Eritrea says will not be provoked into Ethiopia war

Eritrea says will not be provoked into Ethiopia war
Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:09 PM GMT


Top News
Israel's Sharon, Labour chief agree early election
UN's Annan urges world to help quake-hit Pakistan
French violence falls to normal level, police say
Algerian loses UK extradition fight over Paris bomb
Turbulent charter vote tears at Kenyan stability
MORE
By William Maclean
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Eritrea is not going to be provoked into war with former foe Ethiopia, the government of the Red Sea state said on Thursday following reports of growing tension between the Horn of Africa neighbours.
Information Minister Ali Abdu said "rhetoric" about a possible war reported by international media and Ethiopian officials would not divert Eritrea from its goals of developing its society and economy, especially agriculture.
The two countries have long had tense relations which burst into open antagonism during a 1998-2000 border war during that 70,000 people were killed.
Recent military manoeuvres on both sides of the unmarked 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier have raised fears of a repeat.
"We will not provoke the other side, nor will we be provoked by the other side," Abdu told Reuters in Nairobi by telephone from the Eritrea capital Asmara.
"Instead, Eritrea is focusing all its efforts on national development and especially the development of its agricultural projects."
"The rhetoric that is coming from the other side, including media reports from Ethiopia about the situation along the border, have the objective of diverting attention from the internal crisis that faces the Ethiopian regime."
Abdu was referring to bloody confrontations in Addis Ababa last month between police and crowds protesting against a May poll the Ethiopian opposition says was fraudulent. The Ethiopian government denies stealing the election.
At least 46 people were killed in the violence, hospital officials say. The killings followed the deaths of 36 people in June in similar protests over the election.
Ethiopian officials have recently organised media trips to the border to show freshly dug trenches on the Ethiopian side which Ethiopia says have been built to guard against possible attack from Eritrea.
Eritrea has grown increasingly frustrated at the international community's failure to pressure Ethiopia to implement a ruling by an independent commission intended to settle a border dispute that helped trigger the conflict.
Under a 2000 peace deal, both sides agreed to accept the commission decision about the true location of the frontier as final and binding. But when the commission made its ruling, awarding the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea, Ethiopia rejected the decision.
Eritrea has asked Western donors to reduce aid to Ethiopia to push it to honour the peace treaty. But none have done so. Ethiopia receives more than $1 billion a year in foreign aid.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.