Isayas pledges to free Ethiopian POWs

The Eritrean government has pledged to free some 300 Ethiopian prisoners of war (POWs) captured during its border war with Ethiopia between 1998 and 2000, an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told IRIN on Thursday. Vincent Bernard, the ICRC communications delegate, said the pledge was made by Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki during a meeting with the visiting ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger on Tuesday. The ICRC president went to Eritrea to raise unresolved issues of humanitarian concern, "especially POWs and civilian internees", said Bernard. The return of all POWs was part of the Algiers peace agreement, signed on 12 December 2000 by the two Horn of Africa neighbours to end their conflict. Eritrea was releasing POWs "based on human consideration and respect for the Geneva Convention and the Algiers Peace Agreement it signed", the Eritrean news agency said on Tuesday. The ICRC welcomes the Eritrean pledge "and is preparing to send a team to the POW camp to interview the prisoners" in accordance with ICRC procedures to establish whether they wanted to return, Bernard said. Since December 2000, ICRC had helped repatriate 718 Ethiopian POWs and 5,055 civilian internees from Eritrea, Bernard told IRIN. The ICRC president is in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Thursday to meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, with whom he would discuss POWs and other unresolved issues, said Bernard.