Eritrean government toughens up policy towards Ethiopians living in Eritrea June, 2000

Описание: Eritrea - Eritrean government toughens up policy towards Ethiopians living in Eritrea and places 2,000 under armed guard as border war continues, 7th June 2000


Thousands of Ethiopians living in Eritrea have been placed under armed guard in camps, in an apparent toughening of the Eritrean government stance against Ethiopians living behind enemey lines as the two year old border war shows no sign of abating.

More than 2,000 Ethiopians, mostly young men, have been rounded up and herded into a rocky valley near the Eritrean capital Asmara.A glade of eucalyptus trees is their only shelter.

The outbreak of war in May 1998 over a poorly demarcated border has seeen tens of thousands of Eritreans in Ethiopia rounded up and dumped across the border.

Eritrea's policy was more leniant: Ethiopians were offered voluntary repatriation, and while some complained of harrassment and intimidation, most chose to carry on their jobs and businesses in Eritrea.

But now, since a fresh offensive by Ethiopia last month which saw its army make sweeping battlefield gains, the Eritrean government appears to have toughened its stance against Ethiopians still living behind enemy lines.

On Monday, notices went up across Asmara, telling Ethiopians to register in their local administration office in preparation for repatriation.

Government officials say they can no longer guarantee to protect Ethiopians from angry locals and the camp at Shikete, guarded by armed soldiers, has been established for their own safety, either because they lived in a battle zone or they were at risk of reprisal attacks.

At first Awet says he doesn't want to talk, fearful he will be seen by the menacing guards brandishing sticks around the hot open air camp.

The 18-year-old goldsmith is an Ethiopian, caught on the wrong side of his country's two-year-old border war with Eritrea.

Awet is persuaded to change his mind, but not before he makes an elaborate weave around the camp trying to shake off his minders, ending up crouched behind a rock next to a stagnant water hole.

He says he was brought with many others including pregnant women from his town at night to the camp.Some of them were beaten.

Awet was born to Ethiopian parents in the Eritrean town of Mendefera, some 60 km (40 miles) from the border.

Like more than 100,000 Ethiopians living in Eritrea, his family stayed after the small Red Sea state won its independence in 1993 after a long liberation struggle.

Sharing the same names, the same language and culture, people had little concern about what nationality was stamped on their identification cards.

Awet says he would like to live in Ethiopia.

"I want to go to Ethiopia because it occupies my country" he says.

Mediators from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) after a week of peace talks in Algiers have so far failed to find a solution to the destructive conflict.

Neither side gives details of its own casualties, but analysts estimate more than 100,000 soldiers have been killed in bouts of bloody trench warfare along the disputed 1,000 km (600 mile) border.