Ethiopian prisoners repatriated

A group of Ethiopians held in Eritrea for the last two years have been repatriated, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told IRIN on Tuesday. The 122 detainees had been held by the Eritrean authorities at the Red Sea naval base of Massawa, the ICRC said.

The handover took place at the symbolic Mereb River Bridge which links the two countries – between the Ethiopian village of Rama and the Eritrean village of Adi Kwala.

Both Ethiopia and Eritrea still hold hundreds of prisoners of war despite signing a peace agreement in December 2000 brokered by the Organisation of African Unity.

They agreed under the terms of the Algiers Agreement that they would hand over all prisoners seized during the two-year border war. "The detainees had been held for more than two years at Massawa naval base," an ICRC spokeswoman said. "Some days before their release, the ICRC was informed by the Eritrean authorities that this group of detainees had been granted amnesty." Under its mandate, the ICRC had interviewed each of the prisoners in private to establish whether they wanted to return to Ethiopia.

"ICRC delegates based in Eritrea accompanied the detainees across the Mereb River, where they were met by an ICRC team based in Ethiopia, before being placed in the care of the Ethiopian authorities," the spokeswoman said.

The 2 May handover comes amid increased political tensions between both countries since the crucial border ruling in The Hague. Both claim that they had been awarded key villages – in particular Badme, where the war broke out after a clash between rival forces in 1998. Recently Ethiopia briefly closed its border to UN peacekeepers in a row over Badme.

The ICRC also called on both countries to implement the Geneva Conventions and repatriate all prisoners as they agreed to do under the peace deal. "We urge the Ethiopian and the Eritrean authorities to rapidly release and repatriate all persons entitled to this under international law," the spokeswoman said.