By Dianna Cahn
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, June 20, 1998; 2:32 p.m. EDT
ADIGRAT, Ethiopia (AP) -- The barrage of Eritrean bombs that struck this city last week killed four people and destroyed a desperately needed supply of grain.
But the attack's intended target, the Adigrat Pharmaceutical Factory, was spared. The plant is a gleaming symbol of what Ethiopians believe is the underlying cause of this war: Eritrea's resentment over its neighbor's economic development.
Two bombs fell 300 yards short of the $24.5 million plant, one of the many modern factories that provide Ethiopia's Tigray region with a measure of self-sufficiency and deny Eritrea a traditional market for its goods.
Mamo Asgedom, Adigrat's manager, says the attempt to cripple or destroy his plant comes down to one thing. ``It's jealousy.''
``I believe one of their aims is to disrupt development activity in Tigray,'' he said.
An Eritrean military source told The Associated Press that the factory was targeted not to thwart Ethiopia's development but to stop it from supplying medicines for the Ethiopian war effort and to disrupt a staging area for the war.
But a Western diplomat in the Ethiopian capital supports the theory that economics and trade are the main reasons for the war. ``The Eritreans don't want Tigray industrialized.,'' he said on condition of anonymity.
Once close friends, Ethiopia and Eritrea have cut off busy trade routes since border clashes -- ostensibly over land disputes -- erupted May 6.
The Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa, until recently the sole gateways to the sea for landlocked Ethiopia, are now closed to the larger southern country.
An Ethiopian Investments Authority official described the closing of the ports as sabotage for Ethiopian businesses, which now must ship all goods through the smaller, less developed port of Djibouti. For Tigray, the greater distance also means higher transport costs.
On the other hand, some Eritreans accuse Ethiopia of intentionally moving its business elsewhere.
Thousands from Adigrat and other poor Tigrean towns who had migrated back and forth across the border to work before the outbreak of fighting are now unemployed.
These may simply be side effects of the war. But many here see it as the acts of a vengeful neighbor.
The pale blue-and-white pharmaceuticals plant and a cement plant farther south in Mekele -- which has also been bombed by Eritrea -- were built by Ethiopian investors. It's the kind of development that has eluded Eritrea.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are two of the world's poorest countries, and Ethiopians suspect that Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki is embarrassed that his country has not progressed as rapidly as hoped in the five years since it gained independence from Ethiopia.
Eritrea denies that.
``These people are talking rubbish because they want to divert attention from their territorial ambitions,'' said Isaias' adviser Yemane Gebremeskel.
``They are trying to give this an economic twist, but it's not true,'' he said. ``You don't make war because you're jealous.''
Fighting first began in the 160-square-mile Yirga region along Ethiopia's northern frontier. Eritrea claims the territory based on unclear borders drawn when Italy occupied Eritrea in the 19th century.
Some outside observers say the conflict may hinge on Eritrea's introduction last year of its own currency, the nafka, after previously using the Ethiopian birr. The changeover has cost the Eritrean treasury millions of dollars.
``The nafka has backfired,'' said Patrick Gilkes, a London-based expert on the Horn of Africa.
Whatever the motives for this war that has already claimed hundreds of lives and has so far defied efforts at peaceful negotiation, in Tigray, people want progress.
``Whatever the circumstance, the people of Tigray are committed to their development,'' said Mamo, the pharmaceuticals plant manager. ``They will never give that up.''