Statement
Ethiopia Continues to Pursue Its Agenda of War

The Ethiopian regime continues to pursue its war of aggression against Eritrea, adamantly rejecting calls by the OAU, the UN Security Council, the European Union and several countries including the US, Russia, France, China, Japan, and Italy, among others, for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

As it may be recalled, the OAU High-Level Delegation had urged on March 1st "for an immediate end to the fighting given the acceptance by both parties" of the Framework Agreement. Similarly, the UN Security Council issued two statements in the past week alone calling for an immediate cease-fire and expressing its regret, especially in its communications of March 4, "that Ethiopia still continues its military actions."

But Ethiopia persists stubbornly in its war of aggression giving a deaf ear to all these calls. Pitched fighting continued throughout last week as Ethiopia launched, almost daily, attacks on the Mereb-Setit front in an attempt to seize Eritrean sovereign territory.

These acts of aggression have been accompanied by belligerent statements coming out from Addis Abeba:
* In a government statement of March 1, 1999, entitled "Ethiopia Is Looking for a Lasting Peace," the regime openly admits that its agenda extends "to overthrowing the government in Asmara" which has become "a threat to the region."
* Ethiopia's "Parliament" issued a vitriolic statement on March 2nd rejecting UN Security Council Resolution 1227 of February 10th. Ethiopia objected strongly to the cessation of hostilities and the embargo on the sale of arms to both countries. Oddly enough, the extraordinary session of the Parliament did not address the Security Council statement of February 27th calling on both sides to "halt hostilities now that the OAU Framework was accepted by both parties."
* A senior government officials told a public rally in Addis Abeba on March 2nd that "the war will continue until the Eritrean army is wiped out."
* Ethiopia's Speaker of Parliament, Dawit Yohannes, told a press conference in Paris on March 3 that his country "is not contemplating a cease-fire at this stage."

As international pressure mounts on Ethiopia urging it to agree to a cease-fire and not to entertain agendas of territorial aggrandizement or the subversion of a sovereign government in contravention of international law, Addis Abeba has come out with a new ploy. In an official statement that it issued on March 5, Ethiopia is now arguing that it will continue the war "until Eritrea withdraws from other occupied territories as required to do so by the OAU."

This is a complete lie and a deliberate distortion of the OAU Framework. Indeed, there is no ambiguity in the OAU Framework concerning global demilitarization. The OAU clarification on redeployment and demilitarization given to the Government of Eritrea further reads: "the redeployment is of Eritrean troops from Badme Town and its environs (defined as the areas surrounding the town). This should be immediately followed by the demilitarization of the entire border, through the redeployment of the forces of both parties along the entire border, to positions to be determined subsequently, as part of the implementation process of the Framework Agreement."

It must also be borne in mind that Ethiopia has always been refusing to submit the totality of its territorial claims in spite of the illegal map that it published officially in October 1997 carving out large chunks of Eritrean territory. The Government of Eritrea has time and again requested the OAU to demand that Ethiopia submit, in explicit geographic terms, the totality of its claims as this was imperative for defining the scope of the border conflict. But Ethiopia has invariably rejected these demands. And, in the clarifications that Eritrea sought from the OAU regarding this particular issue, the OAU's response reads: "Ethiopia had indicated that it will submit its claims when the issues of delimitation, demarcation and, if need be, arbitration are addressed. "

Why is Ethiopia raising new issues now when it has refused to discuss its claims in the past eight months? Does Ethiopia want to revise the Framework Agreement which was endorsed by the Summit of the Central Organ?

Ethiopia has violated operative paragraph 1 of the Framework Agreement on the cessation of hostilities and the relevant Security Council resolutions when it launched the war against Eritrea on February 6, 1999. Despite its pronouncements to the contrary in the early days, Ethiopia does not deny now that this was a well-planned offensive complete with a code-name (Operation Sunset).

In the event, is Ethiopia now demanding a "reward" for an act of aggression that it has committed in contravention of the OAU and UN Security Council resolutions? Is this the reason why it is requesting, albeit in a round-about way, a new version of the OAU Framework?

Ethiopia goes further to accuse Eritrea of the violation of human rights and other norms of international law in an effort to justify continued war. Here again, the track record illustrates the reverse:
* It is Ethiopia that has expelled over 53,000 Eritreans and which has confiscated their life-long earnings;
* Ethiopia has detained more than 1,500 Eritrean youth as POWs in its concentration camps under the presumption that they are "potential soldiers";
* Ethiopia has employed about 200 mercenaries in its Air Force;
* Ethiopia continues to target population centers in its air raids (25 civilians have been killed and over 30 wounded in recent air bombings of Deda Lalai, Badme, Adi Qwala, villages in the Zalambesa and Tsorona areas, and Shambuqo).

Ethiopia is pursuing the war not because it has legitimate border claims. Ethiopia's agenda is territorial aggrandizement which it hopes to achieve by installing a puppet government in Eritrea. But this ambition is not tenable in terms of international law. It is also impossible to achieve in practice. It was this ambition that plunged the region into turmoil for thirty years in the past. The sad history should not be repeated now and the onus for preventing a similar disaster lies with the international community.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 8 March 1999