Eritrean President renews rhetoric against Ethiopia

By Bonny Apunyu
(SomaliNet)

Eritrea's president stepped up the rhetoric against archrival Ethiopia Monday, saying that its claims that his government backs terrorism indicated that its regime was floundering and headed "to the abyss."

In an interview with the Eritrean press, Issaias Afewerki said that Ethiopia was "looking for external victims so as to cover up its internal problems and searching for external supporters as it did not have trust in the people."

In comments reported in an information ministry statement, the president said that accusations that Eritrea supported Somali Islamists with alleged links to Al Qaeda as well as rebels in Ethiopia were "diversionary campaigns."

The claims attested to Ethiopia's "bankruptcy, cheapness, and state of acute worry," Issaias said, adding: "The [governing] clique is heading to the abyss."

The impoverished Horn of Africa neighbors have been at odds since they fought a bitter territorial war between 1998 and 2000, and are yet to reach final settlement despite the presence of a peace deal.

Issaias said that Ethiopia's "strategy of creating enmity among the people and ethnic polarization in a bid to prolong its stay in power has aggravated the Ethiopian people's bitterness to the highest level."

At least 193 Ethiopian civilians and six police officers died in Addis Ababa during post-election violence in 2005, when the state used force to crack down on opposition demonstrations against alleged poll fraud.

Issaias, who has been in power since Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1993, also said that the Ethiopian economy relied on outside aid and warned that "the poor-rich gap in the country keeps on widening with each passing day."

Ethiopian officials were not available to comment on the remarks.

The main cause of Asmara's bitterness has been Ethiopia's refusal to implement a ruling by an independent boundary commission that awarded the flashpoint border town of Badme to Eritrea.

The town remains under the control of Ethiopia, which insists that the ruling should be altered since it will split families and villages between the two countries.

The international community has repeatedly urged both nations to refrain from actions that might spark new clashes. In May, the UN Security Council said that it remained "deeply concerned" by the tensions between the two.

SomaliNet/ Dehai News