It was Sunday February 28, 1999. The day that threw the nation into ecstasy over Operation Sunset's overwhelming victory. The day on which the final judgement was delivered on the invading army after nine agonizing months. It was this same day that we set on our journey to the place where "the sun never sets" - Badme. For us here at the front-line who are closely following developments, Operation Sunset's successful culmination was no news at all. But the government's official announcement of the victory raised our eagerness to visit Badme.

Our first 15 kilometres drive took us to a trench of the Ethiopian army. Five kilometres ahead lies an enemy fortress. It would not be difficult to imagine how arduous it could have been for the warring parties to spend solid nine months keeping a vigilant eye at each other.

The enemy trench is of two types. There is a long stretching concrete ditch, which is connected to the strategic mountains of Gemehalo, to our right, and Gual Gemehalo, to the left. It was at this front-line that the Ethiopian army launched its counter-offensive Operation Sunset with one of the heaviest and deadliest fighting. We were told that these strategic localities were used by the invading army as observing posts to monitor the movements of the Ethiopian army. Members of the local militia also told us that it was this very strategic position from where the enemy aside has been shelling areas like Shiraro, Zinbageda, Adiawla and Biyara for the lost nine months.

There is a ring of trenches that curves around Mt. Gual Gemehalo having underground ditches. Behind these connecting trenches, there are underground concrete bunkers you would be tempted to believe that engineers of modern city skyscrapers had a hand in their construction design and construction. The roof is covered with huge trunks from the locality. Soil filled-sacks lie above them. The bunkers appear like "Hidimo" cottages of the local people and can accommodate 25 to 31 soldiers each.

These multi-purpose bunkers are also meant as replacement founts in case the front trenches found within ten meters are broken. Replacement soldiers for the dead and injured are also fielded from these trenches. It was also used by the Eritrean military commanders as a center to deliver instructions to their troops. It was after visiting this fortified stronghold that Isaias braved to brag to the world "pulling out of Badme is tantamount to the sun never rising again!"

Contrary to his imagination and day dreaming, Isaias's army and the concrete trenches could not resist the Ethiopian tornado even for a single day. The enemy army fighting for an unjust cause could not stand the sweeping tide of Operation Sunset.

The fierce day-long war at Gual Gemehalo ended with the trenches of the enemy army completely demolished. Mt. Gual Gemehalo was burned from continuous aerial and ground bombardments. Rocks have turned into ashes. The enemy trenches have turned into graveyards for thousands of Isaias's army. It was hard to resist the putrid smell of the dead no matter how hard you try to hold your nose tight. The bodies have littered the surrounding.

Vultures are feasting on the bodies of thousands of young Eritreans. This was all because of Isaias' refusal to accept the OAU Framework Agreement and withdraw his forces from occupied Ethiopian territories. No one other than Isaias and his henchmen who cannot live without war can be held accountable for all this tragedy. No Ethiopian will ever be pleased to see the dead bodies of young Sawa conscripts lying all over the place. Rather the real source of happiness for us Ethiopians comes from regaining the territorial sovereignty which, of course, our heroic soldiers have paid very dearly.

Had it been for the Ethiopians, the conflict could have been resolved without any bloodshed nine months ago. It was in search of peace that they exercised maximum restrain, but to no avail. Gambling over the fate of Eritrea, Isaias resorted to war, which could only result in the death of thousands of Eritreans.

We were back on our journey to Badme after spending twenty-five minutes at Gemehalo and Gual Gemehalo. The areas along our path are filled with enemy ammunition. It would take much time for whoever dare take an inventory of the military hardware. We also saw a number of burned tanks behind the enemy trenches. Food items and cooking utensils are all over the fields.

After half an hour's journey, we reached the Geza Belion and Geza Tegaru villages. There, the vast sorghum growing plots have been blazed following over nine-month's of service as ammunition and hardware supplies warehouses by the invading army. Most of the villagers in both localities have run for their lives. Most of their abodes have been reduced to rubbles by the fighting. Should these displaced compatriots return, they will have no houses to take shelter in, even for a single night.

We travelled on along road stretching between Badme and the Gemehalo and Gual Gemehalo mountains. The road which Isaias' invading army built using several bulldozers and graders for ferrying military hardware to its army looks like it was a well-dug trench from a distance.

Our journey is still on. As we travelled ahead it was common place to witness members of the Ethiopian militia busy collecting arms from the dead bodies of enemy soldiers. Most were carrying five, six kalashnikovs, machine-guns as well as rocket launchers each.

All the way from Shiraro up to Sembel, we witnessed similar situations with 22 more kilometres ahead of us to reach Badme town. Like Gemehalo and Gual Gemehalo, Senbel too is a place where enemy fortified its positions with tanks and explosives. Here, we found a hill protected well with a circular underground defence lines. At this strategic area was where we joined a portion of the gallant sons of Ethiopia who raided the well-fortified enemy stronghold built over nine months and inflicted heavy damage on tens of thousands of enemy soldiers.

Upon our arrival at this place, radio operators and our military commanders were still busy carrying out their duties. Many were reminiscing about the operation.

Enemy captives and wounded soldiers were receiving medical attention and being provided with food and water. One of the wounded enemy soldiers, Gebre-Hawariat Gebre-Tensae told us that Asmara's claims of tactical retreat with all its energy intact in this front was but a fake pretext meant to confuse the Eritrean people. According to him, there was no reason why his fellows couldn't have some time to rescue him if it were not for the severe blow they sustained at the hands of the Ethiopian army.

Isaias' radio still narrating the story of the tactical retreat even to those who sustained severe blows at the fighting. No wonder, to Isaias and the like of him the news of Badme falling in the hands of Ethiopian soldiers was a complete surprise.

While still in Senbel, we witnessed several dead bodies of enemy soldiers littered all over the place. In a most striking experience we came across a defunct enemy trench where we saw bodies of Eritrean soldiers piled one upon the other.

The incident came after an enemy unit leader who refused to surrender to Ethiopian soldiers clashed with his fellow soldiers and bombed the bunker trench where wounded Eritrean soldiers were being temporarily placed.

Twenty-two kilometres away from where we are situated lies Badme. Most of us were too eager about being there. On the left from Senbel, there stretches the road to Sheshebit and Adi Tsetser where the occupation force lost most of its tanks and other military hardware, to the Ethiopian army.

The road to Badme has been heavily mined like the rest of the surrounding area by Isaias Afeworki's army. By the way, all the enemy positions have been fortified by land mines in five kilometres distance from their actual holdings.

Two reasons compelled the enemy to use the heavy landmine fencing in the area. One, the landmines were used as a protection against and advance from the Ethiopian side. Secondly, the landmines were meant to protect defection from members of the Eritrean army who were conscripted to engage in the fight over a foreign territory. Surprisingly enough, captured Eritrean soldiers were not aware of the mining of the area lying in front of them.

This was what 22-year-old Alganesh Teklemariam of Eritrea's 381st corps confirmed after she rescued her own life by surrendering to the Ethiopian forces in the fighting at Gemehalo. "I had no ideas land mines were planted in the area. I came to learn that only later - after Ethiopians captured me," she told us.

The reason why Eritrean army bosses don't let any information to the likes of Alganesh who were muzzled into the invading army's conscription in the name of national service is very obvious. The invading army's commanders fear that the conscripts would leak information to the Ethiopian defence forces if they defect. Not just that. There is a serious concern on the part of Eritrea's military bosses about an exodus of the National Military service recruits who are suspected of running for their lives if they get a safe way out of the heavily mined zone.

Except those commending the rank and file from behind the scene of the actual neck-to-neck struggle, nobody has any idea as to where the landmines are planted.

Our journey to Badme proceeded via a circuitous path which Ethiopian tanks paved. The journey took as back to where we started crossing Geza Tegaru and leaving Gual Gemehalo on the right hand side. The situation gave us the opportunity to observe the key site where Asmara's "dependable" strong force suffered one of the most humiliating blows. Here, a five kilometre ditch has been dug deep to connect Gemehalo and Gual Gemehalo.

At the foot of the mountain, Western Tigray militia and the youth were gathering various sorts of weapons left behind by the fleeing, dead and wounded Eritrean army who lost the battle in that particular front.

In Operation Sunset, the task of gathering abandoned arms and rescuing the wounded for medical treatment has been left for the militia and the youth in the zone. Collecting the hundreds of Klashinkov handguns, machine-guns and several other weapons at the end of the operation were youth who had to travel over 150 kms from the Med-beyzana woreda of western Tigray zone. These young people joined the army in the fighting on Tuesday, February 23.

One of the young people, Mebrahtu Abreha left his home for the February 23rd offensive a couple of weeks earlier. He recalled that he was among the first group of people who marched in Gemehalo following its control by the Ethiopian forces. To him, the most disgusting task was collecting the numerous bodies of the enemy force killed in the fighting.

The Gemehalo mountain was so heavily mined that the way to climb the mountain was to follow the footsteps of a military expert who would lead us to the top. We travelled inside a long canal dug from the foot of the mountain all the way up to the top. It was quite a horrible experience walking up the mountain canal filled with the dead bodies of the enemy soldiers. Most of the bodies looked like they were killed from aerial shooting.

Some of the soldiers killed in the canal were surprisingly, shockingly as well, without a natural leg-they were soldiers who lost their legs in the fight for independence! The incident was enough to confirm a wide spread rumour about the EPLF conscripting its disabled independence veterans. These dead bodies with artificial legs were fighting back Ethiopian defence forces engaging them from the Shiraro and Adi Abias area. The intention of deploying them indicated that EPLF army bosses deemed it right their artificial-legged soldiers will desperately be able to stop any advance against them as they don't have the physical ability to run away in the event of a defeat.

The area was extremely hot. It was indeed marvellous to see Ethiopian forces dismantling the nine-month old fortified enemy stronghold in only a matter of few days' fighting under the scorching heat.

As we travelled further ahead, we came across several soldiers captured in the Afazih, Gemehal, and Gual Gemhal areas. The soldiers captured in these areas are members of the 380th and 161st corps. Some were chatting in groups of eight to ten. Others were resting in the shelters given them.

The Badme area stretches over a vast plain highly suitable for farming sorghum sesame. It doesn't require one's agricultural expertise to tell that the virgin land stretching around its particularly suited to large mechanised estate farming.

The area is so full of trees. The EPLF army built all those trenches by cutting down trees, according to the local population, used to cover the entire area.

At the end of our journey, we could see Badme, the Ethiopian tricolour flowing from the town's administrative office which overlooks the surrounding area. That was the place which Isaias Afeworki's invading force captured by military might in complete contravention of international norms and principles. The recapture of Badme symbolised the indomitability of a nation, which had all the capability to restore its lost sovereignty.