From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Sep 12 2008 - 10:36:57 EDT
Ethiopia says Eritrea "incapable" of another war
Fri 12 Sep 2008,
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has said its neighbour and foe
Eritrea is "incapable" of launching a war across its border even as
regional diplomats fear the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers has
heightened that possibility.
"Eritrea could not risk another war with Ethiopia, because its
troops do not match the power of Ethiopian armed forces. They are not
capable," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Thursday night in the
latest rhetoric between the two.
At the end of July the U.N. Security Council disbanded its
peacekeeping mission on the volatile border where Ethiopia and Eritrea
fought a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people.
The two governments intensely dislike each other and still do not
agree on their frontier despite its "virtual demarcation" on maps by an
independent boundary commission.
Both say they do not want another war, but keep their militaries on alert and accuse each other of fomenting tensions.
"Eritrea also knows the consequences of igniting another conflict with Ethiopia," added Meles in a statement on state TV.
Because it knew it could not win on the battleground, Eritrea was
trying to destabilise Ethiopia by "sending armed terrorists" into its
neighbour and round the region, Meles said.
"As the whole world knows, Eritrea is now engaged in training,
arming and dispatching armed terrorists to destabilise countries of the
Horn," he said.
Eritrea backs, but denies concretely aiding, Islamist insurgents fighting Somalia's Ethiopian-backed government.
It also denies backing rebel groups inside Ethiopia.
Asmara accuses Ethiopia of "occupying" Somalia, and scoffs at
claims against it in the constant toing-and-froing of accusations
between the two nations.
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN247065.html
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