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Buildup Brings Ethiopia, Eritrea Back to the Brink
Eritreans in the town of Shambuko walk past a tank abandoned during the 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia. Diplomats in the Horn of Africa estimate there are hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides of the 570-mile border between the two countries.
(By Ed Harris -- Reuters)
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To curb unrest, both leaders have jailed opposition leaders and sent riot police with live bullets to quell protests. And both have used the prospect of another deadly border war as a way to unite the populace against a foreign foe.
"The fear of war makes people forget all these other problems. . . . But the truth is these leaders are playing with our lives," said Firdi Mekonen, 41, a historian in Aksum. During the last conflict, it was a staging ground for Ethiopian troops and a refuge for wounded fighters and civilians fleeing fighting.
Last month, political tension in Ethiopia intensified as opposition party supporters filled the streets of Addis Ababa to protest disputed elections in May. Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed when security forces fired into crowds.
In the following weeks, police jailed at least 15,000 protesters and 130 senior opposition figures, including professors, judges and the city's elected mayor, Berhanu Nega. Most were charged with treason, but some are being prosecuted for calling for genocide against Meles's ethnic group, the Tigrayans.
On Monday, Meles said that only about 3,000 of those arrested remained in jail. However, diplomats and political leaders estimate the number to be four times higher. Meles blamed the main opposition group, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, for inciting violence and trying to overthrow his government.
He said that when the opposition leaders failed to rally support through civil disobedience, they resorted to violence. Officials said rioters burned 110 city buses and attacked police officers, eight of whom were killed.
"Their Phase Two wasn't peaceful protest. It was insurrection, and in my view that's treason. . . . Democracy is about having the rule of law," Meles said.
Meles once enjoyed a reputation abroad as a progressive reformer, especially compared with the brutal communist regime he helped overthrow in 1991. Now, Meles's image has been tarnished by the recent violence, and Western governments have become more critical.
"The international community was happy with the economic reforms, and people felt the democratic process was moving forward, but there still seems to be some command-and-control mentality," said Tim Clarke, the European Union ambassador in Addis Ababa. "There also still seem to be significant human rights abuses and arrests for protests."
But some observers think Meles's strategy of raising alarms about the threat from Eritrea may work at home, at least temporarily.
"It's a smart tactic," said Abdul Mohammed, an Ethiopian political scientist and analyst. "It has helped leaders on shaky ground around the world."
This is not the first time that both Ethiopia and Eritrea have used the threat of a border war to deflect internal problems. In Ethiopia, the ethnic minority government was politically unpopular until Eritrea attacked in 1998. Radio stations played folk songs about the sacrifices of war and national pride.
