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Ethiopia Denies Eritrea Allegation of Crossing Border

The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
NEWS
December 12, 2004
Posted to the web December 14, 2004

By Dagnachew Teklu
Addis Ababa
Peace proposal based on Algiers agreement
The Ethiopian government has denied allegations made by the Eritrean government
of crossing the Eritrean border and destroying properties in its territory.
Ethiopian Minister of Information, Bereket Simon told journalists that the
allegation made this week by the Eritrean government was totally baseless and
untrue.
Bereket said that the Eritrean government did not report "its allegation" to
the commission of the two countries, which was established to deal with such
issues between the two countries.
"The joint commission of the two countries, established together with UNMEE has
not received any report of such kind. The commission was established to look at
such incidents between us. Such actions were never committed in the border
area," Bereket said.
He said that the Eritrean government is undertaking such allegation and
accusations to hide its internal problems.
"As you know, the Ethiopian peace proposal has been accepted by many countries
including UN, AU, and EU and has been rejected by Eritrea. What Eritrea decided
to do was a shameful act. Their decision will separate the country from the
international community," Bereket said.
He indicated that the international community should play its part and
pressurize the Eritrean government towards peace.
"It is not only the international community that should pressurize the Eritrean
government .The people of Eritrea should also play their part to force the
government to accept all peaceful means," Bereket said. The Ethiopian five
point peace proposal was made based on the Algiers agreement, signed by the two
parties in 2001.
"The peace proposal does not contradict with the Algiers agreement. The
agreement is all about peace. It requests the two countries to end their
disagreement by peaceful means. Ethiopia still stands for peace," he added An
estimated three million Eritrean people, (10 %) of the population has been
forced to join military life.
"Social, political and economic activities are deteriorating in Eritrea due to
political instability. The government wants to hide these things and preach its
people that the country was invaded by neighboring forces," he added.
It was learnt that 60% of the Eritrean people are dependant on foreign
assistance.

   

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