Renewed Eritrean Shelling at Badme-Sheraro Front

Ethiopian Government Spokesperson; February 4, 1999

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 4 - Beginning at 6 am this morning, Eritrean forces began continuous shelling from their posts at Geamahlo on the Badme/Sheraro front. On Tuesday, February 2 at 4 pm, they carried out heavy shelling for 45 minutes at the Zalambessa front. The Eritrean regime has embarked on this new round of shelling within days of President Isayas' 31 January statement in which he insisted that "Eritrea will never fire the first bullet." Such statements that completely contradict the actions of the Eritrean regime are clearly meant to serve only as a smoke screen for Eritrea's latest act of aggression. Eritrea has not coincidentally renewed hostilities just as the international community is applying increased pressure on the government in Asmara to accept the OAU Framework Agreement for peace. This week's shelling comes as UN Special Envoy for Africa, Mohamed Sahnoun, is in the region to persuade Eritrea to accept the OAU peace proposal.

Eritrea's renewed shelling is only the latest in a pattern of aggressive behavior meant to derail the peace process. Just prior to the OAU High Level Delegation meeting in Ouagadougou in December 1998, Eritrea initiated shelling around Sheraro and Adigrat, followed later by attacks in Central Tigrai and Adi Gushu. Simultaneously, Asmara engaged in a propaganda campaign alleging that Ethiopia was launching an attack. In their continuing attempt to provoke war with Ethiopia, Eritrean forces shelled the Biara locality of Badme/Sheraro on January 23 while engaging in rhetoric that they were willing to resolve the conflict through peaceful means. Ethiopia urges the international community to see Eritrea's actions for what they are and apply more tangible pressure to the government in Asmara so that there may be a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Ethiopia Says Eritrea Shelling Across Border

Reuters; February 4, 1999

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Thursday that Eritrea had begun shelling disputed border areas between the two Horn of Africa nations, raising fears of renewed fighting in a nine-month border dispute.

``Beginning at 6:00 a.m. this morning, Eritrean forces began continuous shelling from their posts at Geamahlo on the Badme Sheraro front,'' government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said in a statement.

``On Tuesday ... they carried out heavy shelling for 45 minutes at the Zalambessa front.''

There was no immediate comment from Eritrea and no independent confirmation of the shelling.

A long-running border squabble boiled over into a ground and air war on three fronts last May but fighting died down with the onset on the rainy season in mid-June.

Diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the dispute have failed to make a breakthrough, and increasingly bitter verbal exchanges in recent weeks have heightened speculation that the two sides are once again on the brink of all-out war.

Selome described the shelling as ``the latest in a pattern of aggressive behaviour designed to derail the peace process.'' She said Ethiopia had no plans for military retaliation.

In the latest round of shuttle diplomacy, United Nations mediator Mohamed Sahnoun flew from Eritrea to Ethiopia on Thursday and began talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. <>Sahnoun spent two days in the Eritrean capital Asmara holding talks with President Isayas Afewerki and other Eritrean government officials.

The U.N. Security Council has thrown its weight behind a peace plan drawn up by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) which calls for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from contested border areas.

Ethiopia supports the plan, but Eritrea has asked for clarification on certain clauses which the OAU said on Wednesday it had provided.

Non-stop Artillery Firing on Border: Ethiopian Government

AFP; February 4, 1999

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 4 (AFP) - Ethiopian and Eritrean gunners started exchanging continuous artillery barrages at dawn Thursday on the Badme front in northwestern Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa government announced in a communique.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned Tuesday in an interview with AFP that warfare between the two countries could resume "any day."

He said then that the hundreds of thousands of troops dug in along both sides of the disputed 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) -long frontier were engaging in "intermittent" exchanges of artillery fire.

At the border, Meles said, there was a "very high level of tension that can get out of hand easily and at any time."

He described the situation as "no war, no peace," but said of resumed fighting: "It could be any day."

Conflict over the ill-defined border erupted in May last year.

Reliable reports said that early battles left several thousand dead, and hundreds of thousands of civilians living along the border have been displaced.

Fighting at close quarters tapered off in June, when the two sides also agreed to a US-brokered pact to halt airstrikes, but early attempts by the United States and Rwanda to broker peace failed.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) presented an 11-point peace plan in November which provides notably for the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from positions they occupied at the start of the conflict, the six-month deployment of a peacekeeping and observation force, and neutral delineation of the ill-defined frontier.

Ethiopia announced it had accepted that plan, and the OAU last week responded to 29 questions Asmara posed on it.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict continue.

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