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BBC Africa
ERITREA UN Envoy
#So how does the Eritrean government respond to the call from their neighbours to change their policy on compulsory youth military service? The BBC's Akwasi Sarpong has been speaking to Eritrea's envoy to the UN, Girma Asmerom.
Eritrea's ambassador to the UN Girma Asmerom dismissed Mr Hailemariam's claim of a link between military service and migration as "pathetic and ridiculous".
He told the BBC Focus on Africa radio programme that Ethiopia should deal with its own internal problems first.
"There are 15 million Ethiopians in need of food assistance and thousands of people are fleeing the country."
He was also asked about a BBC proposal to introduce a news service for Eritrea and Ethiopia on medium- and short-wave radio.
Details of the suggestion, which would need UK government approval, are not known.
"I am not sure what kind of services you're going to launch, but my concern is that you have labelled Eritrea with some countries like North Korea, so that's a very dangerous move and I think we oppose that."
Received on Sat Nov 07 2015 - 11:49:19 EST