Independent claims commission announces first awards

The independent claims commission, which is looking into post-war claims by Eritrea and Ethiopia, has announced partial awards regarding the issue of prisoners-of-war.

In a lengthy document issued on 8 July, the commission - which sits at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague - made awards to the parties after they filed their claims regarding the treatment of their POWs. All prisoners were finally released in 2002.

Both sides were found liable for issues such as failing to take measures to stop the abuse of POWs, and in Eritrea's case for failing to protect Ethiopian POWs from being killed upon capture or immediately afterwards. Eritrea was also found liable for subjecting Ethiopian POWs to "unlawful conditions of labour".

They were both found liable for "endangering the health" of POWs at certain camps, and for "depriving prisoners of footwear during long walks from the place of capture to the first place of detention".

Ethiopia was found liable for subjecting Eritrean POWs to "enforced indoctrination" from July 1998 to November 2002 in the camps of Bilate, Mai Chew, Mai Kenetal and Dedessa, and for delaying the repatriation of 1,287 Eritreans in 2002 for "longer than was reasonably required".

The Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission was established by the Algiers peace agreement of December 2000 to rule on claims for loss, damage or injury by the governments and by nationals of the two countries. Its arbitration is binding.

The two countries fought a bitter two-year border war from 1998 to 2000, sparked by a skirmish in the border town of Badme. Tens of thousands of people died on both sides.