02:51 a.m. Jul 19, 1998 Eastern
By Matthew Bigg
NAIROBI, July 19 (Reuters) - Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki has challenged Ethiopia to accept arbitration as a means of settling a violent border dispute in which hundreds of people have died. An agreed demarcation of the contested border area could provide a way of finally resolving the conflict, Afewerki told Reuters on Saturday.
``From our viewpoint this is a very simple problem that could be resolved by legal means,'' Afewerki said in an interview. ``It's a border dispute. Demarcating the border line on the ground would bring a lasting solution to the problem. ``If there is any dispute or controversy as far as the colonial boundaries are concerned, arbitration is a very simple solution to the problem,'' he said.
He was speaking after a meeting in the Kenyan capital with President Daniel arap Moi. Afewerki stopped in Kenya en route to the Eritrean capital Asmara from a trip to Malaysia. His visit to Nairobi followed one by his Ethiopian counterpart, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who met President Moi on Monday.
Since June 11 the frontier between the two Horn of Africa neighbours has been quiet with no reports of significant fighting. But both sides have used the lull to reinforce their border positions.
Eritrea's refusal to accept a clause in a peace plan by the United States and Rwanda, endorsed by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and, tacitly, by the U.N. Security Council, has scuppered the best chance yet for a settlement, according to diplomats.
The clause pressed Eritrea to withdraw to territory it held before the conflict began on May 6 but made no comparable demand of Ethiopia.
Afewerki stressed that Eritrea's approach to resolution of the conflict rested on the questions of demarcation and arbitration.
One reason for the lull in fighting could be that Ethiopia's military effort was ``running out of steam,'' Afewerki said.
Since June 11 the treatment of Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals living in each other's country has stoked animosity. Asmara and Addis Ababa accuse each other of human rights abuses over the detention and expulsion of their citizens. Afewerki robustly denied that his government had maltreated Ethiopians and described Ethiopian claims on the subject as ``very stupid.''
``Given the condemnation and the denouncement they (Ethiopians) are facing these days from the international community, they had to come up with something. ``(So they are saying) 'They (Eritreans) are expelling our nationals.' It is a false accusation but it is part of the behaviour of the (Ethiopian) government. ``It is becoming very obvious to everyone that this (Ethiopian) government is behaving in a very awkward manner, expelling Eritreans who have been there for generations,'' he said.
Afewerki, wearing a grey suit, spoke quietly and looked relaxed and serious throughout the interview.
Western diplomats in the Ethiopian capital say Eritrea suffered a heavy defeat south of Assab in June. The Red Sea port is hundreds of kilometres (miles) from the Eritrean capital and there has been speculation that landlocked Ethiopia, which formerly relied on Assab for most of its exports and imports, might try to seize it.
Meles has said Ethiopia has no designs on Assab and has no wish to retake a single piece of extra land besides what it claims Eritrea seized in its initial offensive around May 6.
Afewerki said he doubted Ethiopian sincerity on the point. ``This is an excuse and a lie. It is a pretext in my opinion,'' he said. ``They (Ethiopia) are redefining borders and using force to impose their dream of expansion and I don't think it is any secret for anyone that this has been the case for quite some time,'' he said.
Eritrean and Ethiopian rebels fought together to defeat Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in May 1991. Two years later Eritrea formally gained its independence from Ethiopia and their friendship was hailed as a source of regional stability. Afewerki said his trust of Ethiopia before the conflict began had been ``naive.''