TORONTO STAR (July 01):

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. Consequently , Eritrea is vilified as a jealous ,irrational ,economically-inept, resourceless ,child-killing nation whose success both economically and in its war of libration was the result of the current regime in Ethiopia.

Surely the Eritrean position must also be reported to achieve balanced coverage of this war, before pronouncing the causes of the war. Consider that Eritrea finally won its libration from Ethiopia in 1991 after 30 years of war. In its brief history , Eritrea had to repel attacks made on it by both Sudan and Yemen.

A more realistic characterization of Eritrea might have reported that:

• Eritrea’s courageous and mostly ignored 30-years war of libration also freed the people of Ethiopian from the oppressive regime of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
• Eritrea’s culturally and religiously diverse people co-exist peacfully.
• Eritrea has been rebuilding and developing its industry and infrastructure since its libration.
• Eritrea is blessed with frugal leadership .
• Eritrea , in a good neighbourly manner , allowed landlocked Ethiopia the use of its sea ports and ,
• Eritrea play key roles in the Ethiopian admistration , where they are valued for their education and expertise.

Rather than vilifying a society , responsible reporting might have uncovered an industrious , intellegent people who while war-worn and eager for peacful co-existence with their neighbours - do not forget the staggering price of their sovereignty . You might have found a society that could be the economic engine for the area and a model for African solutions to African problems by Africans .

While you might reasonably have had difficulties in getting to the origins of this war , at least you could have presented a more balanced treatment.