Destruction, Danger Await Eritrea Returnees

Residents returned home to this war-ravaged market town Thursday to a mountain of devastation. Heaps of debris lay strewn in the streets. Building after building stood gutted by tank and artillery fire. Shops along the central avenue were empty shells.

Ethiopian forces, which had advanced deep into Eritrea after launching an offensive three weeks ago, withdrew from Barentu on Tuesday, leaving the trail of destruction. “Everything in the town has been looted,” said Brig. Gen. Tekle Libsu, the commander in Barentu.

But elsewhere in southwestern Eritrea, the nation’s crucial breadbasket, Ethiopian troops are holding on to land that belongs to their neighbor. And despite Ethiopia’s declaration Wednesday that the two-year war in the Horn of Africa is over, this newly occupied territory--more so than the disputed borderlands retaken by Ethiopia over the past three weeks--is a major sticking point in reaching a cease-fire and lasting peace.

Ethiopia’s government said Thursday that it would not withdraw from Eritrea without sound international assurances that its neighbor would respect their border. Eritrea has rejected Ethiopia’s announcement that their war is over, saying it would not declare a cease-fire until its neighbor’s forces had withdrawn from lands that are indisputably Eritrean.

The statements came as foreign mediators, who began Day 3 of peace negotiations in Algiers, tried to persuade officials from both nations to meet face to face to end a conflict that has cost millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives.

Haile Weldensae, Eritrea’s foreign minister, attended the Algiers talks and said direct negotiations would take place only after a withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from his nation’s territory.

“If they will not pull out of our land, the war will continue,” said Tekle, the army general. He said the Ethiopian army had dug in defense positions in the southwestern towns of Tokombiya, Shambiko and Awgaro, south of Barentu, the regional capital.

Battle lines remained quiet Thursday, a day after the government in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, declared the war over. Ethiopia said it had recovered all territory lost since fighting began two years ago, when Eritrean forces seized disputed areas along their poorly demarcated border.

But Eritrean military officials Thursday denied the claims of battlefield victory, insisting that Ethiopia’s army had been driven out of towns such as Barentu, which it had occupied for 10 days.

Tekle described how Eritrean forces fought the Ethiopians for a week in the mountain ranges surrounding Barentu. The last two days, ending Tuesday, saw the fiercest battles, the general said.

According to Tekle, the Ethiopians sent wave after wave of fighters to attack without success.

“We destroyed them with artillery and different military tactics,” said Tekle, insisting that the Ethiopians suffered tremendous casualties and that 70 of them were captured. “For two days there was heavy hand-to-hand fighting in the mountains.”

When Eritrean troops finally marched into town Tuesday, they were shocked at the level of damage.

The local Asmara hotel, once a trendy hangout, had been damaged by an air raid. That attack left a father, mother and three children dead, Tekle said, as he stood amid the rubble of another devastated structure. At the local administration building, documents, ledger books and other papers littered the surrounding compound. A tank had blasted its way into the building, leaving it a shell of mangled iron, concrete and plaster.

“I am happy because the area is liberated, but I am sad because the Ethiopians completely destroyed the town,” said Ekalu Dawait, a 30-year-old soldier who took part in the battle.

Eritrean soldiers spent two days searching for land mines planted by the Ethiopians before the withdrawal. So far, two-thirds of the town had been cleared, Tekle said Thursday, and more than 40 undetonated mines dug up.

Residents of this town, once home to about 40,000 people, slowly started to trickle home Thursday. Some had walked from neighboring hamlets for hours in the blazing heat, clutching plastic bags containing their belongings, to reach their neatly adorned stone-and-thatch houses.

Nurit Abda Ramen wailed as she recalled how she had become separated from her two children, ages 10 and 14, amid intense shelling as they fled advancing Ethiopian troops. She did not know if they were dead or alive.

Berhane Habte Solus, the sales agent for Coke and Fanta soft drinks in Barentu, returned to his shop Thursday to find more than 1,000 cases of empty soda bottles. They lay scattered across the floor or were neatly packed back into their crates.

“I feel bad because of all the money I spent” to buy the supplies, said Berhane, a 54-year-old father of six, who was hopeful that his government would give him some assistance to restart his business. “It’s terrible, very terrible.”

Sigowini Habtu, 38, was equally upset to find the pillaged remains of her variety store and supermarket. She had spent several days hiding in the surrounding mountains with her three children, surviving with the help of Eritrean soldiers.

Said Sigowini: “When I saw [my shop], I thought: How will I survive? What will I do for my children?”

Eritrean soldiers said the withdrawing Ethiopian troops also stole many of the town’s tractors. That’s a vital loss in this grain-producing region; western Eritrea accounts for more than half the country’s agricultural output. An estimated 80% of Eritreans are employed in agriculture, growing a local grain called teff, along with sorghum, barley, potatoes and other crops.

“The agricultural land is under the enemy now, so people who are living here cannot continue to farm,” Tekle said.