UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Eritrea does not want another war with Ethiopia and seeks good relations with its neighbor, provided Addis Ababa withdraws from Eritrean territory, Eritrea’s U.N. ambassador said on Friday.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have both moved tens of thousands of troops to the border because of a dispute over their 620-mile (1,000-km) border. U.N. officials have expressed fears that the present withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from the border region could open the door to a new conflict.
“I would like to assure you that we in Eritrea are sick and tired of wars,” Ambassador Araya Desta told Reuters in an interview. “We don’t want another war. We are not warmongers.
“There is no reason why we should not have good relations with Ethiopia, provided they withdraw from Eritrean territory,” he said.
Ethiopia also has said it does not want a new war.
U.N. peacekeepers started work in 2000 after a two-year border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors that killed an estimated 70,000 people.
The peacekeepers have been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) buffer zone inside Eritrea. But Asmara turned against the mission because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent boundary commission awarding chunks of Ethiopian-held territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.
On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council condemned what it called “systematic violations” of its resolutions by Eritrea, including a food and fuel blockade, which led to a decision by the U.N. mission on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border to withdraw.
The council statement came as the 1,700-member force, known as UNMEE, sought to regroup in the Eritrean capital Asmara after being forced by the blockade to leave the disputed border it monitored for more than seven years.
“We are very sorry about that (council statement),” Desta said. “We are very mad about this … We are cooperating (with UNMEE) in all areas.”
ERITREA: U.N. TROOPS HAVE FOOD
Although Asmara has said the U.N. presence on the border was tantamount to occupation, U.N. officials have said the Eritreans were making it difficult for UNMEE to leave the border zone. However, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday there had been no problems reported on Thursday.
Desta denied there was a food or fuel blockade.
“We didn’t cut off the food supplies,” he said. “Food has reached those people in the countryside. They (currently) have enough for one good month.”
Western diplomats have said they suspected Eritrean soldiers wanted to get their hands on UNMEE’s equipment, which would explain why they were making it difficult for them to withdraw. Desta denied that allegation.
“We are not expecting anything from UNMEE,” he said.
On Wednesday, Eritrea accused the United Nations of making false accusations against it.
“The press offices of the United Nations and other private media have been leveling unfounded accusations against Eritrea about UNMEE’s situation in the country,” the Eritrean mission to the United Nations said in a statement.
Desta said he had personally complained to the United Nations about what Asmara sees as incorrect information it has been providing to the media.
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu) – Hundreds of Ethiopian troops with more than 25 vehicles have reached in Dhuso-mareb district of Galgadud region central Somalia on Friday witnesses said.
The soldiers left there have pulled out from Hiran region and made passage in Guri-el ward towards Dhuso mareb.
Dhuso-mareb Residents have acknowledged that the soldiers have packed up amillitary camp called “21 military campground” although its unidentified the motive behind the troop’s arrival in that neighborhood.
No comments were available from Galgadud region authorities on the Ethiopian troop’s arrival in Dhuso-mareb district.
Else where deadly fighting occurs in IDP”S haven area in Afgoi district following a land ownership dispute between the internally displaced people.
One civilian died in that fighting which exceptionally occurred in IDP’s camp called Howlwadag where the two fought sides used in the clash light rifles.
That brief clash with in the IDP’s caused that the refugees to displace for a second time from their new thought safe havens after they have originally fled from the bloodshed battles in the capital.
The situation of the battled area is reportedly tranquil and the the Government troops in Lower Shabelle region arrived at the scene.
BAHRAIN’S Maryam Yusuf Jamal won the women’s 1,500m race by the narrowest of margins at the ‘GE Galan’ indoor athletics meeting in Stockholm late Thursday night.
Maryam, running in her first race of the year, comfortably paced herself in the front alongside Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka and Russia’s Olesya Chumakova over the race’s opening three laps (1,200m).
But the 23-year-old Bahraini struck with one lap to go, when she dropped Chumakova and opened up a significant gap ahead of Burka.
The Ethiopian youngster however would not give up easily, and was able to cut the gap to about a half-metre from first. But Maryam proved to be too strong in the end, and she was able to stave off the late challenge and clinch the win in four minutes 04.30 seconds, just seven-hundredths of a second ahead of Burka.
Chumakova was also not far behind, finishing in 4:07.42 for third. In fourth and fifth place respectively were Britons Lisa Dobriskey (4:08.88) and Susan Scott (4:09.07), who each set a new personal best in the event.
Sonja Roman (4:11.42) of Slovakia, Helen Clitheroe (4:12.22) from the UK and Sandra Teixeira (4:14.72) of Portugal rounded up the top eight. Thirteen runners took part in the event, with only one not finishing.
The meeting was held as part of the International Association of Athletics Federations indoor season. It will Maryam’s only indoor event, according to her husband and coach Tareq Sabt, as she prepares to represent Bahrain in the World Indoor Championships in Valencia next month.
BAHRAIN’S Maryam Yusuf Jamal won the women’s 1,500m race by the narrowest of margins at the ‘GE Galan’ indoor athletics meeting in Stockholm late Thursday night.
Maryam, running in her first race of the year, comfortably paced herself in the front alongside Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka and Russia’s Olesya Chumakova over the race’s opening three laps (1,200m).
But the 23-year-old Bahraini struck with one lap to go, when she dropped Chumakova and opened up a significant gap ahead of Burka.
The Ethiopian youngster however would not give up easily, and was able to cut the gap to about a half-metre from first. But Maryam proved to be too strong in the end, and she was able to stave off the late challenge and clinch the win in four minutes 04.30 seconds, just seven-hundredths of a second ahead of Burka.
Chumakova was also not far behind, finishing in 4:07.42 for third. In fourth and fifth place respectively were Britons Lisa Dobriskey (4:08.88) and Susan Scott (4:09.07), who each set a new personal best in the event.
Sonja Roman (4:11.42) of Slovakia, Helen Clitheroe (4:12.22) from the UK and Sandra Teixeira (4:14.72) of Portugal rounded up the top eight. Thirteen runners took part in the event, with only one not finishing.
The meeting was held as part of the International Association of Athletics Federations indoor season. It will Maryam’s only indoor event, according to her husband and coach Tareq Sabt, as she prepares to represent Bahrain in the World Indoor Championships in Valencia next month.
Scrutinizing the DNA of 938 people from 51 distinct populations around the world, geneticists have created a detailed map of how humans spread from their home base in sub-Saharan Africa to populate the farthest reaches of the globe over the past 100,000 years.
The pattern of genetic mutations, to be published today (Feb. 21, 2008) in the journal Science, offers striking evidence that an ancient band of explorers left what is now Ethiopia and — along with their descendants — went on to colonize North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, southern and central Asia, Australia and its surrounding islands, the Americas and East Asia.
A second analysis based on some of the same DNA samples corroborated the results. Those findings, published Thursday in the journal Nature, demonstrated that the greater the geographic distance between a population and its African ancestors, the more changes had accumulated in its genes.
The story of human migration revealed by DNA “compliments what’s known through history, linguistics or anthropology,” said Jun Li, the University of Michigan geneticist who led the Science study.
Both research groups relied on DNA from blood samples collected by anthropologists around the world as part of the Human Genome Diversity Project, a controversial effort from the mid-1990s to gather genetic specimens from thousands of populations, including many indigenous tribes.
In both studies, the researchers analyzed more than half a million single-letter changes among the approximately 3 billion As, Cs, Ts and Gs that make up the human genome. Those changes — called “single nucleotide polymorphisms,” or SNPs — begin as random mutations and accumulate over time as they are passed from one generation to the next.
Each time a small group left its home territory to found a new population, the migration ultimately led to a unique pattern of SNPs. Comparing those patterns, the researchers were able to show that humans spread around the globe through a series of migrations that originated from a single location near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
(AFP) – PARIS – Ethiopian Woyanne troops have escorted a group of 28 French tourists to safety following violence in the eastern Danakil region, the French foreign ministry said.
Ethiopian television had reported that rebels backed by the Eritrean government had crossed the border and attempted to kidnap the tourists on Wednesday.
But a French foreign ministry spokeswoman would only confirm that there had been an “incident”, adding: “Some vehicles received gunshots while the tourists remained at a distance.” [It seems that the kidnap attempt is staged by Woyanne.]
“These tourists were taken to a safe place by the Ethiopian Woyanne army,” said spokeswoman Pascale Andreani, adding that they would be taken to Mekele, the capital of Tigray province.
She added that two drivers from the tourist group remained missing and re-iterated that an advisory warning against travel to the region remained in force.
