U.N. Considers Ethiopia-Eritrea Sanctions

The government here said it downed two Ethiopian aircraft and inflicted heavy casualties in intense fighting Monday as the United Nations considered an arms ban against the two neighbors.

Ethiopia acknowledged that one of its helicopters had been shot down, but it denied that a fighter plane had also been downed.

A senior Eritrean government official, Yemane Gebreab, said earlier Monday that “thousands” of Ethiopian soldiers had been killed at the Mereb-Setit front.

The two countries resumed their war with a vengeance Friday, and both sides claim to have killed thousands of enemy troops. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea insist that they want a peaceful settlement to their border conflict, but each blames the other for a series of failed peace initiatives since the fighting began in May 1998.

Tens of thousands of soldiers are thought to have been killed in World War I-style trench warfare in the last two years. Both sides routinely exaggerate victories and play down or ignore losses.

The Eritrean assertions came as the United States introduced a resolution demanding that the U.N. Security Council impose an arms embargo against the two nations in the Horn of Africa, which are teetering on the edge of famine after a prolonged drought.

The council, however, could not reach agreement and will meet again today. Washington also wants diplomatic sanctions against whichever country refuses to accept the council’s demands to stop fighting and negotiate.

Eritrea has informed council members that it would accept these demands, but Ethiopia has not.

Earlier Monday, tens of thousands of Ethiopians marched through the capital, Addis Ababa, in support of the war. The demonstration turned rowdy as protesters threw rocks at foreign journalists and a U.S. Embassy building.