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WASHINGTON (Islam Online)- During a recent visit to Washington and despite an impasse in cease-fire talks between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Eritrean President Issaias Afwerki, said he would allow its Red Sea ports to be used to transport international food aid to land-locked Ethiopia, where drought threatens as many as 12 million people with famine. Discussing with State Department officials, President Issaias Afwerki criticized the Clinton administration for failing to win Ethiopia's agreement to implement a formal cease-fire in a border conflict that started 23 months ago. “The whole process needs to be managed better,” he said. President Clinton's special envoy, former national security adviser Anthony Lake, has shuttled between the East African nations to mediate the dispute, but Issaias said that "six months of efforts have failed to produce anything." He accused Ethiopia of using the implementation talks as an excuse for delaying the entire cease-fire agreement. The cease-fire is supposed to be followed by redeployment of troops from occupied regions and the arrival of an international team to demarcate disputed sections of the 620-mile border. The areas under dispute were quiet for most of last year after major battles in May-June 1998 and February-March 1999 that left thousands dead. Talks in Algiers sponsored by the Organization of African Unity were postponed last month. Each side accuses the other of starting the conflict. Fighting erupted in May 1998 when Eritrean soldiers moved into a desolate area known as the Plains of Badme. Eritrea says it was provoked by Ethiopia, but Issaias during his visit to Washington said the war is “absurd,” adding “There is no reason to use resources when millions of people are threatened by famine. Even without that threat, there is no reason to spend money on this war.” Hundreds of thousands of troops are still massed along the border, and both of the developing countries have spent heavily on defense in recent years. Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after a lengthy civil war. Issaias, while in Washington, met with Eritrean Americans at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, and said Eritreans living in the U.S. send $100 million to $150 million a year to Eritrea in the form of gifts to their families and purchases of government bonds.
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