By Craig Nelson
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, June 6, 2000; 3:51 p.m. EDT

SHKETE, Eritrea –– Under a shroud of eye-stinging smoke from cooking fires, more than 1,960 people, most of them men, stretched out on the parched ground or paced nervously Tuesday, waiting for food.

The Ethiopian government says they are among the more than 7,529 Ethiopians that Eritrean authorities have rounded up for deportation in revenge for Eritrea's recent setbacks in their two-year border war.

But Teklay Aregay, a 38-year-old Ethiopian bricklayer who has lived in the former Ethiopian province for seven years, said he's content for the moment to be out of harm's way – whether it's bombs and artillery shells or attacks by Eritreans enraged by Ethiopia's May 12 invasion.

"You could see the hate in the faces of Eritreans," Teklay said, recalling how Ethiopia's shelling of Adiquala poisoned his ties with his neighbors.

An Ethiopian diplomat in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, alleged Monday that military police and local authorities went door-to-door in at least four Eritrean cities and towns starting May 29, ordering Ethiopians to vacate their homes.

Diplomat Wondimu Degefa said they were being held in the open until Eritrea arranges their deportation.

But reporters allowed by local authorities to visit a camp just outside this southern Eritrean village found the Ethiopians there mostly relieved.

"I'm afraid of kids throwing stones at me, so I'm happy here," said Emni Haili, a 33-year-old driver from Adiquala.

None of the men interviewed during a 45-minute visit to the camp said they were ordered by Eritrean authorities to leave their homes or were detained by force.

Conditions were spartan. Shelter consists of plastic sheeting stretched between tree branches. Food is lentils and high-protein biscuits.

And although armed Eritrean guards were scattered throughout the camp, escape appeared easy.

This camp may be an exception. The three other sites where Wondimu alleges that Ethiopians are gathered have not been visited by reporters. Conditions there may be worse and their occupants brought and kept there under greater coercion.

A source in Asmara said Tuesday that Ethiopians in Dekemehari, for example, were ordered by Eritrean authorities to leave the southern city. Wondimu said they are being held in a camp in Maereba.

Teame Hagos, the commander in charge of the Shkete camp, said protecting Ethiopians was the sole reason for separating them from the estimated 750,000 people in Eritrea uprooted by the latest round of fighting.

"We can't guarantee our children's emotions inside," he said. "What we can control is keeping the Ethiopians safe."

Eritrean officials have denied that concerns about spies and security leaks led to the creation of the camps. Repeated requests to Eritrea's Foreign Ministry for comment Tuesday on alleged plans to deport the Ethiopians went unanswered.

Fear of Ethiopians living here has escalated since Ethiopian forces invaded on May 12, rekindling an on-again-off-again border war that is believed to have cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

Even before the May 29 Ethiopian bombing of a military airstrip in Asmara, 73-year-old Bashay Negash said Ethiopians there had publicly waved their country's flag to celebrate Ethiopian battlefield victories, triggering street fighting in the capital.

There are an estimated 80,000 Ethiopians living in the country of 3.5 million, and Ethiopians have taken over many jobs vacated by Eritreans who have gone to fight.

With fighting persisting despite Ethiopia's declaration last week that the war was over, resentment is likely to deepen.

In a 12-hour battle Monday on the western front, Eritrean forces drove Ethiopian forces from Teseney 18 miles south to Guluj. Ethiopians destroyed a main bridge leading into Teseney and $40 million in cotton-producing equipment at a plantation 5 miles southwest of the city, the Eritreans said.

Ethiopian spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said Tuesday that all fronts were quiet except Bure in the south where there were low-level artillery exchanges.

Expulsion and repatriation have been weapons in the war between the two Horn of Africa neighbors. Since fighting began, Ethiopia has sent back at least 68,000 Eritreans.

The methods have often been brutal. Last year, Ethiopian authorities drove a group of Eritreans to the contested area of the border. Soon Ethiopian artillery batteries opened up behind them, prompting return fire from Eritrea and terrifying the Eritreans who were caught between.

Another group of expelled Eritreans last year was left in the middle of a minefield, where they were forced to wait all night until Eritrean soldiers could retrieve them in daylight.

Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.