Press Release
Celebrating Defeat TPLF Style

The TPLF regime has claimed, in a press release that it issued today, that it has "killed, wounded or captured 12,733 Eritrean soldiers on June 12-13, bringing the total number of Eritrean casualties from June 9-13 to over 21,000."

This is laughable as the following facts illustrate:
* On Monday, June 14, Ethiopian radio reported that Eritrean casualties to date were over 8,000. Now suddenly the figure for the same days is 21,000!
* In an interview with the Amharic Service of Deutsche Welle on Monday, June 14, Ethiopia's spokesperson, Mr. Haile Kiros, stated that "Eritrea's claims for having shot two MiG-23 fighter planes and a helicopter gunship were false. Ethiopia was not in fact using its aircraft this time since air support was inconvenient in a defensive battle." Now, the press release claims that the Ethiopian Air Force has "caused the Eritrean army heavy human and material losses"!

This pattern of lies is not of course new, although the regime would typically wait for at least some weeks before issuing contradictory claims.
* The TPLF regime denied even the occurrence of the battle of Tsorona from March 14th to 16th in which it lost more than 10,000 troops in disastrous human wave assaults. On March 28, when it published a doctored balance sheet of the war, it claimed it had killed over 9,000 Eritrean troops in the same battle that it had scoffed at as "imaginary."
* In February, when the TPLF captured Badme, it claimed to have destroyed more than "40,000" Eritrean soldiers. But this was revised downwards by almost 50% when the TPLF stated on March 28, without any explanation, that Eritrean casualties in the Badme battle were 22,300.

In brief, there is no semblance of truth to the TPLF's figures issued today. And the reason is clear. Eritrea has been giving daily accounts of the battle which have received wide coverage. Eritrea's reports have not included the reports of yesterday. So the TPLF has done likewise and, taking Eritrea's figures as a base, concocted some higher numbers.

The TPLF would be hoping too much if it believes that these transparent lies would confuse it own army or public opinion.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 16 June 1999