1. The Ethiopian government is appropriating properties belonging to Eritreans who have been expelled from Ethiopia, sources in that country disclosed. Government officials are confiscating and selling these properties after interdicting the Eritreans from selling their properties, making bank withdrawals or giving power of attorney. The sources stated that government officials are moving into houses belonging to deported Eritreans. The value of properties left by the over 17,000 expellees is estimated at over hundreds of millions of birr.
2. Around fifty Eritreans, expelled by the Ethiopian government from Asella, Mekele and its surrounding, arrived in Zalambessa on Saturday. The deportees said that the inhabitants of Asella and its surrounding had attempted to conduct a peaceful demonstration in opposition to the inhumane acts of the Ethiopian government. However, the Ethiopian soldiers and cadres forbade the demonstration. The Ethiopian officials have expelled many of the over 17,000 Eritreans through the front lines at Badme, Assab, and Zalambessa.
3. According to an IMF report, the Eritrean government is successfully transforming the Eritrean economy into a market economy with a vibrant private sector. In a document of July 16, 1998, addressed to the Ministry of Finance, IMF alternate executive director, Jose Pedro de Morais, Jr., conveyed the IMF Executive Board's admiration at the economic and monetary reforms Eritrea is making. "Over the years, the authorities have made major headway, the Government was practically reinvented, creating a lean, decentralized and well motivated and committed civil service to spearhead economic reforms," the alternate executive director observed. The IMF commended Eritrean authorities for the smooth introduction of the nakfa. The IMF Executive Board expressed their approval of the priorities given to the health and education sectors. They welcomed the unification and liberalization of the exchange system. Morais gave his recommendation for the Fund to continue and increase support for the "provision of technical assistance for institutional building, staff training and improvement of the statistical data base in order to strengthen the capacity for policy formulation and macro-economic management."
4. More than 3,000 people perished and tens of thousands more were displaced as a result of a tribal clash in Borena zone, southern Ethiopia, last month, according to a statement published in the Ethiopian newspaper, Amaratch, yesterday. The Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Coalition exposed the conflict in its published statement and accused the Ethiopian government of trying to conceal the clash from public knowledge. The Coalition blamed the tragedy on the "TPLF's mistaken administrative restructuring policy and mistakes the ruling party's cadres made." According to the statement, "thousands are hospitalized in Dila hospital and thousands more are displaced and suffering between Hagere Mariam and Dila towns on the Addis Ababa-Moyale highway." The Coalition denounced the Ethiopian government's efforts to keep the conflict secret from the Ethiopian people and the international community. The Coalition expressed its concern over the lack of humanitarian aid from the Ethiopian government to the tens of thousands displaced.
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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