Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of persecuting Ethiopians

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- Ethiopia said on Friday its nationals in Eritrea were being persecuted in the aftermath of war between the two countries and warned of serious consequences unless the abuses stopped.

The government in Addis Ababa said 30,000 Ethiopians were being held in concentration camps inside Eritrea and another 20,000 had been forced out of the country since a peace deal ending two years of war was signed in June.

MESSAGE BOARDS The Horn of Africa     RESOURCE Click for key incidents in Ethiopian-Eritrean war

"Ethiopia has so far exercised restraint in the hope that the international community could prevail upon Asmara. But there is a limit to restraint and the regime in Eritrea should consider itself warned that it will be held responsible for all the consequences of its actions," Ethiopia's foreign ministry said in a statement released late on Friday.

"In the light of the foregoing, Ethiopia appeals for the last time to the international community to save Ethiopians from a regime that is committing war crimes in this day and age against innocent and unprotected civilians."

It said that Ethiopians expelled from Eritrea had been forced to walk through minefields and flooded rivers on their journey back across the border, and that it had the names of 1,074 Ethiopians who have reportedly disappeared without trace.

The peace agreement signed in June ended a two-year border war that killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides.

Ethiopia said it wanted officials of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the European Union sent to Eritrea to investigate the allegations of abuses in camps and prisons.

Under the peace agreement, the United Nations is to send a peacekeeping force to patrol the disputed border and keep the rival armies separated by a 25-km (15-mile) buffer zone inside Eritrean territory.

It was a massive, month-long Ethiopian offensive that brought an end to the war, pushing Eritrean forces out of disputed territories they had occupied and driving deep into southern Eritrea.

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Government of Eritrea
Eritrean Network Information Center
Organization of African Unity (OAU)
Ethiopia Online
Ethiopian National Congress
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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