Eritrea claims recapture of key town from Ethiopia

June 6, 2000
Web posted at: 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

ASMARA, Eritrea -- Eritrea said on Tuesday that it had recaptured from Ethiopia a key town near the Sudan-Eritrea border, saying it had "totally routed" the forces of its Horn of Africa adversary.

Journalist Carol Pineau, reporting from the western town of Teseney, visited the battlefield, a flat plain outside Teseney, and said it had clearly "been a big battle."

"We saw lots of dead Ethiopian soldiers," Pineau said. "The Eritreans say (the battle) was fought all day on Monday, over 12 hours."

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Nearby mountains were covered in "the white powder of artillery shells," Pineau reported from an Eritrean military base where dozens of Ethiopian prisoners of war were being held.

Ethiopia took control of Teseney and towns during a three-week offensive and called the war "over" on May 31, saying it had retaken all the territory Eritrea had captured since the start of the 2-year-old border conflict in 1998.

But Eritrea insisted the war could not end until Ethiopia withdrew from all Eritrean territory -- including the western and southwestern towns near the Sudan border.

Tens of thousands of Eritreans have fled the region, many to Sudan, where the United Nations has set up temporary camps.

"Ethiopia's sinister design is aimed at delaying and preventing the early return of the population so as to disrupt agricultural production during the critical months of June when the rains are due," the Eritrean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Weeklong peace talks between the two sides in Algiers have failed to achieve a breakthrough. Ethiopia has refused to withdraw from Eritrea until a cease-fire is backed up by U.N. troops, while Eritrea has refused to sign a cease-fire until Ethiopian troops have pulled out.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi were one-time allies in a rebel insurgency that toppled Ethiopian military dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam in 1991.

But Isaias and Meles never finished settling their borders, a dispute that eventually erupted into a devastating war for two countries already among the world's poorest. Additionally, drought has brought a serious famine to the Horn of Africa this year.

Reporter Carol Pineau and Reuters contributed to this report.

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