Ethiopian & Eritrean dictators are using the kidnapped tourists as pretext for war rather than letting the hostage go free

The two horn of African dictators have been in war since 1998. They have transformed the proxy war into hostage taking and killing of Innocent civilian and continue accusing one another and continue taking their case to the UN to prove legitimacy to their in human actions. Both countries have been hell for their respective inhabitants. Many are leaving their countries are in hundred thousand every month. Both are enemy grounds to any kind of free journalism. Both continually imprisoned their oppositions without any human considerations. Both act like they are in the struggle files since they came in power in early 1990’s. Both never are able to create a stable state institution rather they are destroying the ones they received from the previous rulers.

 An Ethiopian rebel group said the country’s government is blocking the release of two German hostages the fighters are holding. Communications  of the Ethiopian dictatorial regime the Eritrean Bereket Simon denied the allegation.

The two Germans and two Ethiopians were abducted during a Jan. 17 attack on a group of tourists on the edge of Erta Ale volcano in the northeastern region of Afar that killed two Germans, two Hungarians and an Austrian.

“Bianca Irmer and Jurgen Quick are in our custody and safe and we are more than ready to set them free,” the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, or Arduf, said in an e- mailed statement today. “Ethiopian authorities in the Afar region are out to render these efforts null and void in order to get a plausible pretext to unleash a war on neighboring Eritrea.”

Arduf is backed by Eritrea and the rebel group is responsible for the hostages’ fate, Bereket  accused the dictator of his homeland Eritrea in a phone interview today from Addis Ababa, the capital.

“These are the terrorists who attacked the tourists and now they are pretending they have an iota of humanity,” he said. “It is a far-fetched and pretentious accusation.”

Ethiopia’s government has accused Eritrea of being behind the kidnappings and killings of the tourists. The hostages were taken after a gun battle between the Ethiopian army and Arduf in which 16 Ethiopian soldiers died, the group said.

“We have no contact with the Eritrean government but we know for sure they have to take responsibility to ensure their release otherwise they will face the consequences,” Bereket  menacing   the leaders of his home Eritrea . It is hard to believe who is who the Eritrean leaders most of them  have Ethiopians  blood while the Ethiopians in power are  hybrid  of Eritrea.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 that killed 70,000 people, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. The border dispute that caused the war has not been resolved and troops from both sides are still a heavy presence on parts of the divide.

Related articles

• Five European tourists killed in dispute in Ethiopia (ethioandinet.wordpress.com)
• Ethiopia official says foreign tourists killed in attack (foxnews.com)
• ‘Five tourists dead’ in Ethiopia (bbc.co.uk)
• Tourists from five nations victims in deadly attack in Ethiopia (theglobeandmail.com)
• Gunmen Kill Foreign Tourists In Ethiopia (news.sky.com)

© 2012, Prof. Muse Tegegne. All rights reserved. info@ethiopianism.net