THEY LOVE ME ... THEY LOVE ME NOT

I can't recall much I've written over the years that has caused such an outburst of both hostility and appreciation as in five-part series on Africa's newest independent country - Eritrea - which ended on New Year's Eve.

Eritrea is engaged in a border war with Ethiopia, and reverberations from the articles still echo.

Neither hostile Ethiopians, who feel I'm in the pay of Eritrea, nor Eritreans pleased their small country is being taken seriously, seem to realize I was reporting what I found in that country - that I went where the story took me.

I was with Eritrean guerrillas in 1988 when they wiped out a third of the Ethiopian Army in Eritrea - some 20,000 troops and, yes, I was impressed at their fortitude and fighting proficiency.

I returned to Eritrea this November/December to report on the new border war with Ethiopia (which both sides claim is unnecessary and blame the other for starting), and to see how that Red Sea country the size of New York state with a population around that of Greater Toronto was faring.

Clearly, I was impressed, and see Eritrea as a potential role model for Africa - free of corruption, wary of foreign aid, advocating self-reliance, ethnic rivalries channelled into "Eritrean" pride, beholden to no one.

The response of Ethiopians has been impressive in its extent and similarity. True, there are more Ethiopians than Eritreans (Ethiopia's population is pushing 60 million, Eritrea's is 3.5 million), and Ethiopian e-mail and phone response has come from all over, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Las Vegas, Alaska.

Obscene phone calls aside, the gist of the Ethiopian response is that my findings are lies; that the Ethiopian government's version of events is truth. Ethiopians claim Eritrea started the border war by "invading" Ethiopia and that its president, Isaias Afewerki, is a tyrant and ruthless dictator.

While one can argue who started what, the logic of Eritrea "invading" Ethiopia makes as much sense as Prince Edward Island invading Canada. Yes, Eritrean fighters are inside the Ethiopian border, but in defensive positions, not for territorial gain.

UNRELIABLE PROPAGANDA

All governments put their case in the best light, but Ethiopian propaganda is so replete with untruths that it's totally unreliable. For instance, Ethiopia insists Eritrea bombed Makale in June and deliberately targeted a school. Reality is, as confirmed by foreign diplomats and news agencies, that Asmara was bombed at 2 p.m., and Eritrean planes retaliated at 2:50 p.m. - and admittedly hit a school by accident as well as destroying eight bomb-laden Ethiopian planes.

Officially, Ethiopia claims - and callers echo - that Eritrean youths are forcibly conscripted into the army, that jails are filled with political prisoners, that people disappear as in Chile or Argentina, that Eritreans live in fear, that Ethiopians are persecuted and deported.

I, on the other hand, saw none of this. True, Isaias may turn bad, but at the moment Eritrea seems an oasis of hope, its people filled with pride, trust and optimism, its economy growing at 8% a year (International Monetary Fund report), privatization proceeding nicely.

Yes, and there is a cockiness, even arrogance, in Eritreans, as if having thrashed the Ethiopian Army and winning independence without outside military help, they are the equal of anyone. They seek advice, but don't necessarily take it.

When Islamic militants from Sudan agitated among Eritrean Muslims, Isaias threatened to support Sudanese opposition if Khartoum didn't stop this subversion. And a fight with Yemen over ownership of the Hanish Islands was settled in favour of Yemen by international mediation - which Eritrea accepted.

ACCUSATIONS

I'm accused by Ethiopians of having been paid "thousands" by Isaias, and/or, more curiously, of having a homosexual relationship with him.

Never mentioned is that Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once headed the TPLF (Tigre People's Liberation Front) fighting for independence alongside Eritrea against the Mengistu regime in Ethiopia. When Mengistu collapsed Tigre abandoned its independence drive and took over the capital, Addis Ababa. Tigre, more than Ethiopia, disputes the Eritrean border.

While Eritrea's progress since independence has won accolades from the World Bank and IMF, it seems to have provoked resentment in Addis Ababa.

Curiously, the massive support Eritrea enjoys from expatriates is significant. Few Russians or Ukrainians abroad supported the Kremlin in the days of the USSR; few expatriate Iraqis come to the defence of Saddam Hussein; Chinese in Canada weren't pro-Mao Tse-tung. Yet expatriate Eritreans send money to Asmara to help pay for the war, seem proud of their president and are ardent nationalists supporting their homeland.

This is hardly the reaction a tyranny might expect.

When you talk to those who've been "ethnically cleansed" and deported from Ethiopia and had their belongings confiscated - a policy condemned by human rights bodies - you realize that something wicked is happening. And it's in Ethiopia more than Eritrea.

GRAPHIC: 2 photos by Reuters BORDER DISPUTE ... Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi both fought against the former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu in the early '90s. Tensions between their respective countries led to armed skirmishes in '98, with both sides blaming the other as the instigator.