Washington DC, Jan 19 (PRNewswire) - ECDC will hold a 1:00 p.m. news conference January 20, 1999, in the Holeman Lounge of the National Press Club (529 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.) at which Professor Eric Markusen will present a report concerning the Eritrean bombings of the Ayder School in Makale and food depot in Adigrat, as well as human rights abuses against Ethiopians living in Eritrea. Prof. Markusen's report is based on data gathered during his October 29 - November 13, 1998, fact-finding mission to Ethiopia.

On the basis of the evidence he collected, Prof. Markusen concluded that the June 5, 1998, bombing of the Ayder School in Makale was very probably a deliberate attack against innocent, defenseless civilians, many of whom were school children. If it was deliberate, then he concludes that the attack constitutes a war crime

Prof. Markusen's report includes extensive interviews. These were conducted with Ethiopian officials in Makale, Adigrat, and Addis Ababa as well as with survivors of the Makale and Adigrat bombings, health care workers who treated the injured, and Ethiopians living in Adigrat who had been displaced from their homes due to the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict. His findings also indicate that Ethiopians living in Eritrea and in territory currently occupied by Eritrea have been subjected to serious human rights abuses, including beatings, rape, and forcible removal from homes and property.

Prof. Markusen, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota, is presently professor of sociology and social work at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota. He serves on the Executive Council of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem and is an Associate of the Centre for Comparative Genocide Studies in Australia. His research over the past 18 years has focused on the nuclear threat, genocide, and war. His books include The Genocidal Mentality (with Robert Jay Lifton), The Holocaust and Strategic Bombing: Genocide and Total War in the Twentieth Century (with David Kopf). Prof. Markusen is currently studying the genocidal killing in the former Yugoslavia.

The border conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia erupted in May 1998. Shuttle diplomacy and peacemaking efforts by the Organization of African Unity have yet to stem rising tensions between the two nations.

ECDC is a nonprofit humanitarian organization based in Arlington, Virginia. CONTACT: Allene F. Wright, 703-685-0510, for ECDC.