1. The total number of Eritreans deported from Ethiopia has now reached over 17,000 with another 800 Eritreans deported from Ethiopia arriving Tuesday at the border town of Badme. The Eritrean deportees include many children and pregnant women as well as disabled and elderly people who had to be carried on makeshift stretchers on a trip which took four days by foot. The Eritreans had lived in the Tigray region of Ethiopia for decades. On their arrival at the border town of Badme, they told ERINA reporters that after the border conflict had begun, they were denied freedom of movement in Tigray and had their properties taken away by Ethiopian officials.

2. An official at the Japanese Foreign Ministry has confirmed that an Ethiopian diplomat from the Ethiopian Embassy in Japan is seeking political asylum in that country. Russom Tekle Kidane, 28, said he wanted to seek refuge in Japan after his government's decision to relieve him of his duties because of his Eritrean heritage. The former diplomat said he feared persecution in his native Ethiopia and is now working with a Japanese civic group to obtain political asylum. On July 30, the BBC reported that an Ethiopian MP from the Somali ethnic group had fled Ethiopia and sought refuge in Britain.

3. The National Coordination Committee of the Somali Republic has accused Ethiopia of interfering in the Somali reconciliation process. In a report sent to all IGAD member states, the OAU, and the United Nations, the Committee stated that Ethiopia "had and continues to carry out invasions of Somalia in the Western Region of Gedo" and had entered into bilateral agreements with movements in the north. Specifically, the Committee accused Ethiopia of providing arms to Somali renegades and funding a conference in support of the North East's proposed independent "Punt Land" as a means by which to undermine Somali hopes for national reconciliation. The Committee called upon IGAD and other involved groups to condemn Ethiopia's actions which it claims clearly violate OAU resolutions on Somali unity and seek to undermine national reconciliation.

Veronica Rentmeesters, Information Officer

Embassy of Eritrea to the US
1708 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009, USA TEL: 202 588 7587 FAX: 202 319 1304
E-M: veronicX@embassyeritrea.org

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