04:01 a.m. Aug 01, 1998 Eastern
By David Fox
NAIROBI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Ethiopia and Eritrea may have temporarily silenced the guns on their disputed border, but the war of words between the Horn of Africa neighbours is getting louder.
Daily announcements by government spokesmen on both sides accuse each other of actions that are often impossible to verify and Western diplomats and journalists sifting through the pronouncements find it difficult to separate fact from pure propaganda.
Most of the rhetoric centres on the treatment of Eritreans living in Ethiopia and Ethiopians in Eritrea and the latest fusillades are a case in point.
``Following their leaders' abhorrent statement that the Ethiopian government has unlimited rights to expel foreigners if it did not like the colour of their eyes, Ethiopian officials are still detaining and deporting Eritreans,'' said a statement from the Eritrean news agency.
``The Eritrean government in flagrant violation of international norms and conventions has continued its systematic harassment, incarceration, torture and killings of Ethiopian nationals residing in Eritrea,'' said the latest from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
The stream of statements marks a significant change from the early days of the conflict when both sides refused even to concede there were battles raging on their border.
But then the conflict caught everyone -- including apparently the participants -- by surprise.
Eritrea took independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after its fighters formed the backbone of a resistance army that fought a lengthy war against former Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
The two sides quibbled peacefully for years over their border, using colonial maps and more recent surveys to argue their case, but the dispute turned violent on May 6 with each accusing the other of invading.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has taken up the baton of a peace plan proposed by the United States and Rwanda, but the effort has foundered on one point in particular -- Ethiopia wants Eritrea to withdraw before negotiations, while Eritrea wants negotiations before any pullout.
The first weeks of the conflict saw Ethiopian air raids on the Eritrean capital that prompted the hasty evacuation of hundreds of foreigners and raids by Eritrea on the town of Mekele that left dozens dead and injured. It is still unclear who dropped the first bomb.
While the air raids have since stopped and there have been no reports of border fighting for some weeks, the war of words rages.
Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse told Reuters that Eritrea was involved in a ``bombardment of propaganda'' and her government only responded when it felt necessary.
Asked about her recent statement that a number of Ethiopians from a group of 380 attempting to cross from Eritrea last week had been killed and the remainder sent back to Asmara, she said:
``This is fact. We have the information and witnesses.''
But a Reuters correspondent in Asmara spoke to the group -- now camped in the Ethiopian embassy grounds -- who said nothing of any killings and said they were being well-treated by Eritrean authorities.
Martyn Ngwenya, resident coordinator of the United Nations in Eritrea, has been investigating allegations of harassment of Ethiopians. He told Reuters: ``As far as I know there has been no orchestrated violence or harassment of Ethiopians in Eritrea, you can challenge me on that.''
But Taddesse said Ethiopians in Eritrea were unlikely to complain about their treatment for fear of making things worse for themselves.
Eritrea, in turn, accuses Ethiopia of expelling thousands of Eritreans. ``People were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night, families cruelly separated from their underage children; and even suckling babies left behind,'' said a statement last week.
Ethiopia denies this and despite there being no shortage of people in Eritrea prepared to say it happened to them, Reuters correspondents in Addis Ababa have met dozens of Eritreans still going about their business, albeit uneasily.
An Eritrean Foreign Ministry spokesman was not available to comment.
A Western diplomat in the Kenyan capital, who asked not to be identified, said both sides were exaggerating alleged maltreatment of their expatriate nationals.
``It suits both countries to have hundreds of their nationals appear in pitiful conditions, clamouring to get out,'' the diplomat told Reuters. ``It reinforces the impression they are being badly treated by the enemy.''