The Adi Murug Cover Story

Eritrea's attempt to excuse its brutal aggression.

As most who have followed the Eritrea - Ethiopia conflict are aware, the Eritrean government has been advancing the theory that it was Ethiopia that has invaded Eritrea. In particular the Eritrean government points to the Bada/Adi Murug incident. Eritrea claims that in July 1997, the Ethiopian army invaded this area and forcibly dismantled the Eritrean administration that was supposedly there.

But this "invasion" (if we accept Eritrea's version of events), must surely rank as one of the most bizarre invasions in history. Consider the following:

  • The operation was announced in advance and coordinated with the Eritrean Army.
  • The action was against the Afar political organization 'ARDUF'. One of the goals of ARDUF is to re-unite the Afar community in Eritrea with the Afar regional state in Ethiopia. As such, this organization is far more a threat to Eritrea than to the TPLF/EPRDF. In fact, to most Ethiopians it is inexplicable why the Ethiopian government was involved in an "unholy alliance" with Eritrea against ARDUF. Reference (1)
  • There were no casualties - no pushing or shoving, not even a scraped finger to report
  • The total number of displaced civilians was zero
  • There is no record of any Eritrean administration at Adi Murug. No Eritrean district chairman, mayor, councilors etc… No election records, no tax records…in short no evidence to present to the international community. Reference (2)

By contrast, Eritrea's invasion of the Badime district and parts of Shiraro districts was unquestionably a brutal invasion. It immediately resulted in numerous casualties and thousands of displaced civilians. Reference (3)

The question of who had been administering these areas was also quickly answered by an abundance of evidence, including elections, and correspondence between the Ethiopian administration in Badime and its Eritrean counterparts across the border. This evidence has been regarded as conclusive by the OAU and all other organizations involved in the dispute Reference (4)

But the Eritrean accusation that Ethiopia invaded it is even more galling when we consider the incredible degree to which the Ethiopian government went in order to satisfy and appease Eritrea. The Ethiopian government was so trusting of Eritrea, that absolutely no preparation were made to deal with a potential conflict with Eritrea.

Consider the following facts which are all supported with reference documentation:

1. Military Spending:

  • Ethiopia slashed its defense budget and kept it at a low level during the period 1993 to 1997.
      "Ethiopia's army was disorganised, neglected and ill-equipped nine months ago, its strength below 100,000, but a border conflict then erupted with Eritrea, leading to warnings here of further war." Ethiopia's Army Gets Some Muscle; Agence France Presse; Feb 5, 1999

  • Ethiopia sold its Navy (16 ships had been anchored at Djibouti since 1991) in late 1996 and 1997. Reference (5)

  • In July 1997, Ethiopia indefinitely delayed modernising its air force despite the Mig-21 and Mig-23 upgrade package being offered by Israeli defense companies (Defense News Online, July 1997: Reference (6))

  • Meanwhile, Eritrea's military expenditures were excessive by any standard, even taking into account the brief conflict with Yemen. For a poor, aid-dependent country to consistently spend over 25% of its budget on its military is unconscionable, yet that is exactly what Eritrea has done for the entire six years of its existence as an independent nation. Reference (7)

2. Ethiopian Military Assistance to Eritrea

  • The Eritrean Air Force was being trained at the Debre Zeit Air Force base.
  • Ethiopia loaned four helicopters to Eritrea in 1996 Reference (8)
  • Ethiopia sold its Navy with at least one of the ships going to Eritrea. (This transaction was almost certainly on credit as Eritrea had already borrowed over one billion birr from Ethiopia). Reference (9)

3. Ethiopian Economic Support to Eritrea
Ethiopia subsidized Eritrea's economy in a number of ways for seven years. Most surprisingly Ethiopia loaned Eritrea over 1 Billion Birr. Reference (10) This loan was part of an Eritrean scheme to double its monetary assets and convert its old stock of Birr into dollars when it launched its new currency in late 1997. The Eritrean reliance on Ethiopia is clearly demonstrated by the large ratio of accumulated loans from Ethiopia relative to internal Eritrean bank deposits. Clearly, Eritrea was counting on being able to force Ethiopia to redeem the old Birr notes. However, Ethiopia's own currency change in 1997 prevented Eritrea from carrying out this plan, and Eritrea had to find new ways to pressure Ethiopia into redeeming the now-worthless birr notes piled up in Eritrea.

Ethiopia continued using the ports of Massawa and Assab, and made no preparations to switch to Djibouti. In fact, most people were of the opinion that Djibouti simply would not be able to cope with Ethiopia's entire trade volume. The perceived vulnerability of Ethiopia's trade routes must have been an important factor in Eritrea's decision to attack. As it turned out, Ethiopian goods worth over 100 million US dollars were stranded at Assab, and have now apparently been confiscated by Eritrea. Reference (11)

In light of the above facts, the fabricated accusations coming from Asmara seem cheap and spiteful. Yet it shouldn't be surprising, as Eritrea has established a reputation as the serial backstabber of the Horn of Africa. The latest victims are the Sudanese opposition movements which made the mistake of moving their headquarters to Asmara. Now they are being discarded by Eritrea.

It is sobering to think of how many foreign conflicts Eritrea has gotten involved in during the past few years. From Congo to Somalia, Yemen, and Libya, Eritrea has been busy trying to behave as a regional power. Yet its meager economic base means that Eritrea cannot sustain these militaristic adventures without monetary compensation for its efforts.

For example, Eritrea's role in the Congo is purely mercenary. Eritrea has no interests there, and it is certainly not supporting Kabila out of principle. The only factor that draws Eritrea to the Congo is the lure of money… foreign currency in exchange for sending its mercenaries to do some local warlord's dirty work.

It would be too easy to say that Eritrea is simply returning to its colonial roots. The Italians were the ones who began using Eritreans as mercenaries to fight colonial wars of suppression in Libya and Somalia. Rather than eradicating this shameful legacy, the current EPLF leadership seems determined to write a new chapter.

But in fact, it is not Eritrean culture or character that is causing the strange Eritrean military adventures. The cause is simply the megalomania of the Eritrean dictator Isayas Afeworki. Eritrea's unseemly foreign affairs will likely continue until his term as "President for Life" is over.

References:

1. ARDUF Statement, June 5, 1998

2. BADA: Further Background Information Concerning the Eritrean Invasion of Ethiopia Mr. Wray Witten, JD MPA November 1998

3. Humanitarian Needs Of War-Displaced People In Northern And North-Eastern Ethiopia United Nations Inter-Agency Rapid Assessment Mission To Tigray And Afar Regions; 19-24 June, 1998

4. See attachment below for a description of some of the areas Eritrea invaded. Also click on the following references:

5. Ethiopia's Fleet Is For Sale AP; September 17, 1996

6. Israel Bemoans Cash Lack for Ethiopian MiG Work Defense News Online, July, 1997

7. Comparison of Eritrean and Ethiopian Military (Defense) Expenditures: 1993-1997

8. Analysis: Arms pour in for border war BBC March 2, 1999

9. SIPRI Arms Transfer Register August 1998

10. The Currency Issue Revisited: "Net Claims on the Birr Area"

11. COMESA Investigates Ethiopian Claims On Stolen Cargo PANA; January 29, 1999



ATTACHMENT: More description of Eritrea's occupation of Ethiopian territory:
excerpts from paper written by Mr. Wray Wittern, JD MPA; August, 1998

No one knows where the final border between Ethiopia and Eritrea will be located. But there is a great deal of information about the occupied areas prior to Eritrea's invasion and about what Eritrea has done. To begin with, there are two large areas administered for the last seven years by Ethiopia now occupied by force by heavily armed Eritrean soldiers. The first area is south and east of the Badime River in the Western Zone. I refer to it as Badime. The second area is the home of the primarily Catholic highland Erob people in the Eastern Zone, which I refer to as Erob though the occupied area stretches west to Zalanbessa, the principle highland border crossing.

Badime is an extremely remote area, something like 400 square kilometers of "black cotton soil" without all-weather roads. Apparently the first infrastructure constructed in the area after the end of the Ethiopian civil war in 1991, was a set of village water supply wells fitted with hand-pumps. In June of 1992, I visited the first dozen completed wells. UNICEF funded the construction based on a proposal I helped write while working as a natural resources lawyer in the western United States. (I retired from the practice of law later in 1992.) The drilling was managed initially by the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority, monitored by the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) and an American PVO called the Water and Sanitation Consultancy Group (WSCG) of Denver, Colorado, of which I was then a member.

One of the new wells we visited was in a village of about 5,000 called Adi Tsetser, which I will use as an example. Eritrean soldiers now occupy Adi Tsetser by force, along with many other villages in the area we visited. When we visited it in 1992 it was clearly administered by the Tigray Regional (now State) and Ethiopian National (now Federal) governments, with which we worked closely, and the following evidence indicates that it has been ever since.

After 1992 other infrastructure improvements were built in Adi Tsetser, and in the other villages throughout the area now occupied. In 1995 and 1996 the community and the Tigray Bureau of Education collaborated to build an elementary school (initially only grades 1 and 2) staffed by teachers provided by the Bureau. In 1996 the Tigray Development Association (TDA), an Ethiopian NGO with which I have worked for many years, built a Health Center operated by the Tigray Bureau of Health. In 1997 the community of Adi Tsetser enrolled its primary school, one of five communities in the now occupied area to do so, in an extremely successful TDA program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), called the BESO program. The BESO program enlists the community's support for improving their children's primary education by competitively awarding small grants and has enlisted a many-fold outpouring of community matching contributions. Finally, even at the time Eritrea invaded, Karen Hanna Witten, MD MSPH, to whom I am married, was working with nearby communities (around Adi Da'iro, which was not occupied) on a malaria control bednet program, a supplement to the long-standing malaria control program in the Badime area required by the extensive construction of small-scale irrigation dams in the area.

Throughout these years in Adi Tsetser and in the rest of the now occupied Badime area, Community Health Workers treated patients at the village level and filed reports every month; local judges decided cases that were appealed to district and state courts; local, state and federal representatives were elected. And very much the same can be said for the other villages in the Badime area. No Eritrean national, state or local government was present.

Erob area is much smaller on a map than Badime, but its steep slate mountainsides, which have only recently admitted vehicles, make it historically as remote as Badime and it might be as large in area if pressed flat. It lies east of the main border crossing at Zalanbessa, a border I have crossed many times during the seven years of peace. Until the beginning of May, 1998, the Eritrean border guards and their slowly improving buildings were always north of the town of Zalanbessa. In May Eritrean soldiers took the town of Zalanbessa by force and told gullible journalists that Ethiopian soldiers had put up the long-standing border signs only recently. At the same time they invaded and occupied the Erob lands to the east and tried to push south to the large town of Adigrat.

I first visited the Erob area in the winter of 1993-1994, and explored all the area now occupied with various hydro-geologists and engineers in 1994, 1995 and 1996, investigating indigenous soil and water conservation technologies. I walked for days each time through all but one of the villages now occupied by force by Eritrean soldiers. My guides were local farmers organized by the Catholic priest Father Hagos who heads the Adigrat Diocese Development Action (ADDA), and ADDA's rural engineers who at that time worked with the farmers on both sides of the border, in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The location of the border was well known to all because land allocations and use were governed by it.

Throughout the area primary schools were enrolled in the TDA BESO project, Community Health Workers treated ill villagers and filed reports, and civil society generally proceeded as in Badime. There were no Eritrean local, state or national governments present.

In all, dozens of villages in Badime and Erob are now occupied by force by Eritrean soldiers. Some clinics and schools, such as those in the village of Badime, the Eritrean soldiers have wantonly destroyed, evidently actually believing they could expunge the hard evidence of Ethiopian governance and development. Local officials, elected in one of six elections that have taken place in the area under the Ethiopian Federal and Tigray State governments, have been publicly executed. The villagers--women and children and men (except those who have stayed to fight)--have been driven out of the areas at gunpoint.

Barely subsistence farmers to begin with, these poor people--poor beyond any possible appreciation in the West--left their meager crops in the fields, their simple churches to be looted, their basic houses to be torn apart for firewood, their one change of clothes, and walked out of the area carrying on their backs all they own, into a nightmare officially called "displaced."


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