To protect its independence, Eritrea needs the newest Russian arms.
Photo: GAMMA
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Prepackaged War
// Eritrea is getting ready for another war
Yesterday, Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella arrived in Moscow with an official visit. He met with Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and visited the Ministry of Defense. But the most important meeting for the Eritrean guest was with Mikhail Dmitriev, head of Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation. According to Kommersant information, the parties agreed that the supply of Russian arms to Eritrea should be increased. The situation is paradoxical, because Eritrea is on the edge of war with Ethiopia – another client of the Russian arms trade.
Russian Contribution In The Armament of Eritrea
The Abdella’s official agenda for negotiations and consultations included such questions as “development of the world situation in the context of new challenges and global threats” and reinforcing political cooperation between the two countries and others. Opening the meeting with his Eritrean counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said about the existence of prospects of cooperation in “field of geological exploration, development of mineral resources, fisheries and construction industry.” About growing military-technical cooperation, both parties decided to keep silent. But in the meantime, the discussion of this specific cooperation was the main goal of the Eritrean minister’s visit.
&An agreement about military-technical cooperation between Russia and Eritrea was signed in 1995. In 1996, Russia exported four helicopters MI-24 and four MI-17. In 1998-99, Russia supplied Eritrea with five single-pilot MiG-29 SE and “two-seater” MiG-29 UBT (from the reserve of the Russian air force). In 1999, Eritrea also purchased in Russia four military transport helicopters MI-17 and 200 anti-aircraft shoulder missile (AASM) Igla. In May of 2000, because of embargo introduced by the Security Council of the United Nations for weapon sales to Ethiopia and Eritrea, which were at war at that moment, the Russian armament shipment was temporarily stopped. In May 2001, the sanctions were lifted and in the fall of 2002 Eritrea again received two MiG-29 SE from the MiG Company. Also, the agreement was signed about modernization and new supply of aircraft for the Eritrean air force between 2005-2008. Also there is unconfirmed information about shipment of from three to five helicopters MI-17I in Eritrea in 2004.
Yesterday the parties stated with satisfaction that the modernization program for aircrafts is going along well and also they agreed about modernizing two more fighters. Besides, a contract was signed about shipment to Eritrea of 80 anti-tank missile systems Kornet-E with a total amount of $165,000. From the Russian side this document was signed by executives of Tula Designer Bureau (Producers of Military Equipment).
Eritrea would like to receive the anti-tank systems as soon as possible because it hopes to use them to defend an attack of Ethiopian armored vehicles. The Ethiopian armor is now being gathered in the region Badme at the Eritrea-Ethiopian border. U.N. General Secretary Kofi Anan recently warned about the possibility of conflict escalation between the two neighbors after he received a worrisome report from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the region.
The War Between Ethiopia and Eritrea
The fierce war between Ethiopia and Eritrea that exploded in 1998 has came totally unexpected for the world community. One of the reasons for the surprise was the fact that two leaders of these countries --Ethiopian Meles Zenawi and Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki —are distant relatives. Both of them belong to the ethnic group Tigrai, which is a majority in Eritrea and a minority in Ethiopia. Both of them participated in the overthrowing in May 1991 the pro-Soviet regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam. Eritrea, which had been an Italian colony for 50 years, became a part of Ethiopia after Italy’s loss in World War II. But soon after the coup, Eritrea wanted to separate. Addis-Ababa could not prevent that so Ethiopia became the first country to recognize in May1993 the Eritrean independence. And the Eritrean president said at that time soon the two brother countries should think about reunification in the frame of union or confederation.
But then, the conflict started growing between the neighbors. It started from economical questions. The relationship became especially heated after Eritrea in 1997 introduced its own currency (nakfa). Ethiopia in response demanded to use hard currency for all trade deals. Then Eritrea shut access to the sea for Ethiopia. In the meantime, large parts of the Ethiopian-Eritrea borders were not marked and soon enough the conflict ignited because of territorial argument for border region Badme (400 square kilometers).
One version of the events says that on May 6, 1998, a delegation of Eritrean officers arrived for negotiations with Ethiopian counterparts in Badme. Suddenly, a fight started, which ended in shooting. Four Eritreans were killed and on May 12 the Eritrean army occupied Badme. Right away both sides started bloody battles using aviation and heavy artillery. But all the Ethiopian tries to get back the disputed territory were in vain.
The loss of the Ethiopian troops in the first stage of war was explained not only by the strength of the Eritrean army but mostly by the fact that Ethiopia was caught off guard. In a prolonged war, little Eritrea (4.3 million people) did not have any chances to defeat Ethiopia, which has 66 million people. In February 1999, the Ethiopian troops counterattacked and got back Badme. And then, as a result of large new-scale attacks in May 2000, Ethiopian seized a strategically important road leading to the Eritrean capital, Asmara. When Eritrea started to face the threat of full defeat, the world community decided to get involved. In June 2000, in Algiers, the parties signed a cease-fire agreement. And in June 2001, they signed a peace treaty which created buffer zone 25 kilometers wide and entrance of the U.N. peacekeeping forces.
Russian Contribution into Ethiopian Armament
According to the agreement of 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea decided to create a joint commission to mark the borders. Asmara was satisfied with its result because the commission decided to give the region Badme to Eritrea. Ethiopia for a long time refused to recognize the conclusions of the commission, but in November of last year, the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi gave a sensational speech. He said that Ethiopia still considers the commission’s decision
”unlawful and unjust.” But for the purpose of the improvement of relationship with the world community his country will obey. But the Ethiopian leader put one condition: before official recognition of new borders by Ethiopia, Addis-Ababa wants to have negotiations with Asmara. Eritrea, in the meantime, categorically refused from any negotiations and demanded from Ethiopia a complete recognition of the commission’s decision.
As a response, already in December of last year, Ethiopia started to bring troops to the border, gathering there 48,000 soldiers. In March, the leaders of the U.N. peacekeeping mission reported to Kofi Anan about alarming activities in the regions with alarming Ethiopian troops concentration. The U.N. mission warned that the open conflict at any moment. Soon after, Kofi Anan distributed the report where he criticized the Ethiopian military preparations as well as Asmara’s refusal for dialogue. Russia joined the international efforts to stop the conflict, at least by words. “We are sincerely interested in the soonest settling of conflicts on the African continent, including conflicts between Eritrea and Ethiopia,” said Lavrov yesterday. However, the statement sounded ambiguous: Supporting the peace in Africa, Russia supplies weapons to both Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The Russian federation is the main supplier of arms for Ethiopia. Since Soviet times, Addis-Ababa has had a lot of military hardware that is still being serviced by Russian specialists. In the end of the 1990s, Ethiopia purchased from Moscow 12 SU-27 (from the air force reserve), 10 self-propelled 152 millimeter artillery systems 2S5. During the war with Eritrea, Ethiopian SU-27s proved themselves better than the lighter MiGs. One Eritrean MiG-29 SE was even shot down. Also, according to certain sources, there were Russian mercenaries fighting in the Ethiopian air force. And on the Eritrean side, there were pilots from another CIS country, most likely Ukraine. In 2002, Ethiopia “defrosted” a contract signed with Russia in 1999 for a total amount of $200 million. Rosoboronexport, shipped seven SU-27 worth a total of $100 million and Rostvertol supplied several military transport helicopters MI-35 for $25 million. In 2003, Rosvertol achieved another agreement with Ethiopia for 10 more MI-35s. In January of this year, Seyum Mesfin, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, visited Moscow with the goal of negotiating a new shipment of SU-27s.
Most likely, Moscow is really interested in keeping the region out of war. Otherwise, the U.N. will impose sanctions on the arms trade again and Russia will never get the money she’s hoping for.
Leonid Gankin, Konstantin Lantratov.
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 15, 2005
|
|
|
