ETHIOPIA ETHIOPIAN ARMY ATTACK ERITREAN POSITIONS

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=3JLPqQrgxu4

(15 Jul 1999) Natural Sound • • With the Organisation of African Unity's attempts to broker a ceasefire between Ethiopia and Eritrea foundering, fighting looks likely to escalate on the barren front. • • Tens of thousands of soldiers who've been engaged in trench warfare in the border region have been killed since fighting began in May last year. • • But after spending (m) millions of dollars re-arming both countries have also been deploying sophisticated fighter aircraft. • • APTN were shown the Ethiopian army attacking Eritrean positions in a desolate stretch of land on the shared border last week. • • After 14 months of fighting there were hopes of peace at the Organisation of African Unity summit in Algeria. • • But on Thursday Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi arrived back from Algiers blaming Eritrea for back-tracking on the peace process. • • He accused Eritrea of presenting new preconditions on the OAU's proposed peace plan. • • The original 11 point plan calls for Eritrea to withdraw from this region, the western-most front along the 1,000 kilometre border. • • Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi also tried and failed to bring the Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders together for talks in Tripoli on the eve of the OAU summit. • • Eritrea captured this Badme region at the start of the war in May 1998 and in February this year the Ethiopians took it back. • • If the claims of both countries are believed more than 100,000 soldiers have died - more likely this figure is in the tens of thousands. • • The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of civilians have also been displaced in the conflict. • • APTN was shown tanks, weaponry and Eritrean prisoners of war, who it was claimed were captured from the Eritreans. • • It took thirty years of fighting for Eritrea to break away from Ethiopia and after only seven years of independence war broke out again. • • This time analysts are hard pressed to explain the fighting - the most likely explanation is that Eritrea invaded because the Ethiopians refused to accept their currency trade at a one to one rate with Eritrea's new currency. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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