19 Aug 2009
Eritrea will have to pay millions of dollars in compensation for war damages to Ethiopia, an international tribunal in The Hague has ruled.

According to the verdict, both countries were ordered to pay each other damages for the 1998-2000 border war, but in total, Eritrea will have to pay $10 million more to its archrival.

The ruling covers compensation for death, injury, rape, looting, businesses and goods lost and villages destroyed during the bitter two-year conflict.

Eritrea has already said it accepts the ruling of the tribunal.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry said it was pleased that the five-member Claims Commission had blamed Eritrea for starting 'this sad saga', but added that the difference in compensation was small, 'given the gravity of the crime'.

The Claims Commission, which was set up at the end of the war, awarded Ethiopia $174 million in total, while Eritrea got $164 million.

It however ruled out some claims, such as Ethiopian demands for $1 billion of environmental damage.

None of the two countries has the requested amount to pay to the other, their being among the poorest nations on earth.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but the two countries' border was never demarcated and tens of thousands of troops remain entrenched along the border, over its bleak mountains and deserts.
presstv