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Reports of continued heavy fighting as Ethiopians vote in generalelections |
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May 16, 2000
ADDIS ABABA, MAY 15 (AP) - Ethiopian troops captured several strategic spots in continued fighting with Eritrea, a government spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Ethiopians voted in general elections that reportedly turned deadly, with security forces allegedly opening fire on protesters.
Government forces killed seven people in Hadiya zone, where opposition to the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is very strong, an opposition party leader said several hours after the polls closed Sunday in the country's second-ever general elections.
"It's terrible," said Beyene Petros, chairman of the Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Coalition. "We have been working so hard to avoid this."
Five people died when security forces threw a grenade into a protesting crowd. Two more when killed when police opened fire on another crowd, he said.
Authorities could not reached Sunday to confirm the report.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse claimed Sunday that Ethiopian troops captured several strategic areas around the Mereb River front and the air force had attacked positions inside Eritrea for the second day running.
Eritrean spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel could not be reached for comment on the claim.
Earlier Sunday, Eritrea claimed to have killed or injured 25,200 Ethiopians since the fighting began Friday morning, just two days after a U.N. Security Council delegation left the region empty-handed after trying to get both countries to proceed with the implementation of a peace agreement each has already accepted.
Selome called the Eritrean claim "a ridiculous statement right before defeat."
The war, which broke out in May 1998 when Eritrea moved into the Badme area 650 kilometers (405 miles) north of Addis Ababa, is ostensibly about the poorly demarcated border.
Military analysts say the fighting resembles battles in World War when waves of soldiers poured out of trenches and into enemy fire. Ethiopia's population is 61.7 million; Eritrea's is 4 million. Both countries have conscripted tens of thousands for service along their 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border.
On Saturday, Selome said Ethiopian forces destroyed eight Eritrean divisions and bombed military installations at Mendefera, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the capital, Asmara.
Yemane denied Saturday's reported bombing, and independent observers who visited Mendefera said there was no evidence of an attack.
But Yemane acknowledged the situation was "very fluid," saying the fighting was intense and that Eritrean forces had been able "to minimize losses."
Observers say the fighting is more a playing out of political rivalries and tensions that grew out of the rebel movement launched by Isaias Afwerki, now Eritrea's President, against the 17-year military-Marxist regime of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was a junior member of the rebel coalition that ousted Mengistu in 1991. Isaias engineered a referendum, and Eritrea, the much smaller nation, gained itsindependent in 1993.
Meles told the British Broadcasting Corp. late Saturday that he wants an early end to the war so his government can concentrate on tackling poverty and famine.
He criticized a Security Council resolution calling on both countries to stop fighting by Tuesday or face possible sanctions as "punishing the victim of aggression, Ethiopia."
Ethiopian state radio said a big demonstration would be held in the capital Monday to express indignation against the United States and Britain for their role in sponsoring the resolution.
The Addis Ababa-based Organization of African Unity, which labored over the framework peace agreement, called on both countries to stop the war immediately.
"This deplorable resumption of hostilities constitutes a setback to the sustained efforts that have been deployed by the Organization of African Unity," Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim said Sunday.
By midday Sunday no journalists had been allowed near any of the areas on either side of the border where fighting has been reported at the Badme, Zalambessa and Bure fronts.
Earlier, an official of the National Election Board said that the voting for members of the 548-seat federal parliament, eight of nine regional assemblies and two city councils had gone well in the 30,000 polling stations around the country twice the size of France.
"So many people have been coming to the polling stations, around 90 percent of the voters around the country," Aklilu Mekuria said.
Earlier in the day, however, reporters saw little evidence of a large turnout among the 20 million registered voters.
Unlike Ethiopia's first general elections in May 1995, no international observers watched voting Sunday.
Aklilu said official results would be announced June 7. |