From PANA Eritrea Blames Ethiopia For Fresh Border Fighting May 12, 2000 DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - Eritrea has accused Ethiopia of launching an "offensive" on the right and left flanks of the Mereb-Setit front at their common border Friday. In a statement, the foreign ministry in Asmara said, "the attack began shortly after midnight 12 May." It said the attack followed remarks by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi this week to diplomats in Addis Ababa and the visiting UN Security Council mission that Ethiopia is "going to war and it will resolve the conflict soon." It said, "in preparation for its impending war of aggression," Ethiopia obstructed the OAU peace process for the past nine months and made progress impossible at the proximity talks in Algiers by refusing to respect key provisions of the peace plan. Meanwhile, Ethiopia's spokesperson, Selome Tadesse, Friday confirmed in Addis Ababa that "heavy fighting is taking place at both the Zalambessa-Egala front and the front in the vicinity of the Mereb River." She said since the conflict started, Addis Ababa had been forced to fight a war which was "imposed on us." Selome blamed Asmara for prolonging the conflict that should have ended earlier had Eritrea accepted an OAU peace plan. The Zalambessa-Egala front is in the middle of the Ethio-Eritrea border, while the area referred to as the second front in the vicinity of the Mereb River is the area adjacent to Badme front. Badme is the front where Ethiopia said the conflict originally flared on 12 May 1998. This site is part of AFRICA NEWS ONLINE. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------