Richmond Times-Dispatch
Wednesday, February 23, 2000
Small African Nations Are Fighting World's 'Biggest War'
Asmarom Legesse**
Asmara, Eritrea.
The peoples of Africa who once hoped to become one unified nation are now
faced with numerous wars between brothers. The peacemaking efforts of the
Organization of African Unity have not succeeded in stopping these wars.
The biggest war now in progress in the world is the war between Eritrea and
Ethiopia. It started out as a border conflict and quickly escalated into a
devastating confrontation. Half a million heavily armed soldiers are facing
each other in trenches along the 600-mile border between the two countries.
They fight with weapons purchased from the former Soviet bloc nations of
Eastern Europe who are glad sell to both sides.
So far, 70,000 lives have been lost. The war also has brought the two
countries' rapidly growing economies to a grinding halt. In all this
conflict, no one but the arms trader has profited.
The Rwanda disaster in which 1 million lives were lost took place while the
world was watching. That kind of disaster can happen again if the world
community does not have a strategy for intervention. The United States and
other powerful nations cannot go on spending billions of dollars protecting
European minorities such as the people of Kosovo, and turn a blind eye toward
the suffering of millions of African victims of war. We need to remember that
human life has the same worth in Africa as it does in Europe or America.
WE WATCH with extreme frustration as the war takes its toll on Eritrean and
Ethiopian communities. A quarter of a million people have been displaced in
each country. The lives of these internally displaced communities have been
badly disrupted. People have lost their homes, jobs, and farms, and they are
exposed to famine and epidemic diseases.
Another consequence of the war is the mass deportation of people. Since the
war began in June, 1998, 70,000 Eritreans have been expelled from Ethiopia
under cruel and inhuman conditions.
People who were once productive members of society in the public and private
sectors were suddenly reduced to extreme poverty because all their property
was confiscated. They were stripped of their social identity because
government took away their personal documents, business licenses, passports,
and ID cards.
They also were deprived of their churches. By their own testimony, that was
the most deeply offensive measure taken by the regime against the deportees.
In response to this, a group of very angry orthodox priests and laymen who
had been deported to Eritrea, stealthily went back to their villages, broke
into the churches, emptied their contents, loaded them on donkeys, and took
them back to their refugee camp in Eritrea. They can now be seen celebrating
mass in the wilderness, on top of a small hill, against the background of
thousands of tents: It is an extraordinary and moving sight.
Ethiopia responded to all this by saying that Eritreans had stolen sacred
objects from Ethiopian churches. In reality Eritrean communities were the
founders of the villages being deported and the sole owners of the churches
that were confiscated.
THE WORST aspect of the deportation is that it leads to the breakup of
families. In nearly half (45 percent) of the families, husbands and wives
were separated. From 800 couples that were mixed marriages -- Ethiopian
husband and Eritrean wife, or vice versa -- the Eritrean member was plucked
out and expelled. There are also 2,600 children in Ethiopia today who have
been made motherless, fatherless, and homeless because both parents were depor
ted. The children who were left behind were then evicted from their homes and
thrown out into the streets. UNICEF and the International Committee of the
Red Cross are now trying to find these children, place them under the
protection of humanitarian organizations, and return them to their parents.
For African peoples who are locked in mortal combat with each other, respect
for human rights can be a powerful force that sets limits on the brutality of
wars. Behaving humanely toward the weakest among us may be the first step
toward peace.
That is why human-rights advocates are urging both countries to place under
special protection the very young, the disabled, the elderly, pregnant women,
and women with young children.
These men, women, and children are not involved in war and should not,
therefore, become the victims of war. Such humane concerns can serve as the
ethical core around which peace can be built. It also may open a window for
the resolution of the bitterest of conflicts because it gives the two nations
a chance to salvage some of their humanity in the midst of the most inhuman
carnage.
**Asmarom Legesse, emeritus professor of anthropology at Northwestern
University, is director of research for Citizens for Peace in Eritrea.