DATE=6/17/98
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
NUMBER=5-40704
TITLE=ETHIOPIA MILITIA
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=INDA SELASSIE, ETHIOPIA

INTRO: Intro: Ethiopia is continuing to reinforce its front against Eritrea as international mediators try to end the month-long border war. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns reports local militia are playing a big part in Ethiopia's military buildup.

Text: Trucks of militiamen roll toward the front through the town of edaga-hanus. Soviet-era tanks and mobile rocket launchers anchor the Ethiopian line, but it is the men standing watch over this rocky border who Ethiopia is ultimately counting on to stop the Eritrean advance.

Across the country, young men and veteran fighters alike are leaving their jobs and their farms to join the war effort. Every night, state television announces more villages (that are) raising militia to send to the front.

Colonel Ephraim Bangee commands a joint detachment of regular troops and local militiamen (positioned) outside the Eritrean-held border town of Zallambasa.

Colonel Ephraim says militiamen have been extremely helpful in this conflict. The first attacks clearly surprised Ethiopia's army, which had few troops along the northern border. Militiamen held their ground against Eritreans on several fronts until government reinforcements arrived.

Colonel Ephraim says Ethiopians are famous for defending themselves against outside enemies -- from Italian colonialists to islamic raiders. We have that tradition, the colonel says, and we are doing it again today.

Ethiopian and Eritrean commanders fought together for years against marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Now they are fighting each other for control of areas along their 800-kilometer border.

Privately, some Ethiopians criticize Prime Minister Meles zenawi's government for not anticipating the Eritrean invasion and not having more troops ready to call up.

After 17 years of fighting Mr. Mengistu, Prime Minister Meles says Ethiopia had to scale down its army and concentrate on economic development. He says no one thought war would come from Eritrea.

This country needed to concentrate its efforts on development and that's what we delivered. That's what the Ethiopian people expected of us. We had to build a new army that was representative of the diversity of Ethiopia.

The Prime Minister says he has no regrets about demobilizing so many fighters, even though it has slowed Ethiopia's military response.

Front-line commanders say local militiamen have helped fill that gap. Lieutenant Gerense Gebre-Egziebeher trains militiamen in the town of Wukro.

Lieutenant Gerense says this is a war of resistance -- not only between two armies but between the Eritreans and the people of Ethiopia. He says militias have played a tremendous role in supporting Ethiopia's army and defending their national sovereignty.

Prime Minister Meles says a generation of Ethiopians hardened by war are returning to the front for a fight no one wants against former allies.

They were fighters yesterday. They are fighters today. When this thing happened, we asked them to re-mobilize themselves temporarily, and every one of them to the last person has been mobilized again and they have now joined the army. I do not have the slightest doubt that what we have by way of the army is capable of defending Ethiopia from any aggressor, let alone from aggression from Eritrea.

/// END ACT ///

Both nations have agreed to stop an air war that saw the bombing of the Eritrean capital and of the Ethiopian towns of Mekelle and Adigrat. International mediators are trying to build on that agreement and move the border dispute from the battlefield back to the negotiating table.

But with heavy armor and trucks of militiamen heading for the front, the risk of a continuing ground war is far from over. (signed)

NEB/SKS/JWH/RRM
17-Jun-98 10:23 AM EDT (1423 UTC)
Source: Voice of America