DATE=6/16/98
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
NUMBER=5-40694
TITLE=ETHIOPIAN SOLDIERS
BYLINE=DIANNA CAHN
DATELINE=ADIGRAT, ETHIOPIA

INTRO: hundreds of Ethiopian veterans -- many of them injured in the country's civil war -- are trying to rejoin the army. Dianna Cahn in the northern Ethiopian town of Adigrat reports the Ethiopian war veterans want to join the battle against neighboring Eritrea.

Text: Weldeslasse Hailu can take aim and fire with just one arm. He has no choice. He lost his left arm and eye to heavy artillery during the 17-year war his people fought with the help of the Eritreans to overthrow a repressive marxist dictatorship.

Now he says he is ready to go back to war, this time to fight the Eritrean troops massed along the border.

He says he fought against the former government not only to end The war but to bring a better life to the Ethiopian people and recover the economy. He says he lost parts of his body for this. But the Eritreans have attacked us and brought us war.

Mr. Weldeslasse is one of 500 disabled veterans who have come forward in the north Tigray region -- home of the majority of the Ethiopian rebel force that brought prime minister Meles Zenawi to power in 1991.

These veterans of the last war want to fight again -- drawn by patriotic spirit and angered by the Eritrean bombings of civilians that have killed at least 48 people.

But according to a local official, only 200 have been accepted.

Men with head wounds, others bound to wheelchairs have come forward hoping to help defend their country.

For some its little more than a wish.

Tadele Gebrekiros lost both legs and partial use of his arms when he stepped on a land mine in 1988. Now, barely able to push the wheels of his wheelchair, Mr. Tadele says he would fight again if he could.

He says if he was able to walk as he did when he was fighting the former government, he would volunteer to go to the front.

Two years after assisting Ethiopian rebels to take control, Eritrea achieved its 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia. But close relations strained over border and economic issues that worsened when Eritrea introduced its own currency last year.

In Tigray, the fight is personal, with many feeling friends have turned on them.

Mehane Gebre Abezgi spent one year learning to walk again after enemy guns shattered his left leg in 1990. Now 34 years old, the limping veteran performs his rifle drills but hobbles to a standing position after a particularly difficult drill.

He says he knows he is a handicapped soldier. But he says the Eritreans have pushed his people too far. He says his country had started to develop, but the Eritreans have brought them war.

"Of course we are angry about their acts," he says. "we fought together in battle and then we were on our way to prosperity -- not war. But," he says, "the Eritreans have pushed us into this."

National feeling is running high here, and officials say thousands of former fighters have volunteered and been retrained to move to the front lines.

For the wounded veterans, it is a time of frustrated patriotism as they helplessly watch former comrades fight their former allies.

Gebreamlak lost his left foot in battle in 1998. He says he never expected to fight again because the country had turned toward development. But after the past month, he says, he is ready to fight to the end.

"Because they have declared war on our nation," he says, "I am ready to give up not just my leg, but also my life." (signed)

NEB/DC/JWH
16-Jun-98 10:27 AM EDT (1427 UTC)
Source: Voice of America