AGL 40.21 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (0.45%)
AIRLINK 127.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.05%)
BOP 6.67 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.91%)
CNERGY 4.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-3.26%)
DCL 8.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.68%)
DFML 41.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.01%)
DGKC 86.11 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (0.37%)
FCCL 32.56 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (0.22%)
FFBL 64.38 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (0.55%)
FFL 11.61 Increased By ▲ 1.06 (10.05%)
HUBC 112.46 Increased By ▲ 1.69 (1.53%)
HUMNL 14.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-1.73%)
KEL 5.04 Increased By ▲ 0.16 (3.28%)
KOSM 7.36 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.21%)
MLCF 40.33 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.47%)
NBP 61.08 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.05%)
OGDC 194.18 Decreased By ▼ -0.69 (-0.35%)
PAEL 26.91 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-2.18%)
PIBTL 7.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.53 (-6.79%)
PPL 152.68 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.1%)
PRL 26.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.36 (-1.35%)
PTC 16.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.74%)
SEARL 85.70 Increased By ▲ 1.56 (1.85%)
TELE 7.67 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.64%)
TOMCL 36.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.13 (-0.36%)
TPLP 8.79 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (1.5%)
TREET 16.84 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-4.64%)
TRG 62.74 Increased By ▲ 4.12 (7.03%)
UNITY 28.20 Increased By ▲ 1.34 (4.99%)
WTL 1.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-2.9%)
BR100 10,086 Increased By 85.5 (0.85%)
BR30 31,170 Increased By 168.1 (0.54%)
KSE100 94,764 Increased By 571.8 (0.61%)
KSE30 29,410 Increased By 209 (0.72%)

At the end of a rutted road winding past acacia trees on the hills and plains of Eritrea's tense border with Ethiopia lies Korokon Camp.
Many who live here fled from Badme - the flashpoint town whose name has become synonymous with the devastating 1998-2000 Eritrea-Ethiopia war that killed 70,000 people.
All they want now is to go home.
But they say Ethiopia's occupation of Badme despite a ruling that it belongs to Eritrea - combined with the international community's inaction - is preventing them from getting there.
"The world is totally against us," said Gerekidan Gide, a 73-year-old grandfather sitting in the shade of a hut.
"None of them are helping us, even though the court said Badme is for us, for Eritrea," he said, recalling the 22 cattle, 25 goats, and six donkeys lost while escaping the fighting.
At the end of a war viewed by the outside world as a largely futile but devastatingly costly conflict, the two Horn of Africa neighbours agreed to allow an independent commission give them a "final and binding" ruling on the border.
The commission ruled that Badme - a small, dusty town inhabited by nationals from both countries before the war - was part of Eritrea.
But Ethiopia refused to demarcate the border, calling for further dialogue because of the surprise decision to give Badme to Eritrea.
Despite the presence of a large UN border monitoring force, the international community has done little to enforce Ethiopian compliance with the 2002 ruling.
As many as 300,000 out of Eritrea's 3.6 million population are serving in the military. Diplomats estimate that 25 percent of gross domestic product is spent on the military.
Many, if not most, Eritreans link the stagnating economy with border tensions and their perceptions of the international community's bias towards Ethiopia, the regional power.

Copyright Reuters, 2005

Comments

Comments are closed.