POWs still being held

Some 400 prisoners-of-war (POWs) remain in Eritrea and some 1,300 in Ethiopia, despite requirements of international humanitarian law and the commitments made by both governments to release and repatriate all POWs without delay. A progress report by the UN Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea dated 19 June said that since the last report of 7 March, Ethiopia had released and repatriated, with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 242 Eritrean POWs, and that Eritrea had released and repatriated one Ethiopian POW - on health grounds.

During that period, ICRC had also assisted in the voluntary repatriation of 9,822 Ethiopians from Eritrea. The UN report said this included a small number of less than 60 civilian internees, and many others who had recently been detained by the Eritrean authorities for holding expired residence permits. Since December 2000, a total of 14,179 civilians had returned to Ethiopia. On 1 June, a group of 285 Eritreans, who had been living in the Tigray area of Ethiopia, were repatriated to Eritrea with ICRC assistance, the report said.