Commentary:
The Conflict As I Saw It

It was almost a year ago that I wrote about the plight of the people in Irob, one of the areas of Ethiopia invaded by Eritrean forces in May 1998. Irob was a site in which the Netherlands-supported participatory research programme "Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation in Africa" (ISWC II) coordinated in Ethiopia by Mekelle University College (MUC), had been working. It had been chosen as a site of extraordinary indigenous innovation and rapid change in land husbandry. When I wrote that report last summer. I had hoped that the Eritreans would soon be pressured by the international community to withdraw from Irobland and the other occupied areas and to agree to an impartial adjudication of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In February 1999 the Ethiopian army pushed the Eritrean troops out of Badme, the disputed area that had been foremost in the news. After that defeat, Esayas Afewerki, the president of Eritrea, appeared to be ready to negotiate. However, he still refused to withdraw his troops from the other occupied areas. This the Ethiopians demand before negotiations can commence. Withdrawal to the boundaries before 6 May 1998 and acceptance of demarcation of the border under the auspices of the United Nations was part of the Framework Agreement of the Organisation of African Unity, a mediation proposal to which Ethiopia has agreed.

To this day, 1 June 1999, four-fifths of Tigrayan Irobland, including Alitena, its cultural heart, is still held by the Eritreans. Those Irob who were not abducted or killed have fled into the mountains south of Alitena or into Adigrat, a town about 35 km south of the Eritrean- Ethiopian border. The Eritreans bombed Adigrat in June 1998. In the last few months, the town has suffered frequent shelling by the Eritrean forces, which hold the strategic heights around Zalambessa to the north of Adigrat.

Many of the Irob have sought refuge with relatives; there are sometimes four or five families crowded into the small dwelling of a single family. Others have found shelter in caves in the southernmost tip of Irobland. The livestock which they could not manage to bring with them have been slaughtered by the Eritrean troops, and the beehives have been destroyed. Those animals that the Irob could manage to retain are now in danger of starving, as they cannot be moved to the customary dry-season pastures. The short rains completely failed this year, making the grazing situation desperate. Most of the fields of the Irob, which they built up and protected by huge stone terraces over decades, are in the occupied area and could not be cultivated in the past year. The Irob have lost their means to feed themselves and are almost completely dependent on food aid.

Over 20 years ago, the Irob had built a road, using only handtools, up to Zalambessa, the border town on the Adigrat-Asmara road. This route was later improved by the Ethiopian government but is now blocked by the Eritreans, so the Irob have to carry the relief food on their backs to their families camped in the mountains south of Alitena. Adigrat Diocese Development Action (ADDA), a project supported by Swiss and German funds, has provided cash-for-work to build another road through the rugged terrain to the refuge areas, approaching from the south instead of the old road from the northwest. Over this past year, the displaced people have managed to build 16 km of road, about two-thirds of the way in. They have also built four km of footpaths, carving out or laying stone steps up and down the steep rocky slopes.

I was in Adigrat last weekend, together with Fetien Abay, coordinator of the ISWC-Ethiopia programme and Wray Witten, a retired American lawyer who teaches at MUC. We met priests who had been forced out of their churches and are now living in the Catholic mission, waiting to return to their parishes once the war is over. Several priests have not been able to find their way back to the mission; their fate is unknown. The churches have been desecrated and used to store weapons and ammunition, or as sleeping quarters for the troops. The priests have heard that structures not being used by the troops have been mined, and they fear that they will not be able to return to their churches and their parishioners will not be able to return to their homes, even after the Eritreans have left, until the evacuated area has been thoroughly de-mined. The priests report that even the fireplaces of the deserted homes have been mined.

The Irob people and the other Tigrayans displaced from other areas along the border that are still occupied by the Eritreans are impatient that the Ethiopian Government take action and help them liberate their land. At the moment, there is no sign of movement, but the atmosphere is one of heavy silence before an impending storm.

However, it is not a time of inactivity in civilian life. Last week, the eighth anniversary of the fall of the Derg regime in Ethiopia was celebrated. A spirit of reconstruction after the devastation of 17 years of war up to 1991 has carried Tigray forward in the eight intervening years. This spirit has remained unbroken during this last year of renewed war, this time to repel the Tigrayan's former allies. I was surprised to see how building activities - roads, hotels, offices, schools and other structures, including the future Mekelle International Airport in the capital of Tigray - are continuing at a relentless rate, morning to evening every day of the week, including Sundays. Development activities in agriculture, health, education etc. are being carried on by government services and nongovernmental organisations right up to the edges of the occupied territories. Business and life go on, in a country all too familiar with war. The children still go daily to schools even within shelling distance of the Eritrean forces, as if to say; "We will not let Esayas stop us from getting ahead."

Of course, as in any country at war, propaganda is not lacking: there is considerable government encouragement of the people to take this defiant stance. And the Tigrayans do so with a commitment and intensity that is typical for them, supported by what appears to be strong solidarity from other peoples of Ethiopia. Confidence is currently running high. The general feeling being expressed is that the moment will inevitably come when Eritrea will be obliged to enter into negotiations, the borders will be fairly adjudicated and peace will be restored. This moment is being delayed by the refusal of the Eritrean president to withdraw his forces from the occupied areas, a refusal that is prolonging the suffering of both the Ethiopian and the Eritrean peoples.

Together with Ato Zigta, Ato Yohannes and the other surviving farmer innovators from Irobland, the ISWC project is still waiting until we can meet again in Alitena and the surrounding villages and can continue our collaboration in technology development in dryland husbandry, building on the indigenous knowledge and creativity of the Irob. Much reconstruction work will be needed, however, before they regain the level they had reached before the Eritrean invasion over a year ago.

Ann Waters-Bayer