* Meles says Addis Ababa has taken unnamed measures
* Claims come a month after Ethiopia raids inside Eritrea
* Asmara denies links
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, April 17 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
accused Eritrea on Tuesday of abducting dozens of Ethiopian miners from the
country's northwest, in a potential escalation of tension between the
arch-enemies.
Ethiopian troops crossed into the Red Sea state last month and attacked what
they said were military bases used by rebels to stage raids, including a
January attack that killed five Western tourists in Ethiopia's remote Afar
region.
These attacks were the first on Eritrean soil that Ethiopia has admitted to
since the end of a devastating 1998-2000 border war, sparking concern that
their unresolved frontier spat could escalate into a full-scale war.
"They (Eritrean government) recently kidnapped more than 100 young miners
who were mining gold in our country's northwest. And in the northeast, they
killed some tourists and kidnapped others," Meles said, the latter referring
to the January raid.
"We have taken proportional measures in both locations," he told lawmakers
in response to a question on relations with Eritrea.
Meles did not specify when and exactly where the abductions in the country's
northwest Tigray region took place, nor the measures his country had
subsequently taken.
Eritrean officials were not immediately available for comment, but they
often dismiss their rivals' allegations as a ploy to harm Eritrea's
reputation.
Ethiopia routinely accuses Asmara of supporting Ethiopian separatist groups.
It blamed an Afar rebel movement for the kidnapping of Westerners in its
northern Afar region in 2007, and again for the attack in the same area
earlier this year.
Gunmen killed two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian in a dawn attack
on a group of tourists in the remote Afar region on January 17, and seized
two Germans and two Ethiopians.
A rebel group in the Afar region said in February it had freed the two
Germans, although there has been no official confirmation of the release.
After the border war, the Hague-based Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission
ruled that the flashpoint town of Badme belonged to Eritrea but the village
remains in the hands of its neighbour, which is calling for negotiations to
implement the ruling.
Asmara blames the international community for the impasse, and President
Isaias Afewerki last month accused the United States of plotting the
Ethiopian raids.
Ethiopia is Washington's biggest ally in the Horn of Africa region and has
deployed troops in lawless Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents in
Somalia.
"The military incursions were plotted by Washington with the aim of
diverting attention from implementing the boundary commission's decision,"
Isaias said in an interview with state television. (Editing by Yara Bayoumy)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Tue Apr 17 2012 - 10:55:56 EDT
