Ethiopia playing blame-game
2006-03-28 23:10
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's prime minister
on Tuesday accused rival Eritrea of backing insurgents to
destabilise his country and vowed that soldiers would guard
against any attack over their disputed border.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Eritrea was aiding
ex-soldiers from the Derg military dictatorship he toppled as a
guerrilla leader in 1991, rebels from the Oromo Liberation Front
(OLF) and others to create havoc.
"The wish of the Eritrean government is to see a divided or
at least much-weakened Ethiopia.
"To achieve this goal, it is
co-ordinating and mobilising remnants of the Derg regime, the OLF
and the like," Meles said in a speech to parliament.
The two Horn of Africa neighbours fought a 1998-2000 war
that killed 70 000 people over their 1 000km border,
where there have been fears of renewed combat in the past year.
Ethiopia has blamed various dissidents for a series of
blasts in the capital Addis Ababa since January.
The first fatal
attack came on Monday as five separate explosions killed one and
injured at least 14.
Eritrea denied the accusations.
"This is the philosophy of somebody with an inferiority
complex who really believes his existence will depend on the
weakness of others in the neighbourhood," information minister
Ali Abdu told Reuters.
"We believe in a safe neighbourhood."
Meles warned that Ethiopia would keep its forces on guard
"to deter the government of Eritrea from initiating armed
conflict and to ensure a lasting resolution of the dispute".
Tensions have risen in the past year as Eritrea has grown
angrier that a 2002 independent ruling awarding it disputed
areas has not been carried out.
Although both sides agreed to abide by the boundary panel's
decision as part of a peace deal, Ethiopia later balked and
insisted on further talks, a condition Eritrea refuses.
Meles said Eritrea's attitude had kept talks to break the
impasse, held in London on March 10-11, from succeeding.
"Progress that could have been made through this initiative
has been frustrated due to insistence of the Eritrean government
on the mechanical implementation of the decision without any
dialogue," Meles said.
Abdu, the Eritrean information minister, said no matter what
Ethiopia said or wanted, "the border will be fully demarcated
according to the ruling".
The United Nations, which has a peacekeeping mission
monitoring the border, had said the talks had made progress on
marking the frontier.