May 17, 2000

Today the UN is trying to respond to the needs of Eritrean civilians displaced by the recent fighting. Reports indicate that up to 25,000 civilians from Barentu along with thousands more refugees from other towns to the east such as Tokombiya and Shambiko are fleeing north in the direction of Akurdat.

This is the wrong direction for them to go. They should head west. The best safe harbor for these unfortunate civilians is Sudan. Ethiopia should cooperate to arrange safe passage for any civilians wishing to take refuge in Sudan. The UN has already been helping 300,000 Eritrean refugees here, and the infrastructure already exists. Here the civilians will be safe from war.

The Ethiopian government should encourage Eritrean civilians wanting to reach safety to go to the Sudan. For the population of Tessenei and Om Hager, it is an obvious solution. They should place as much distance as possible between themselves and the Eritrean army. One should not overlook the danger that Eritrean soldiers will use civilians as human shields as they retreat across the plain from Barentu to Akurdat.

The Eritrean army should have long ago prepared an evacuation plan for these innocent civilians. As an example, over one year ago, the Ethiopian government, in conjunction with the UN, has put in place contingency plans for the Ethiopian civilian population to deal with worst-case scenarios should fighting spread into Ethiopia.

But the overconfidence of the Eritrean dictator prevented such precautionary measures from being put in place for the Eritrean civilians.

In victory there should be compassion. The Ethiopian government has a good record of not retaliating for Eritrean attacks on Ethiopian civilians even though it has had every opportunity to do so. It should continue this tradition and now do what it can for the innocent Eritrean civilians.

- Dagmawi