DATE=6/13/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA / ERITREA / L
NUMBER=2-263415
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: : Ethiopia's army says it has captured new
ground on the road to Eritrea's Red Sea port,
Assab. Their border war continues as regional
mediators wait for a response to the latest peace
plan. V-O-A's Scott Stearns has the story.
TEXT: Ethiopia says it is now less than 40
kilometers from Assab -- having taken an area
known as Aimoker from which Ethiopia says Eritrea
commanded its fighting on that eastern front. The
claim cannot be independently confirmed. Eritrea
Sunday said it inflicted "staggering losses" on
Ethiopian troops at that front, driving them back
to their original positions.
Eritrea's desert, near Djibouti, has been the
scene of heavy fighting over the last few weeks.
Eritrea has repeatedly accused Ethiopia of trying
to reclaim Assab -- a port it lost with Eritrea's
independence from Ethiopia in 1993. In the past,
Ethiopia has said it did not intend to take
Assab. The government statement claiming the
capture of Aimoker said controlling that ground
allows Ethiopia to protect positions along its
border, farther west.
Eritrea left that disputed territory it occupied
at the start of the war, two years ago. Ethiopian
troops who moved-in to reclaim that ground say
they then came under attack from Eritreans inside
Eritrea. Ethiopia also claims to have been
provoked on the western front, where a voluntary
withdrawal has changed back into an offensive.
Ethiopia says it started pulling out of western
Eritrea two weeks ago, but, its troops were then
attacked by Eritrea's army. Eritrea says it drove
Ethiopia out of the western lowlands --
"liberating" towns along the way. Ethiopia then
stopped withdrawing and started fighting.
Ethiopia says it has recaptured Guluj, 50
kilometers inside Eritrea, and positions farther
north along the road to the garrison town,
Tessannie.
The Organization of African Unity has given both
sides a week to respond to its latest peace
proposal from meetings 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withdrawn to its pre-war borders under military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 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.
Eritrea's foreign ministry says Ethiopia's delay
reflects its "characteristic tactics of
obstructing the peace process."
(SIGNED)
NEB / SS / WD
TEXT:
NEB/WTW/
13-Jun-2000 03:08 AM EDT (13-Jun-2000 0708 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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