The Eritrean Foreign Ministry has dismissed as "ludicrous," an Ethiopian demand that "Eritrea withdraw completely, unilaterally, and unconditionally from remaining Ethiopian territory." A senior official at the ministry today responded saying "Ethiopia must not pursue this argument. It is nowhere to be found in the OAU framework and they cannot add elements to the plan at this stage. Anyone can read the Framework themselves."
Ethiopia said such a withdrawal was a "minimum irreducible condition" a day after the Eritrean Government reaffirmed its readiness to implement the OAU Peace Plan in full.
The OAU plan reads as follows:
The official said, "there is simply no ambiguity and no room for the liberal interpretation Ethiopia seeks to inject into the plan, unless they are reading from a new script."
Responding to another Ethiopian demand that Eritrea "must assume full responsibility for all damages," the official said, "It is Ethiopia which bears full responsibility for the consequences of the war. Indeed, Ethiopia used force to occupy the Bada region in July 1997. It published an illegal map, redrawing Eritrea's international boundaries in October of 1997. It triggered the conflict when its forces opened fire and killed Eritrean troops in Badme on May 6th 1998 and it instigated the recent hostilities when it launched an attack on Eritrea on February 6th despite UN and OAU resolutions calling for maximum restraint. All these points indicate that it is Ethiopia which must bear full responsibility for the consequences of the war."