ETHIOPIA: PREMIER ZENAWI ACCEPTS US PLAN FOR PEACE WITH ERITREA
46.4 هزار بار بازدید -
9 سال پیش
-
(9 Jun 1998) English/Nat
(9 Jun 1998) English/Nat
There's been further heavy fighting on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia - with both sides accusing each other of starting the violence.
The latest battles - on Tuesday - centered on the town of Zala Ambassa, which Eritrea occupied in a battle on June 2.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accepted a joint United States Rwandan peace plan but so far the Eritrean government has ruled it out.
Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi helped each other to power as rebel leaders.
Together in 1991 they toppled Marxist dictator Haile Mengistu who had ruled both countries as one.
The two are now heads of state and come from the same ethnic group.
They are even distant cousins.
But Zenawi says the conflict is a betrayal of their friendship.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Had we thought that our friends are capable of stabbing us in the back we would
not have stationed our policemen on the border areas we would have stationed a sizeable army contingents. Had we suspected that our friends are capable of targeting and murdering schoolchildren by air raids we would have taken more precautions."
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
A United States-Rwandan peace plan calling for Eritrea to withdraw to its border positions of May 6 when the conflict started has been accepted by Ethiopia but rejected by the Eritreans.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"A joint facilitation team of the Rwandan and United States has come up with a comprehensive package. That package is not a hundred percent, it doesn't reflect the Ethiopian position one hundred percent but we believe the basic principles have been upheld in that package and therefore we have accepted it fully."
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Many analysts believe the conflict has its roots in Eritrea's new currency, the Nacfa upsetting the delicate economic balance between two of the world's poorest countries
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's true that we have a disagreement on a border issue, we have disagreements on trade and related issues but you don't go invading a country with whom you have a dispute on trade issues. We have more civilized mechanisms for resolving such problems.
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
A nationalist Eritrea wanted to stop sharing the same currency notes with its former ruler Ethiopia.
But Ethiopia, which is the least colonised country in African history, is equally proud of its national identity.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is our tradition since the seventeenth or sixteeenth or as far as the thirteenth century whenever we get an aggression from outside we Ethiopians are always united to defend ourselves. All Ethiopians, no matter to which ethnic group they belong are ready to defend themselves."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox Pop, Ethiopian man
This surprise conflict over unimportant border-lands can only harm both countries in the poorest region of Africa.
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There's been further heavy fighting on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia - with both sides accusing each other of starting the violence.
The latest battles - on Tuesday - centered on the town of Zala Ambassa, which Eritrea occupied in a battle on June 2.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accepted a joint United States Rwandan peace plan but so far the Eritrean government has ruled it out.
Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi helped each other to power as rebel leaders.
Together in 1991 they toppled Marxist dictator Haile Mengistu who had ruled both countries as one.
The two are now heads of state and come from the same ethnic group.
They are even distant cousins.
But Zenawi says the conflict is a betrayal of their friendship.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Had we thought that our friends are capable of stabbing us in the back we would
not have stationed our policemen on the border areas we would have stationed a sizeable army contingents. Had we suspected that our friends are capable of targeting and murdering schoolchildren by air raids we would have taken more precautions."
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
A United States-Rwandan peace plan calling for Eritrea to withdraw to its border positions of May 6 when the conflict started has been accepted by Ethiopia but rejected by the Eritreans.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"A joint facilitation team of the Rwandan and United States has come up with a comprehensive package. That package is not a hundred percent, it doesn't reflect the Ethiopian position one hundred percent but we believe the basic principles have been upheld in that package and therefore we have accepted it fully."
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Many analysts believe the conflict has its roots in Eritrea's new currency, the Nacfa upsetting the delicate economic balance between two of the world's poorest countries
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It's true that we have a disagreement on a border issue, we have disagreements on trade and related issues but you don't go invading a country with whom you have a dispute on trade issues. We have more civilized mechanisms for resolving such problems.
SUPER CAPTION: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
A nationalist Eritrea wanted to stop sharing the same currency notes with its former ruler Ethiopia.
But Ethiopia, which is the least colonised country in African history, is equally proud of its national identity.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"This is our tradition since the seventeenth or sixteeenth or as far as the thirteenth century whenever we get an aggression from outside we Ethiopians are always united to defend ourselves. All Ethiopians, no matter to which ethnic group they belong are ready to defend themselves."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox Pop, Ethiopian man
This surprise conflict over unimportant border-lands can only harm both countries in the poorest region of Africa.
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Twitter: Twitter: AP_Archive
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Instagram: Instagram: APNews
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
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