April 2000 Press Releases

1. Conclusion of the Tripartite Agreement for the Voluntary Repatriation and Re-integration of Eritrean Refugees from the Sudan) (7 April 2000)
   
2. TPLF Regime Rejects Use of Assab Port for Humanitarian Purposes (April 3, 2000)
   

Joint Communique (Conclusion of the Tripartite Agreement for the Voluntary Repatriation and Re-integration of Eritrean Refugees from the Sudan)
7 April 2000

1. Tripartite negotiations involving the Government of the Republic of Sudan, the Government of the State of Eritrea, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for the voluntary repatriation of Eritrean refugees in the Sudan, were held in Geneva from 6-7 April, 2000.

2. Dr. al Aghbash, Commissioner for Refugees, led the Sudanese Delegation and that of the State of Eritrea was headed by Madame Worku Tesfamichael, Commissioner for Refugees. Mr. Albert-Albert Peters, Director for the Africa Bureau, led the UNHCR Delegation.

3. The discussions culminated in the conclusion of an Agreement, which will constitute the Legal Framework for the return of the Eritrean refugees. The initial plan is to repatriate some 160,000 refugees, the majority of whom have expressed the desire to be assisted to return home.

4. The Agreement recognizes the strictly voluntary nature of repatriation, and contains all established principles for conducting voluntary repatriation. Specifically, the Agreement recognizes the fundamental right of the refugees to return to their homeland; their prerogative to send representatives to their country of origin to see the prevailing situation so that they can return and brief others; and UNHCR's monitoring role, on behalf of the international community, to ensure that the returns are strictly voluntary, as well as to monitor the consequences of return.

5. The Agreement envisages the development of detailed Operation Plans which will cover among other things, the reintegration activities in Eritrea as well as the programme for the rehabilitation of refugee affected areas in the Sudan.

6. In their statements at the Meeting, both the Eritrean and UNHCR Heads of Delegations paid tribute to Sudan for having hosted the Eritrean refugees. On his part, the Leader of the Sudanese Delegation pledged his Government's commitment to facilitate the repatriation as well as to continue providing protection to those refugees who do not opt to return as this time, with the assistance of UNHCR, and on the basis of applicable principles of asylum.

7. The Parties wish to underline the fact that refugees will not be returned to conflict-affected areas.

8. The Parties agreed that the Commission will hold its inaugural Meeting from 27-28 April, 2000 in Asmara, Eritrea.

Issued by UNHCR and the Governments of the State of Eritrea and the Republic of Sudan

TPLF Regime Rejects Use of Assab Port for Humanitarian Purposes
April 3, 2000

Ethiopia is today facing the gravest humanitarian crisis in its history. Eight million Ethiopians are facing acute starvation. The harrowing images of emaciated children and carcasses of dead animals strewing the areas struck by drought are broadcast on TV screens all over the world. In some of the worst hit drought areas, humanitarian agencies report five to ten daily deaths of starving children.

In response to this human catastrophe in the making, the international community is marshalling huge resources in the hope of staving off massive death by starvation. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has pledged 400,000 tons of food aid. The international community as a whole will be donating 863,000 tons of emergency assistance to Ethiopia in the coming months. This is in addition to the 520,000 tons delivered to Ethiopia in the past ten months.

It is in the context of this massive international rescue operation that the Assistant Administrator of USAID, Mr. Hugh Parmer, who toured the region two weeks ago, requested Eritrea to allow the use of the port of Assab for the delivery of food aid to Ethiopia. This request was forwarded in the knowledge that although other ports in the region--Djibouti, Berbera, Mombasa, Port Sudan, etc.--will be, or are already being, used, the availability of Assab with its geographical proximity to some of the worst hit drought areas would expedite the rescue operation.

Eritrea accepted the request underlining its humanitarian obligation in the concerted international effort to stave off a major tragedy in Ethiopia.

But in an act of unparalleled callousness and irresponsibility, Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday claiming that Eritrea's gesture of goodwill is "bizarre disinformation" as no one "raised the issue of Assab" in the first place. Feigning ignorance about the request during the visit of the USAID senior official to the region, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry statement further adds: "It would indeed be strange if anyone had made such a suggestion."

What is even more repugnant and disturbing is the TPLF's attempt to downplay the magnitude of the human tragedy that Ethiopia is facing. The TPLF thus converts the figure of eight million Ethiopians facing starvation into some percentage to claim "only eleven percent of Ethiopia's population is currently facing immense hardship and is in need of international relief assistance, just as Eritrea is in need of the same."

The TPLF regime may have forgotten the big famine of 1973, which ultimately brought about the overthrow of the Emperor, affected 250,000 lives. The major disaster of 1984/85 during the Mengistu period affected one million Ethiopian farmers. The famine today is graver by 32 times compared to the famine of 1973 and eight times worse than the crisis of 1984/85. But for this extremely merciless regime, eight million lives are only 11% of the total population and apparently expendable! Incidentally, this explains the logic of its military strategy in which thousands of ill-trained soldiers are thrown into battle in human waves.

In as far as the comparison that it attempts to make with the situation in Eritrea is concerned, this is irrelevant and only betrays a sick mind. The urgent task at hand is saving lives, whether Ethiopian or Eritrean. It is not about scoring meaningless propaganda points. As a simple matter of truth though, the situation in Eritrea--in which there are almost half a million people displaced by war and some 300,000 needing assistance because of localized drought--is not comparable, by any stretch of the imagination, to the disaster that is looming over Ethiopia. Indeed, while Ethiopia has already received, or is billed to receive, a total of 1.4 million tons of food aid since January last year, in the same period, 58,700 tons were delivered to Eritrea and an additional 51,000 tons were pledged. But even in spite of this meager assistance, not a single death by starvation has occurred in the Eritrean camps of war-displaced or those expelled from Ethiopia by the criminal acts of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the TPLF regime. Because the government of Eritrea has mobilized internal resources, in addition to international assistance, to stave off any humanitarian crisis. The USAID Assistant Administrator in fact commended the Eritrean Government "for the excellent job that is has accomplished with meager resources to alleviate the humanitarian needs of those affected by war." He also stated that there was "no humanitarian crisis in the camps although the situation remained precarious requiring an assured flow of relief assistance."

The TPLF regime further tries to link Eritrea's humanitarian response with what it calls "Eritrea's sabotage of the proximity talks." As fully described before, the proximity talks now proposed by the OAU are not new. Indeed the OAU's original suggestion was for both parties to send high level delegations to Algiers in early August last year for official signature of the peace documents and for proxy talks to sort out additional, technical details. The Ethiopian regime rejected that proposal asking instead that the OAU prepare the Technical Arrangements for submission to both sides as a "take it or leave it" document. The TPLF regime has now reneged on its word of honor. Faced with this "big stone," the OAU is going back to its original proposal. So the obstacle to peace is again the TPLF regime.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 3 April 2000