Eritrean government forces are compelling Ethiopians to take up Eritrean citizenship. If they fail to do so they are being prevented from carrying out their farming activities.

The residents are in Zalambessa and Sobia localities which have been under Eritrean occupation since the end of May, when Eritrean forces invaded Zalambessa and other areas in the hope of creating new facts on the ground.

The areas concerned have always been under Ethiopian administration - under Haile Salassie, under the Italians, under the Dergue. There have been three elections there in the last few years and there is an MP for the constituency in the Ethiopian Parliament.

In a crude attempt to claim them as Eritrean, residents of Marti, Addis Alem, Addis Tesfa and Sobia kebeles of the Gulo Mekeda woreda have been ordered to declare themselves Eritrean citizens and have been issued with Eritrean ID cards. Without the ID card the Ethiopians are not allowed to farm.

ADDIS ABABA, Thursday (ENA) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today visited several hundred civilian internees at Fiche, north of Addis Ababa.

According to an ICRC press release, the organisation had had access to all internees and premises and held private interviews with those present. It was also able to repeat the visits on a regular basis.

Red Cross messages were made available to those civilian internees who had not yet had contact with their families, to give them news of their welfare and whereabouts, it said.

The organisation continued to request access to all prisoners of war and civilian internees held by both sides to the conflict, the release said. Meanwhile, the ICRC and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) have conducted surveys in Tigray and Afar regions to assess the need for assistance to the wounded and displaced.

The two organisations delivered blankets, tents, cooking utensils, jerry-cans and soap to local Red Cross branches in both areas and medical supplies to local medical structures.

The national society, supported by the ICRC, made additional ambulances available to both branches and provided tanker trucks. In a similar development, the Chinese Red Cross handed over 20,000 U.S. dollars to the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission in support of people affected by food shortage.

The Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr. Jiang Zhengyun, presented the donation to DPPC Commissioner Simeon Mechale.

3 July, 1998
MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Press Inf. & Documentation G/Directorate
P.O.Box 393
Tel. 517345
Fax 514300
E-mail MFA.Addis@telecom.net.et