Press Release
Ethiopia Fabricating Pretexts to Launch War
On February 5 this year, the TPLF regime falsely accused Eritrea of "bombing the town of AdiGrat." The accusation was fabricated in order to justify Ethiopia's intentions of violating the US-brokered moratorium on air strikes and launching a large scale offensive--which it unleashed the next day, February 6, 1999. This occurred despite the fact that residents of AdiGrat as well as foreign embassies based in Addis Abeba had verified, on the same day, that no such bombing ever took place.
Now, as the international community is earnestly expecting Ethiopia to accept the Technical Arrangements to pave the way for the implementation of the OAU peace package, the TPLF regime is resorting to the same pattern of lies, apparently in preparation for another round of offensives.
To this end:
* The TPLF has accused Eritrea of supporting OLF and Al Ithad
extremists "in order to topple the government in Addis Abeba." These
accusations are evidently preposterous. In the first place, it is well
known that Eritrea has been, and remains, in the forefront in combating
fundamentalism in the region. There is thus no conceivable way that it
can prop up the extremist Al Ithad group. On the other hand, the OLF
has been operating in Ethiopia since 1980. It was a coalition partner
of the TPLF regime until they fell out with each other in 1992. The
crisis prompted the OLF to resume its military activities in Ethiopia
which clearly predate the recent border dispute between the two
countries. Moreover, Eritrea has consistently maintained that the
present conflict is a border dispute which is solvable through peaceful
means. The TPLF regime, on the other hand, is on record as stating that
it wants to "degrade the Eritrean army and topple the Asmara
government." To this end, it brought together, in collaboration with
the Sudanese government, an assortment of ten Eritrean groups, baptized
them as the "National Democratic Alliance," and even prepared what
it
calls the "Transitional Charter" for this group last February. Thus
it
is the TPLF regime which is engaged in the business of changing the
Eritrean government and not vice versa.
* The TPLF harps daily that Eritrea cannot be "trusted" and that "its
acceptance of the peace package cannot be taken seriously." To this
end, the TPLF regime daily fabricates inflammatory propaganda--such as
"bulldozing of Zalambesa," "the detention of Ethiopian civilians
in
Hawashait," etc.--to give credence to its accusations. The fallacy of
these accusations can be easily ascertained on the ground. But the
important issue is that it is the OAU and the United Nations which are
the guarantors of the three peace documents. The Technical Arrangements
indeed make this clear when it states in Article 17: "The OAU and the
United Nations will be the guarantors for the scrupulous implementation
of all the provisions of the OAU Framework Agreement, the Modalities of
Implementation of the Framework Agreement and the Technical
Arrangements for the Implementation of the Framework Agreement and its
Modalities." The TPLF regime must therefore either say openly that it
does not trust the international community or admit that it is not
ready to embrace the peace formula, which is the case in reality.
It is also instructive to note that the TPLF regime has muzzled the domestic press, preventing it from covering recent progress in the peace talks. The visit of the OAU special envoy to Ethiopia and his meetings with the Prime Minister to deliver the OAU's clarifications thus were not reported by Ethiopia's state-owned media. The contents of the Technical Arrangements have not been explained to the Ethiopian public either. The motive is very clear. The TPLF is scared that the Ethiopian people might discover the truth and oppose its policy of war. The TPLF thus has to feed them false information by distorting the position of Eritrea and the contents of the OAU peace documents.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 31 August 1999