INTRO: In the Horn of Africa, soldiers from Ethiopia and Eritrea, countries that were once allies, now face one another along an 800 kilometer border. As VOA's Scott Stearns reports, some Eritreans are now being held behind Ethiopian lines.

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Eritrean men line up for food at a detention camp in central Ethiopia. Broken-down trucks rust in the tall grass from the days when this was a training camp for Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.

The rebel alliance that toppled Mr. Mengistu is now at war with itself -- Ethiopia and Eritrea fighting a border war that has led to the death and detention of former comrades.

Eritrean Tsehaye Gebre Michael fought for years against Mr. Mengistu. When the war was over and Eritrea declared its independence, mr. Tsehaye and his family chose to stay in Ethiopia where he worked at the Ministry of Health.

Ten days ago he was arrested for being an Eritrean spy.

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Mr. Tsehaye says Ethiopian authorities told him he was helping Eritrea and could no longer work at the ministry. He and his son were both sent to this camp at Fiche, about 120 kilometers north of the capital addis ababa.

Mr. Tsehaye says he has been living peacefully in Ethiopia for years, and he does not see why he and his family are suffering when they have nothing to do with fighting in the north.

In this time of war, Ethiopia says Eritreans with military training can not be trusted to move freely in Ethiopian society.

Camp commandant mesfin gebre egziebeher says the men at Fiche are Eritrean militiamen who have infiltrated Ethiopia.

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Mr. Mesfin says Eritreans with military experience are being rounded-up to protect Ethiopian security. He says compulsory military training at the Eritrean camp in sawa has put more than 70-thousand young men on active duty. Whether they are in Eritrea or Ethiopia, mr. Mesfin says those young men are a serious threat.

TV repairman Takesta Seleba says he has lived his whole life in Ethiopia. Mr. Seleba, who has an Eritrean father and an Ethiopian mother, says he has never even been to Eritrea and can not understand why he and his brother are now accused of being Eritrean commandos.

"They just said, we know that you are a commando from Eritrea. I have never seen Eritrea before in my life, but they just said and i came here. We are prisoners. we don't know for how long we are going to stay here."

With more than 300-thousand Eritreans living in Ethiopia, fewer than one-thousand have been deported and another thousand detained. Ethiopia says that shows this is not a witch hunt (an unfair punishment) but instead a selective effort to protect itself against spying and sabotage.

That is little comfort for people like anan kahgai, who attends University in the US state of Texas. He was home on holiday last week when he was picked-up in the Ethiopian capital.

"It is very shocking to see all these people here who haven't done anything to cause this war, but they are being kept as prisoners of war here. I mean, I know a lot of them have been to military training and stuff, but as for me, I left this country when I was one [year-old] and I came back here after all these years, 22 years later, for vacation. In the case of my dad being Eritrean, I've been kept here for no reason. They haven't even asked me anything. They said all they were going to do was ask me questions about my dad. They haven't. I've been here, a prisoner for almost a week now."

Conditions at the Fiche camp are cramped but not severe. There is a health clinic, exercise grounds and visits from the Red Cross.

Camp commandant mesfin says the Eritreans are not prisoners, they are being treated like human beings. "they are not our friends, but they are not our enemies either," he says. "they are Eritreans and we have to keep an eye on them."

Some detainees say guards beat Eritreans in a metal shack near the fence. Commandant Mesfin says it is not so. He also denies there is a separate facility for Eritrean prisoners of war who other detainees say are brought in at night.

They say the prisoners are kept in separate metal shacks walled off from the rest of the compound and prevented from mixing with the general population. There are barracks behind a low wall and a metal fence, but commandant Mesfin says those will be used for hundreds of new arrivals expected over the next few days.

Ethiopia says the detainees will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Those considered threats will ultimately be deported. (signed)

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26-Jun-98 8:58 am EDT (1258 UTC)
Source: Voice of America