DATE=4/14/99
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-248055
TITLE=ETHIOPIA / ERITREA CEASEFIRE (L)
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=ADDIS ABABA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT: 

INTRO:  ETHIOPIA SAYS IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CEASEFIRE IN THE 
WAR WITH ERITREA BEFORE ERITREAN TROOPS PHYSICALLY WITHDRAW FROM 
DISPUTED AREAS.  V-O-A'S SCOTT STEARNS REPORTS ETHIOPIA'S PRIME 
MINISTER SAYS IT IS ALL PART OF A PACKAGE DEAL FOR PEACE.

TEXT:  ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS IN THIS BORDER WAR IS AGREEING
ON HOW TO SEPARATE THE FIGHTERS.

ERITREA WANTS A SIMULTANEOUS TROOP WITHDRAWAL SO NEITHER SIDE IS 
CAPABLE OF ATTACKING THE OTHER.  ETHIOPIA SAYS ERITREA MUST FIRST
PULL OUT OF AREAS THAT WERE ADMINISTERED BY ETHIOPIA BEFORE 
FIGHTING BEGAN LAST YEAR. 

RECOGNIZING ERITREA'S CONCERNS ABOUT THE TIMING OF A WITHDRAWAL, 
ETHIOPIAN PRIME MINISTER MELES ZENAWI SAYS IT IS NOW POSSIBLE TO 
HAVE A CEASEFIRE FIRST AS LONG AS ERITREA COMMITS ITSELF TO 
PULLING BACK.

                     ///  MELES ACT ONE  ///

         IF THE ERITREANS WERE TO SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE OF A 
         PACKAGE THAT VERY CLEARLY INDICATED THAT THEY WOULD 
         WITHDRAW FROM OUR TERRITORIES IN A CERTAIN SPECIFIC TIME

         AS  SOON AS THEY SIGN ON THAT PACKAGE, ON THAT DOTTED 
         LINE, THERE IS A CEASEFIRE AS FAR AS WE ARE CONCERNED.

                        ///  END ACT  ///

IN AN INTERVIEW WITH V-O-A, PRIME MINISTER MELES SAID IF ERITREA 
PROMISES TO WITHDRAW, ETHIOPIA IS WILLING TO STOP FIGHTING WHILE 
TROOPS ARE STILL AT THE BORDER.

                     I//  MELES ACT TWO  ///

         WE ARE  NOT  SAYING THEY HAVE TO WITHDRAW FIRST BEFORE 
         THERE IS A CEASEFIRE.  THAT WAS  NOT  IN THE DEAL.  I 
         MEAN, THEY  CANNOT  WITHDRAW WITHOUT A CEASEFIRE.  HOW 
         DO YOU IMPLEMENT THAT?  IT'S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO 
         IMPLEMENT THAT.  BUT YOU HAVE A PACKAGE WHICH INCLUDES A
         CEASEFIRE, WHICH INCLUDES AN AGREEMENT ON THE PART OF 
         ERITREANS TO WITHDRAW FROM ALL OUR TERRITORIES.

                        ///  END ACT  ///

ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA HAVE BOTH ACCEPTED AN ORGANIZATION OF 
AFRICAN UNITY PLAN TO ARBITRATE THE DISPUTE.  THAT DEAL CALLS ON 
BOTH COUNTRIES TO PULL BACK THEIR TROOPS WITH INTERNATIONAL 
MONITORS CONTROLLING DISPUTED AREAS WHILE A BORDER COMMISSION 
DRAWS UP A NEW BORDER MAP.

PRIME MINISTER MELES SAYS ONCE ERITREANS AGREE TO LEAVE ETHIOPIAN
TERRITORY, THAT PLAN CAN MOVE AHEAD.

                    I//  MELES ACT THREE  ///

         THE ERITREANS HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT THEY HAVE TO WITHDRAW 
         FROM THE TERRITORIES THAT THEY OCCUPIED AFTER MAY SIXTH.
         WE NAVE ALL AGREED THAT AFTER THAT, THE BORDER ISSUE 
         WOULD BE DELINEATED AND DEMARCATED ON THE BASIS OF 
         COLONIAL TREATIES, SO THAT IS AGREED.  THAT THERE WOULD 
         BE SEPARATION OF FORCES, THAT IS AGREED.  ALL THINGS ARE
         AGREED, EXCEPT ONE.

                        ///  END ACT  ///

THAT IS A BIG "ONE."  ERITREAN PRESIDENT ISAYAS AFEWORKI SAYS 
ETHIOPIA IS THE AGGRESSOR HERE, THAT ETHIOPIA IS TRYING TO ANNEX 
ERITREAN TERRITORY BY PUSHING NORTHWEST INTO THE BADAME PLAIN. 

NOW THAT HE HAS ACCEPTED THE O-A-U PLAN, PRESIDENT ISAYSAS SAYS 
IT IS TIME THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HELPS PUSH IT FORWARD WITH
A CEASEFIRE INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR MORE FIGHTING.

                  ///  OPT  //  ISAYAS ACT  ///

         THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS A RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS
         REGARD IN MY OPINION.  WHAT EXACTLY CAN WE EXPECT FROM 
         THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY?  WE HAVE ACCEPTED THE 
         FRAMEWORK.  YOU HAVE BEEN INSISTING THAT WE ACCEPT THE 
         FRAMEWORK. THERE ARE  NO  EXCUSES NOW FOR DELAYING THE 
         IMPLEMENTATION.  WHAT EXACTLY IS THE O-A-U DOING?  THE 
         O-A-U DOES  NOT  HAVE ANY EXCUSE TO DELAY. 

                        ///  END ACT  ///

///  OPT  ///   PRESIDENT ISAYAS SAYS HE HAS COMPLIED WITH THE 
O-A-U FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT BY WITHDRAWING FROM THE BORDER TOWN OF 
BADAME.

///  OPT  //   PRIME MINISTER MELES SAYS ERITREANS DID  NOT  
LEAVE BADAME, THEY WERE FORCED OUT, AND THAT IS  NOT  ENOUGH.  HE
SAYS ERTIREANS MUST AGREE TO QUIT ALL OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, 
INCLUDING AREAS HUNDREDS OF KILOMETERS FARTHER EAST, BEFORE THE 
FIGHTING STOPS.

///  OPT  ///   PRIME MINISTER MELES SAYS HE WILL AGREE TO A 
CEASEFIRE THAT ALLOWS ERITREA TO KEEP A PROMISE.  HE WILL  NOT  
AGREE TO A CEASEFIRE THAT GIVES ERITREA TIME TO MAKE ANOTHER 
DEAL.

                ///  OPT  //  MELES ACT FOUR  ///

         WHAT WE HAVE SAID  NO  TO IS A CEASEFIRE BEFORE THERE IS
         A PACKAGE DEAL.  A CEASEFIRE IN THE CONTEXT OF A PACKAGE
         DEAL HAS ALWAYS BEEN PART OF THE PACKAGE FROM DAY ONE.  
         THE NEW PROPOSAL OF CEASEFIRE THAT IS COMING FROM SOME 
         QUARTERS IS, THEY ARE SAYING, O-K, YOU HAVE  NOT  
         RESOLVED THE ISSUE. YOU NEED TO SIT AND TALK. FOR THAT 
         TO HAPPEN YOU NEED TO HAVE A CEASEFIRE.  THAT IS WHAT WE
         DO  NOT  ACCEPT. 

                  ///  END ACT //  END OPT  ///

MILITARY OBSERVERS ESTIMATE AT LEAST 40-THOUSAND PEOPLE HAVE DIED
IN THE PAST YEAR OF FIGHTING.  MORE THAN 300-THOUSAND TROOPS ARE 
DUG-IN ALONG THE ROCKY BORDER, MOST NOW MASSED AROUND THE BORDER 
TOWN OF BADAME.  (SIGNED)

NEB/SKS/JWH/PLM

14-Apr-99 5:47 AM EDT (0947 UTC)
Source: Voice of America

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Ethiopia's new position was part of a peace deal under which his country would honor a cease-fire if Eritrea promised to withdraw its troops from territories Ethiopia administered along their disputed 620-mile border until last May.

"If the Eritreans were to sign on the dotted line of a package that very clearly indicated that they would withdraw from our territories in a certain specific time, as soon as they sign on that package, on that dotted line, there is a cease-fire as far as we are concerned," Meles said.

Both countries have accepted a plan put forward by the Organization of African Unity to mediate the dispute. The plan calls for both sides to pull back their troops and allow international monitors into disputed areas while a border commission establishes a mutually recognized international boundary.

There was no immediate reaction from Eritrea to Meles' statements, but President Isaias Afwerki has made it known that he expects the OAU to be more aggressive in securing a cease-fire.

An OAU team is expected later this week in the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

The OAU plan had faced the problem of how to separate the fighters before a cease-fire and before monitors could move in.

Eritrea, a former Italian colony, gained formal independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year independence war, but the new border was never officially demarcated. A joint commission had been studying the problem when fighting broke out last May in the contested Badme region, north of Addis Ababa and west of Asmara.

There are no independent figures available on war casualties, but both sides claim to have killed thousands of their opponents.

Foreign diplomatic and military observers agree that as many as 40,000 troops on both sides may have been killed along with a lesser number of civilians.

Both countries have at least 300,000 troops entrenched at Badme, Tsorona-Zalambesa and Burie -- the most contested parts of the border.

``Members of the Security Council expressed their serious concern at the continuing hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea,'' council President Alain Dejammet of France said in a statement.

The conflict erupted last May over a rocky 150-square-mile (390 sq kms) area called the Badme triangle.

Fighting broke out again in February when Ethiopia regained control of the Badme region, which Eritrea had captured last year. Each side claims to have killed tens of thousands of the enemy while refusing to disclose its own losses.

Council members ``call once again for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the implementation of the OAU (Organization of African Unity) framework agreement,'' Dejammet said, repeating appeals issued in February.

Ethiopia accepted the OAU peace plan last November and Eritrea agreed to it in late February but neither has implemented it.

Members of the council welcomed in particular a decision by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send Sahnoun, his special envoy for Africa, back to the region in support of the OAU's efforts, and called on both sides to cooperate with him.

Sahnoun, an Algerian and a former deputy secretary-general of the OAU, has called the conflict ``nonsensical and unacceptable.'' He last visited the region in February in a bid to head off a resumption of fighting and has warned of the possibility of ``the first high-tech war in Africa,'' since both sides have acquired fighter aircraft and bombers.

A U.N. spokesman had no immediate details of Sahnoun's forthcoming trip to the region.

Dejammet said council members were looking into the possibility of sending military observers to monitor any agreement that might be reached.

The artifacts were taken from Ethiopian Orthodox churches and include gold and silver crosses, golden crowns belonging to Emperor Tewodros, a gold chalice and religious manuscripts.

They was so much bounty the British needed 15 elephants and 200 mules to cart it away.

Most of the treasures are now located in the British Library, the British Museum and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. But a group of Ethiopian academics this week formed a group to press for their return.

The Association for the Return of the Maqdala Ethiopian Treasures ``seeks the restitution of treasures forcibly taken from Ethiopia to Britain,'' Professor Andreas Eshete told a news conference in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.

British army commander Sir Robert Napier led a force to Ethiopia to secure the release of British subjects detained by Emperor Tewodros. They captured Maqdala, the Emperor's mountain capital in the north, on April 13, 1868.

Tewodros committed suicide to avoid falling into enemy hands, according to Aleqa Walde Mariam, a palace chronicler.

Clement Markham, a leading British historian of the expedition, said British forces on entering the citadel ``swarmed around the body of the deceased monarch and began to pull and tear his clothes to pieces.''

``The troops seized whatever valuables they could find in and around the citadel. They dispersed all over the mountain top and the Emperor's treasury was soon entirely rifled,'' Markham wrote.

Richard Pankhurst, a historian and member of the new association, said on Tuesday that British military authorities then transported the loot to nearby Dalanta plain in northern Ethiopia and held a two-day auction to raise prize money for the troops.

``This officially organised sale raised a total of 5,000 pounds, which assured each enlisted man (received) a trifle over four dollars,'' Pankhurst said.