Arch-rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea both claimed wrongdoing by the other was shown up Wednesday when an international panel formed to resolve disputes between them said Eritrea violated international law when it invaded the north of Ethiopia in May 1998.
"Given the absence of an armed conflict attack against Eritrea, the attack that began on May 12 cannot be justified as lawful self-defence under the UN Charter," the Eritrea Ethiopia Claims Commission (EECC) ruled. The commission, a part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, also said Eritrea was liable to pay an as-yet undetermined amount of reparation of the damages caused as a result, but it also placed responsibility in Ethiopian hands.
The May 1998 attack by Eritrea sparked a bloody border war between the two Horn of Africa neighbours that lasted four years and left some 80,000 people dead.
Amid growing fears of a new border conflict and anger over Eritrea's expulsion of North American and European peacekeepers with the UN mission that monitors the frontier, Ethiopia said Wednesday that the commission's main ruling proved Eritrean perfidy.
"These awards are of monumental significance in exposing Eritrea as the aggressor and the belligerent nature of the regime in the current impasse in the peace process," Ethiopia's foreign ministry said.
Eritrea had argued the attack on Badme - which remains at the center of the tensions because Addis Ababa has rejected a binding 2002 border demarcation that awards it to Asmara - was self defence, since the town and others in the remote region are inside its territory according to disputed colonial-era maps.
The commission rejected that argument and also held Eritrea liable for damages caused by unlawful killings of civilians, looting and property destruction in the border region during the conflict.
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