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