Ethiopia Starts Expelling Eritreans Again
Reuters, July 6, 1999, 1999
ASMARA (Reuters) -
Ethiopia has restarted large-scale deportations of Eritreans, forcing out 3,000 people in the last two days, Eritrea and human rights watchers said Tuesday.
Ethiopia and Eritrea, its former ally and neighbor in the Horn of Africa, have been at war for 13 months.
The Eritrean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that 1,410 Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin had been deported across the southern Burre front line near the Red Sea port of Assab Monday.
``The deportees included expectant mothers, children, handicapped and gravely ill people,'' the ministry said.
It said a large number of the deportees were Ethiopian citizens with Ethiopian passports who had been arrested and detained for periods ranging between three days and 10 months on ``security grounds.''
Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse confirmed that 3,000 people had been ``repatriated'' to Eritrea in the past two days. She said some had left voluntarily and that all were in good health.
The human rights group Amnesty International said Ethiopia had expelled around 50,000 Eritreans since their border dispute exploded into a full-scale war in May last year.
Ethiopia has in turn accused Eritrea of deportations. Amnesty said over 20,000 people had returned to Ethiopia after losing their jobs in Eritrea.
Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia until 1993, when it won its independence after a 30-year war. Their bitter border conflict has soured a short chapter of close relations.