Sir, - John Weakliam writing from Asmara about Irish aid to Ethiopia (July 18th) has done some careful editing of recent Eritrean history. In 1991, the Ethiopian movement that replaced the military regime and which was an ally of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), abandoned conscription, reduced the Ethiopian army by 80 per cent and slashed defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP. The EPLF on the other hand stepped up conscription, boosted defence spending to 40 per cent of GDP, and between 1994 and 1998 went to war with four of its neighbours - Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen and, on May 6th 1998, Ethiopia.
When Eritrea sent three mechanised divisions to seize Ethiopian territory and displace more than 300,000 people from their homes, its army was three times the size of Ethiopia's. Its leaders boasted that Eritreans were innately superior to Ethiopians ("one cat can kill 50 mice"), that they would be in Addis Ababa within a couple of weeks and that they would change the government. For two years, the EPLF refused to accept the OAU peace plan which urged them to withdraw to pre-May 6th positions and have only accepted it now after defeat on the battlefield has forced them back to and beyond those positions.
The EPLF (which has held no elections of any kind since coming to power in 1991) has by its unrealistic pursuit of regional hegemony provoked an arms race in the Horn, diverted attention away from development and denied the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia the peace dividend they so badly need and deserve.
The Irish Government has been right to support Ethiopia's development efforts and to recognise the threat to all the peoples of the Horn posed by a militaristic and undemocratic regime. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Hickey, Village Ethiopia PO Box 15151 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.