Commission rules on border war claims

Eritrea triggered a two-year war with Ethiopia and violated international law when it invaded its neighbour in May 1998, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission (EECC) has ruled. Even though Eritrea has been blamed for starting the conflict, however, both countries are likely to receive compensation for breaches of international law during the fighting, which claimed the lives of 70,000 and cost each country - two of the world's poorest - US $1 million a day. "The commission holds that Eritrea violated the Charter of the UN by resorting to armed force to attack and occupy Badme, then under peaceful Ethiopian administration ... and is liable to compensate Ethiopia for damages caused by that violation of international law," the commission said in its ruling published on Monday. "Once the armed attack in the Badme area occurred and Ethiopia decided to act in self-defense, a war resulted that proved impossible to restrict to the areas where that initial attack was made," it said. The Hague-based EECC was formed to resolve claims between the Horn of Africa neighbours after the war ended in 2002. It comprises five international lawyers chosen by both countries. The claims commission has no bearing on the decision of the independent boundary commission, whose ruling still stands. In its compensation ruling, the commission noted that soldiers from both sides had raped women, looted and burned property and forced villagers to flee during the fighting. A statement from the Eritrean ministry of foreign affairs on Tuesday said the EECC had dismissed Ethiopia's claims to Eritrea's seaports of Assab and Massawa and awarded compensation for damages in Eritrea's Western Zone, nonresident-property and diplomatic claims. "The Commission also granted recovery for the 'forced expulsion based solely on ethnicity' in Gash-Barka Zone. ... [and] found Ethiopia liable for a number of violations of the rights of Eritrean diplomats." Ethiopia said it would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, based on the EECC ruling that Eritrea triggered the border conflict. "We are currently preparing our damages claim, but it will run into hundreds of millions of dollars," said Ibrahim Idris, the director general of the Ethiopian government's legal affairs department, at a news conference in Addis Ababa on Wednesday. The EECC ruling comes amidst fears of renewed fighting between the two nations, which have massed armies on their 1,000 km frontier. Some 3,300 UN peacekeepers patrol a demilitarised buffer zone between the two forces. Eritrea, which banned helicopter flights and patrols on its side of the border in early October, also expelled 180 military observers and civilians from the United Nations mission in Eritrea in early December. Ethiopia and Eritrea have remained in a tense standoff ever since Ethiopia rejected the April 2002 decision of an independent boundary commission, which was set up as part of the peace agreement ending the border war between the two nations. The commission awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has refused to implement the ruling, despite demands by various international groups. Ibrahim said the EECC decision could influence Ethiopia's decision to hand over Badme. "Certainly this will have a bearing on how the problem between the two countries will be solved," he told reporters without elaborating. "The award made clear that Eritrea is the culprit - the cause of the war - and invaded Badme, which was and still is part of Ethiopia. Eritrea was the cause, and it is still obstructing peace and security in the region." The commission will make specific decisions regarding the payment of damages in January.