[Pol.ethiopia] Number of war dead soldiers reportedly 123,000

Tue, 10 Apr 2001 15:10:30 EDT

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Ethiopia: Number of war dead soldiers reportedly 123,000 

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 10, 2001 

After the ghastly war between Ethiopia and Eritrea stopped 
following the agreement signed by the leaders of the two countries 
in Algiers, the EPRDF [Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Front, 
ruling coalition] government has begun announcing names of the 
dead soldiers to their families... Apart from condoling the families 
of the dead soldiers, the first phase announcement letters, which 
are signed by the head of the ground forces personnel department, 
Lt-Col Akalu Kebede, do not mention any future benefits for the families. We 
reported last week that the families will only get 3,000 
birr each and pensions. Although most of the soldiers died in the 
last one or two years, their families have been receiving remittances 
on a pretext that the soldiers were alive. In principle, a soldier's 
remittances are supposed to continue only for six months after he 
died. Insiders say that the payments were made in a bid to conceal 
the deaths. Meanwhile, several families have been able to know the fate of 
their children since the announcements began. 

In its broadcast last Sunday [8 April], the Voice of the Democratic 
Path of Ethiopian Unity reported that the number of dead soldiers 
had reached 123,000. This number indicates how heavy, ghastly 
and horrifying the war was. 

Source: BBC Monitoring of  Wonchif, Addis Ababa, in Amharic 
10 Apr 01 

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<HTML>Ethiopia: Number of war dead soldiers reportedly 123,000 
 
 BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Apr 10, 2001 
 
 After the ghastly war between Ethiopia and Eritrea stopped 
 following the agreement signed by the leaders of the two countries 
 in Algiers, the EPRDF [Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Front, 
 ruling coalition] government has begun announcing names of the 
 dead soldiers to their families... Apart from condoling the families 
 of the dead soldiers, the first phase announcement letters, which 
 are signed by the head of the ground forces personnel department, 
 Lt-Col Akalu Kebede, do not mention any future benefits for the families. We 
 reported last week that the families will only get 3,000 
 birr each and pensions. Although most of the soldiers died in the 
 last one or two years, their families have been receiving remittances 
 on a pretext that the soldiers were alive. In principle, a soldier's 
 remittances are supposed to continue only for six months after he 
 died. Insiders say that the payments were made in a bid to conceal 
 the deaths. Meanwhile, several families have been able to know the fate of 
 their children since the announcements began. 
 
 In its broadcast last Sunday [8 April], the Voice of the Democratic 
 Path of Ethiopian Unity reported that the number of dead soldiers 
 had reached 123,000. This number indicates how heavy, ghastly 
 and horrifying the war was. 
 
 Source: BBC Monitoring of &nbsp;Wonchif, Addis Ababa, in Amharic 
 10 Apr 01 
 
 </HTML>

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