[dehai-news] (VOA News) Eritrean Official Denies Border Demarcation with Ethiopia


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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Jan 05 2010 - 07:03:26 EST


Eritrean Official Denies Border Demarcation with Ethiopia
An Eritrean government official has described reports that an international
body will soon demarcate the border between his country and Ethiopia as
rumors.

Peter Clottey | Washington, DC 04 January 2010
An Eritrean government official has described reports that an international
body will soon demarcate the border between his country and Ethiopia as
rumors.

Information minister Ali Abdu said Ethiopia is “illegally” occupying
Eritrean land - - a charge Ethiopia denies.

“It’s just a rumor and it’s hearsay because as far as we can see, the
Ethiopians are occupying our land, and we didn’t see any kind of signals of
respecting the rule of law… The Ethiopian army is occupying our
territories,” he said.

AFP Photo
Eritrea's President
Over the weekend, Eritrea said its forces engaged in a clash after Ethiopian
forces launched successive attacks through Zalanbessa, a disputed area on
the border between the two countries.

Eritrea claimed that its troops killed 10 Ethiopian soldiers after they
attacked its positions. But an Ethiopian official was quoted as saying
Eritrea’s claim was a “total fabrication”.

Abdu said his government has evidence of the weekend attack.
“On the first of January, 2010, they tried to attack our forces, and our
force killed about nine Ethiopian soldiers and captured two. And these two
POW’s (Prisoners of War) are right now with us. Anybody who is interested
can contact them and ask them about the details. But the Ethiopian regime is
denying that there was no war and nothing happened, and this is no surprise
for me,” Abdu said.

Two Eritrean rebel groups claimed killing and wounding 63 Eritrean troops in
the Zalanbessa area, the same place Asmara claims its forces were attacked.
But Abdu denied the rebels claim.

 “I will say this is the best joke of the beginning of 2010. We don’t have
any opposition. Maybe there is an illusion of opposition forces, but we
don’t have such an opposition force,” Abdu said.

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