ethiopian troops at the war's eastern front Sunday. 
Eritrea says it pushed back an Ethiopian offensive 
near the border with Djibouti. On the war's central 
front, Eritrea says it dislodged Ethiopian troops from 
strategic high ground around the Ethiopian-held town 
of Senafe.
The Organization of African Unity (O-A-U) has given 
both sides a week to respond to its latest peace 
proposal from meeting in Algeria. That plan calls for 
an immediate return to pre-war borders before separate 
talks on resolving the dispute. Eritrea has already 
accepted that plan, having withdrawn to its pre-war 
borders under military pressure from Ethiopia last 
month.
Ethiopia says it is still considering the proposal and 
will respond to the O-A-U in what a Foreign Ministry 
statement called "the shortest possible time."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his 
soldiers will not leave all of Eritrea until 
international troops are ready to take over strategic 
border areas that could be used to attack Ethiopia. 
The Prime Minister says Ethiopia must have 
international guarantees that Eritrea will not attack 
again. Until then, he says Ethiopian troops will stay.
Eritrea says fighting will never stop as long as 
Ethiopian troops remain on Eritrean soil. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/GE 
12-Jun-2000 06:47 AM EDT (12-Jun-2000 1047 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.