The following teachers of the Italian School of Asmara would like to express their solidarity with the Eritrean government on occasion of the border dispute and with a particular reference to the declaration of the Ethiopian government which accused Eritrea of launching an air attack on Adigrat yesterday at 10.45 a.m.
For months our utter indignation and deep disapproval has been aroused by the shameful and unacceptable Ethiopian violation of human rights, a violation which, if not checked, will destabilize the lives of many more people. We are referring to the illegal detention and massive deportation of thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, to the inhuman treatment of the 38 university exchange students who are still imprisoned in Ethiopia as well as large-scale confiscation of property. Living here and being eye-witnesses of this unilateral ethnic expulsion we have been increasingly affected by such occurrences and by the external acceptance of the pack of lies contrived by the Ethiopians. Likewise we have been amazed at the silence of many international institutions and media which sometimes seemed to misrepresent facts, putting the two countries on the same level and not giving the Eritrean position a fair hearing.
As a matter of fact - now that the prospect of war is no longer only looming - it is definitely patent that the above-mentioned violation is one way. In an attempt of giving our contribution as teachers, we can say that for long we have been witnessing a continuous flux of students driven away from Ethiopia and arriving in Asmara while the opposite is not the case: not even one of our Ethiopian pupils was obliged to quit our courses. It must be pointed out that our concern is for children and teen-agers who have often been ill-treated, kept in jail and separated from their families.
On the top of this, the alleged declaration about the attack on Adigrat (a false piece of information already denied also by Reuters News Agency ) gives full evidence of the clear intention by the Ethiopian government to keep on spreading false news in order to create a dangerous confusion, to increase tension and to make the tit-for-tat policy an accepted reality.
What is worse, all this seems to legitimize any aggressive solution and the escalation of the conflict into a full-scale devastating military confrontation. Needless to say, this might also have the effect to frighten the foreign community in Eritrea - who have already been alerted - to the point of getting them to fly away as well as nullify any possibility to give the dispute a peaceful settlement. The very latest news dating back to this early morning and concerning an extensive fight in the border areas does nothing but confirm our opinions and worries.
On the basis of such considerations, we would like to appeal to the international institutions and media asking them to pay a closer and fairer attention to the matter so as to help to pave the way for a peaceful solution.
Asmara,
7 February 1999