Reuters
09-JUL-98
By Alexander Last
ASMARA, July 9 (Reuters) - Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki said his country will never withdraw from territory it holds along a disputed border with Ethiopia and is ready to go to war if necessary.
In an interview broadcast on Eritrean state television late on Wednesday, he said his country was ready to go to war and face adverse economic consequences if this was necessary.
``Even if the sun doesn't rise, we will never withdraw from Badme (on the disputed border),'' Afewerki said.
``We will try to negotiate but if the war is not resolved soon we will take the unwanted steps, which will have consequences. It may be dangerous but we will take the necessary action.''
There have been no reports since June 11 of significant fighting in the border dispute that flared into conflict on May 6. But the dispute dividing the two former allies remains unresolved and both sides have used the lull to draw up reinforcements.
Hundreds have died and tens of thousands are displaced by a conflict that started around Badme at the northwestern end of the border and has spanned fronts at Zalembessa south of Eritrea's Assab port on the Red Sea.
Eritrea's population has united around the conflict and people in the capital listened intently in bars and cafes to the 90-minute interview.
Both sides say they welcome mediation by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations.
Four OAU ambassadors have held talks with both sides in a follow-up to an earlier OAU mission.
An initial plan by the United States and Rwanda, endorsed by the OAU and backed implicitly by the U.N. Security Council, was rejected by Eritrea in June.
Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano received an Ethiopian envoy on Wednesday, according to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the latest in a series of visits by both sides to foreign capitals.
Each side has accused the other of human rights violations in connection with nationals living in the other side's country who have been detained or deported.
Eritrean and Ethiopian rebels joined forces to defeat Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. Eritrea gained its formal independence from Ethiopia after a referendum in 1993.