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DATE=10/03/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-267399

TITLE=UNHCR / ERITREA (L-O)

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: RE-RUNNING WITH CORRECT CR NUMBER ///

INTRO: The United Nations says the level of destruction in Eritrean border towns from the recent war between Eritrea and Ethiopia will slow the return of refugees to homes they abandoned during the war. Lisa Schlein has more from Geneva.

TEXT: U-N refugee officials recently traveled to the border area of Eritrea evacuated by Ethiopian troops about two-weeks ago. While there, they visited the town of Omhajer, nearly 300-kilometers southwest of Eritrea's capital Asmara.

U-N-H-C-R spokesman Kris Janowski says the officials were appalled by what they saw.

/// JANOWSKI ACT ///

Our colleagues found the area completely looted, depopulated, destroyed, mined. (It is) essentially an uninhabitable situation which actually dashes any hope for a speedy return of displaced people to that area.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Janowski says the U-N-H-C-R officials, along with representatives of several private aid agencies, were the first foreigners to visit the area since the Ethiopian troops pulled back. Although the team visited only one town, Mr. Janowski says the agency assumes that the conditions are similar in other areas that were occupied by Ethiopian forces.

/// JANOWSKI 2ND ACT ///

The town was 80-percent destroyed. Virtually all public buildings trashed, including the hospital and the school. A partly destroyed church and mosque with all the icons gone. Everything completely looted, everything of any value taken away. The local military said that they had lifted 50-mines since the Ethiopians left on the 21st (September) and they said that one man had died in a mine strike (explosion).

/// END ACT ///

About 100-thousand Eritreans fled into neighboring Sudan during the latest fighting with Ethiopia. Hundreds of thousands of others were internally displaced. About half of the refugees have returned home. Mr. Janowski says it is doubtful that the remaining 50-thousand refugees will go back to Eritrea any time soon. Furthermore, he says plans to return another 160-thousand Eritreans who fled earlier wars have been set back. (SIGNED)

NEB/LS/KL/RAE