Prisoners of war exchanged

Sixty former prisoners of war (POWs) arrived back in Eritrea on Monday after being released by the Ethiopian armed forces. The move coincided with Eritrea also handing over 25 Ethiopian POWs. The event took place more than a year after the fighting ended.

The handover of the POWs was effected in the presence of international observers on the symbolic Mereb river crossing point between the two countries. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who monitored the handover, urged both sides to "promptly release and repatriate" all the remaining POWs.

A spokeswoman for the ICRC said: "All these persons had been registered and regularly visited by ICRC delegates during the period of their captivity in their interment camps. All [the] prisoners of war had expressed their wish to return home to their country of origin." ICRC accompanied all the POWs to the Mereb river, where it handed them over to their respective authorities.

The spokeswoman went on to say: "Since the peace agreement was signed between Ethiopia and Eritrea... the ICRC has organised the repatriation of 937 Eritreans and 703 Ethiopian Prisoners of War. At the time of the agreement, the ICRC had registered and was visiting some 2,600 Eritrean prisoners of war in Ethiopia and some 1,000 prisoners of war in Eritrea." The ICRC said that under the Geneva Conventions all POWs and civilian internees should have been repatriated without delay after the end of the war.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Defence made an announcement that the Eritrean POWs would be released on Friday. Two of the Eritreans had been civilian detainees.

The joint releases coincided with a visit to Addis Ababa by the Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church – the first meeting of the religious leaders of the two countries in Ethiopia since the end of the bloody war. The meeting was preceded by a meeting of the religious leaders of the two countries in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Wednesday. The visits have been hailed in both countries as an historic breakthrough and a huge confidence-building exercise.