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Eritrea---Waiting for the World to Act
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16294 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
3 / 1989 |
2,581 Words |
| Author
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Aradom Tedla
Aradom Tedla is former director-general of the Ministry of Law
and Justice in Ethiopia and is now president of the African
Human Rights Committee, based in Arlington, Virginia. |
The loneliest war in Africa, which has been fiercely fought in Eritrea for over a century, surfaced in the U.S. media in March 1988, when more than 18,000 Ethiopian troops were captured or killed in Afabet. The capture of three high-ranking Soviet military staff highlighted the success of the Eritrean guerrillas and confirmed the participation of the Moscow military.
Furthermore, the hideous government order that international relief agencies leave the area and stop distributing food to the drought-affected people in Eritrea and Tigre placed a famine-stricken population of more than three million at immediate risk of death by starvation. The Washington Times correctly headlined its editorial response, "Ethiopia's Auschwitz."
In their vigorous protest and condemnation of this order, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNICEF representatives warned the world of the scorched-earth policy that the Ethiopian army was preparing to launch. Ethiopian troops have also engaged in mass arrests, extra judicial execution of detainees, and worst of all, massacre of civilians and carpet bombing of villages.
The latest mobilization for total war against Eritrea comes as the culmination of 27 years of war, intensified by massive military offensives in the last 14 years, since the Soviet-backed government seized power. These years have caused incalculable loss of lives and property destruction. This proves beyond any doubt that the Eritrean conflict cannot be solved by military intransigence but must be resolved through a peaceful political
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