Press Release (7:00 a.m. LT)
Town of Tessenei Liberated; Ethiopian Army Suffers Major Defeat
The Eritrean town of Tessenei was liberated yesterday at 9:20 p.m. after a day long battle in which the Ethiopian army in the area, consisting of one division and two brigades, was totally routed.

The battle started in the morning when the Ethiopian army which captured Tessenei ten days ago--while the Ethiopian government falsely claimed on the same day that it has "completed its withdrawals from western Eritrea"--began to fan out to loot and destroy satellite towns and villages in the area.
Earlier in the week, the Ethiopian army demolished all major public and commercial premises as well as private homes in Barentu. The cotton plantation site of Ali Gidir--which lies within 8 kms. of Tessenei--was similarly vandalized and all the new processing machinery detonated by the Ethiopian army.

Ethiopia has been repeatedly asked by the OAU to withdraw fully from western Eritrea and redeploy its troops to the May 6 line in accordance with the peace plan and to reciprocate Eritrea's unilateral withdrawal from the contested areas. But, Ethiopia continues to reject this call and still occupies a number of sovereign Eritrean towns (Tokombia, Guluj, Antore, Om Hajer, etc.) in the agriculturally rich part of the country.

Ethiopia's sinister design is aimed at delaying and preventing the early return of the population (over 40,000 were dislocated, some of them fleeing to Sudan, when Ethiopia occupied Tessenei last week) so as to disrupt agricultural production during the critical month of June when the rains are due. Over 60% of Eritrea's agricultural produce comes from the western part of the country.
On Sunday, Ethiopia launched a large scale attack on the Assab front after Eritrea had withdrawn, unilaterally and in response to the appeal of the OAU Chairman, to 37 km. from its original position which stood at the established boundary between the two countries at 71 kms.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 6 June 2000