Ethiopian officials hide the truth by trying to discredit western reporters - By PETER WORTHINGTON Toronto SUN May 18, 1999

Toronto Sun Around the time NATO and the U.S. went to war against Yugoslavia, another war in Africa was underway which in the space of days took more lives than have been lost through air strikes and probably by Serb reprisals in Kosovo. Yet few headlines or international protests took note.

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"From my experience, "official" Ethiopians seem incapable of telling (knowing?) the truth - such as claiming air attacks on Asmara were in retaliation for Eritrean air attacks."

PETER WORTHINGTON Toronto SUN May 18, 1999

Ethiopia's Tigrayan-dominated regime wants a path to the sea - through neighbouring Eritrea - By David Hirst Tuesday May 18, 1999 ( The Guardian U.K.)

 It is not really a 'border' war at all. Eritreans have long suspected a broader 'hidden agenda'. The evidence for at least a steadily unfolding incremental agenda grows increasingly plausible. The chief impulse behind it is Tigrayan ethno-regional nationalism: the attempt of a small component of the multi-ethnic Ethiopian state to assert itself, at the expense not only of neighbouring Eritrea but all other nationalities inside it.

The New York Times, By Ian Fisher, March 18, 1999&ndash 'Drama staged,' Ethiopia claims: "Foreign diplomats in both nations said they generally believed Eritrea's version of the battles..."

UN-OAU Documents Ethio-Eritrea Treaties, Maps And US-Rwanda Proposal

ALFAJAR: A HORN OF AFRICA WEEKLY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED IN LONDON&ndash March 13-19, 1999&ndash "Despite the fact that it was its tanks that stormed into the palaces of Addis Ababa, the Eritrean government awarded the ripe fruit of power to its [TPLF] allies."

The Nation Magazine, By Dan Connell, March 29, 1999&ndash AT ISSUE IS NOT JUST BORDERS BUT THE VERY DEFINITION OF TWO AFRICAN COUNTRIES: The present lull in the fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia may lead to a shift in their bitterly fought contest to the negotiating table, but an end to hostilities between two of the poorest but best-armed states in Africa is not in sight. 

The Economist March 13-19 , 1999&ndash  With no television pictures to put the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea on the world&rsquos agenda, it has tended to be dismissed as a minor affair. It is not. In four days of fighting at the end of February, it now seems that up to 40,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle for Badme. 

AfriFocus, Forum For African Affairs, February 28, 1999 &ndash The novelty of African Politics is getting more panoramic every day...Ethiopia has put all its weight to lemon out Eritrean tenacity to hold on to the Badme area. Eritrea has capitulated and accepted the OAU peace proposal...

UNITED NATIONS, March 4 (Reuters) Friday, 05:24 p.m Mar 04, 1999&ndash  Security Council members on Thursday deplored continued fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea, even though both have accepted a peace plan, and regretted that Ethiopia was pressing ahead with military action. 

Global Intelligence February 9, 1999 &ndash Ethiopia launched an offensive against neighboring Eritrea on February 6...the problem for international organizations attempting to broker a peace treaty between the two countries is that the dispute is not that simple. Ethiopia has not expended an estimated $300 million on arms since last June simply to retake a desolate patch of rocks.

By Nora Boustany Washington Post Friday, February 12, 1999; Page A31 EST &ndash  Despite President Clinton's divine supplication for peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea at the National Prayer Breakfast last week, bombing raids and ground assaults have killed soldiers and civilians alike, and his plea for the combatants not to use planes in that African conflict has been ignored. 

By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun, December 27, 1998 &ndash  Needless war engulfs a unique African oasis: In Africa, a continent racked with wars, revolutions and repression and increasingly regarded as an economic and social basket case, there is one country that is reversing the trend and today is the democratic hope of the continent. It is Eritrea, the newest African state and UN member, about the size of England (or Florida) 

BBC, World: Africa Friday, February 12, 1999 Published at 23:29 GMT : The Eritrean Government has denied responsibility for the border war with Ethiopia and said it has a "legitimate right to defend itself" in the face of Ethiopian attacks. The Eritrean Foreign Ministry said it would recognise United Nations demands for an immediate ceasefire, but denied its armed forces had carried out air raids or harassed civilians. 

By Paul Harris, Combat & Survival, Volume 10 - Issue 7 &ndash October 1998 The main street of Zalambassa is as if from a film set. A typical border town, its single storied, sunbleached adobe houses face each other across the mud-covered street. Most of the shops and homes are barred and bolted - as if the townspeople expect Clint Eastwood to ride into town at any moment.

Visafric&mdashFeb. 7, 1999 &ndash Diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa say that the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has admitted his government&rsquos allegation last Friday that Eritrea launched an air strike on Adi Grat may be based on " wrong information." 

Toronto Sun's Five Part Series on Eritrea

By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun, December 27, 1998 &ndash  Needless war engulfs a unique African oasis: In Africa, a continent racked with wars, revolutions and repression and increasingly regarded as an economic and social basket case, there is one country that is reversing the trend and today is the democratic hope of the continent. 

Conflict Began With A Map- SF Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle -Notes From Here and There (Lewis Dolinsky)&ndashJuly 22,1998 Even those who try hard have trouble sorting out the Ethiopia- Eritrea war. Why would erstwhile allies, whose prime ministers fought together to oust Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile-Mariam, suddenly come to blows over a rocky border area, out which they...

By Lara Santoro, Special to The Christian Science Monitor &ndashTUESDAY, JULY 7, 1998 ASMARA, ERITREA Tesfaye arrived home on a discarded Aeroflot plane flown by a visibly intoxicated Russian pilot. The plane was, and still is, the Eritrean capital&rsquos only connection to the outside world. He made it with the clothes he had on - a ripped T-shirt and a pair of pants - and his Eritrean passport.

War Report Lacked Eritrean Point of View

By Jan Selles, TORONTO STAR (July 01/98): The article , Economic rivalry sparks border war (World June 17), on the current war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is so overtly one-sided that it amounts to little more than a public relations effort for one of the antagonists. The Los Angeles Times reporter limited his coverage of the cause of the Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict to a series of explanations from the Ethiopian side.

Los Angeles Times, By TRICIA REDEKER HEPNER &ndash Wednesday, June 24, 1998 Africa: Stories of conflict fail to take account of the complex and contradictory political, cultural and social milieus. As an anthropologist studying Eritrea and Ethiopia, I am dismayed at the way the international media have approached and reported on the current escalating border conflict between the two nations. I was evacuated from Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, on the evening of June 5, several hours after the initial bombings of the airport by Ethiopian warplanes.

Global Intelligence February 9, 1999 &ndash Ethiopia launched an offensive against neighboring Eritrea on February 6, ostensibly aimed at retaking the disputed border area around the town of Badme. The problem for international organizations attempting to broker a peace treaty between the two countries is that the dispute is not that simple. Ethiopia has not expended an estimated $300 million on arms since last June simply to retake a desolate patch of rocks. Rather, deep divisions between the two countries on economic issues...