http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/Story.aspx?Id=84720
Ethiopian attack won't 'entrap' Eritrea
Reuters | 1 Hour(s) Ago
On Friday, Eritrea said an attack by Ethiopian forces inside its territory
was provocative but would not "entrap" it, signalling reluctance to be
sucked back into armed conflict with its bitter foe.
Ethiopia said on Thursday its troops raided three military bases in the
neighbouring Red Sea state which it said were used by Ethiopian rebels.
The assaults were the first on Eritrean soil that Ethiopia has admitted to
since the end of a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people. Eritrea said
there have been others.
"The objective of the attack ... is to divert attention from the central
issue of the regime's flagrant violation of international law and illegal
occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories," Eritrea's Foreign Ministry
said in a statement.
"Eritrea ... will not be entrapped by such deceitful ploys that are aimed
at derailing and eclipsing the underlying fundamental issues."
A vicious row over the position of Eritrea and Ethiopia's shared border was
not resolved at the end of the war.
The Hague-based Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission ruled in 2002 that the
border village of Badme belonged to Eritrea.
However, the village remains in Ethiopia and Eritrea blames the
international community, and the United Nations in particular, for not
forcing Ethiopia to accept the border.
Ethiopian ground forces targeted three locations around 16 km inside
southeastern Eritrea.
Shimeles Kemal, Ethiopia's government spokesperson, said Eritrea has used
the bases to train an Ethiopian rebel group that Addis Ababa says killed
five foreign tourists and kidnapped two others in Ethiopia's remote Afar
region in January.
Eritrea denies any involvement.
"As we underlined at the time, the recent deplorable killing and abduction
of tourists has also been misconstrued by the ... (Ethiopian) regime and
its backers as a 'blessing in disguise' to rationalise its unlawful acts,"
the Foreign Ministry said.
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Received on Fri Mar 16 2012 - 14:44:54 EDT
