One year after the peace

Fitsum Kahsay stands wearily over the ruins of his home. It is the first time he has been back since he and his family fled advancing Eritrean forces over two years ago. Fitsum, 50, is one of the enduring victims of the two-year border war that broke out in May 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea - a war that cost thousands of lives and saw more than a million people flee their homes. Although a peace agreement was signed a year ago today, on both sides tens of thousands still have not returned to their homes that snake along the disputed 1,000-kilometre border. A year on millions of mines still litter the countryside and claim needless lives, many of them children playing in the fields or shepherding animals, and hundreds of prisoners of war languish in makeshift camps. Fitsum, a wealthy butcher from the prosperous border town of Zelambessa which now lies in ruins, lost everything. “Was it worth it?” he asks surveying the ruins of his seven-room home, unusually large by Ethiopian standards. “War is never worth it. I had a good business and my family were happy. Now I live on handouts. I cannot put clothes on my children.” Although Fitsum’s hometown and place of birth is to the south of the 25-kilometre wide buffer zone, monitored by United Nations peacekeepers, he still is concerned about returning. Accusation and counter accusation of troop movements and skirmishes do little to reassure the war weary civilians desperate to return. “We keep hearing rumours about trouble and fighting which makes it difficult to go back. We don’t feel safe. I thought a year on we would be going home. I still don’t know how long it will take before I can get home, if ever. I just don’t know what the future will hold, whether we will be able to return at all.” Fitsum, his wife and seven children now live in a one-room house in the Tigrayan town of Adigrat - around 40 kilometres from the border. The town has seen its population double to 60,000 with the influx of fleeing families. With the huge explosion come all the additional problems. Prostitution has soared and the strain on local services is all too evident. A dirty white sheet hangs in the middle of their tiny room separating their bed from where their children sleep. What possessions they have managed to acquire are neatly stored in USAID sacks - a reminder of how far Fitsum, once earning 2,000 Birr per month (US $235) and twice the average annual income, has fallen. He is fiercely proud of Ethiopia, like many of his countrymen. But now he wants to go home and try and re-build his shattered life. The two drought-prone countries once formed the Ethiopian empire but a fought a guerrilla war lasting almost 32 years until Eritrea achieved independence on 24 May 1993. Five years later they descended into violence that shocked many observers with its brutality. Armed with hi-tech 20th century weapons, the tactics employed owed more to the previous century. The war had catastrophic affects on Ethiopia and its 64 million population - many already living a hand to mouth existence. Its tiny neighbour with a population of four million fared no better. Many countries that had been pouring aid into the region withdrew funding in protest, compounding the economic woes and exacerbating the humanitarian crisis. Yet despite the signing of the Algiers peace accord last December by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and under the watchful eyes of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, much needs to be done. Although hostilities were brought to an end problems still need to be ironed out. The international community also has an important role to play. The accord stipulates the setting up of Commissions to demarcate the two countries' common border, monitor the exchange of prisoners; returns of displaced people and entertain compensation claims for war damages by citizens on both sides. Tensions have increased recently after a series of heated verbal exchanges between the two governments although the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are patrolling the area, say all is calm. In February the Border Commission is expected to reveal where they believe the border should lie which could increase tensions in the region. Millions of mines have still yet to be cleared on both sides and in some areas in central Tigray that process has not even begun. Kiros Rufael, a field monitor in central Tigray for the Ethiopian Relief and Development Organisation that are helping to educate about the dangers of mines, said with each passing day villagers can be killed. “The international community need to act fast,” he said. “If they wanted to clear these mines tomorrow they could. Otherwise they could stay in the ground for years.” One of the most sensitive areas is the repatriation of prisoners of war and civilians being carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross. So far more than 40,000 civilians have been repatriated on both sides and 1,500 soldiers returned home. Hundreds of prisoners of war still remain in camps scattered around both countries. A spokesman said: “The ICRC is trying to convince the government on both sides to abide by the Geneva Convention which they both recognise. That says that after the cessation of active hostilities all prisoners of war and people detained as a result of the conflict should be repatriated.”

For Fitsum, wondering where his next meal will come from, that message is all too relevant now, a year on and still not home.

At least 12,500 people remain displaced in Tigray as a result of the war with a further 60,000 unable to return home - all receiving rations from the World Food Programme. They face the dilemma of curtailing food aid to those returning home in an area facing chronic food insecurity. More than 4,000 refugees still remain in one camp. Mainly Kunamas from Eritrea the numbers have gradually increased despite the end of the war. Spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mahary Maasho said: “There is a kind of status quo with the problem still remaining. We are talking of repatriation but these people do not want to go home.” The Algiers accord has been globally hailed. The former OAU chairman President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo said it would serve as an example to other war-ravaged countries in Africa. But it was perhaps Kofi Annan who struck the most pertinent chord. “It is not enough to silence the guns,” he said. “As we embrace peace, build trust and work for reconciliation, we must remember that words can inflame or soothe. We need the best possible atmosphere for implementation of this agreement.” For Fitsum, wondering where his next meal will come from, that message is all too relevant now, a year on and still not home.