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Photo: IRIN

Dr Solomon Inquai

MEKELE, 22 April 2002 (IRIN) - Ethiopia should call on the independent Boundary Commission to clarify whether the controversial village of Badme lies in its territory, a senior Ethiopian politician said on Sunday. Dr Solomon Inquai, speaker of the parliament of Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, said the crucial ruling on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea had confused villagers in the region, which borders Eritrea. Both Ethiopia and Eritrea claim that Badme – a tiny village where the bloody two year border war flared up in May 1998 – now lies in their territory. “I think the Boundary Commission could have made it clearer,” Solomon told journalists in the regional capital, Mekele. “It could have laid things to rest but, as it is, it has left things in suspension and people don’t know exactly what is the line on a piece of paper.” Dr Solomon is a leading member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that dominates the ruling coalition government in Ethiopia. But, he added, he had "no doubt" where Badme belongs. "If having administered the areas all the time is taken into consideration, Badme will be in Ethiopia," he said. “It has never been administered by Eritrea, so there wouldn’t be any problem." Dr Solomon, a former academic at Addis Ababa University, said he was not speaking on behalf of the government, rather giving his personal opinion. Both governments have 30 days to ask for any clarifications on where certain key areas are now located. Eritrea's deputy ambassador to Kenya, Teweldemedhin Tesfamariam, told IRIN that the "border ruling is there for everyone to read, and it is final and binding". "The Ethiopian government has accepted it, if its words are to be believed," he said. "Dwelling on who used to administer Badme at this point is an exercise for small minds," Teweldemedhin added. "The real issue is which side of the line Badme lies, and Dr Solomon needn't worry about it - the border markers will do it for him." Badme is symbolically important to both countries because that is where the war started. Solomon said it would take a long time before ties between the two governments became normal, although he believed relations between the two peoples would mend faster. He said some small cross-border trade was taking place, with Ethiopians selling sugar for plastic. But he added that if any Eritreans came back they would not have the same status they held before the two-year border war. “The Ethiopian government accorded to them the same status as an Ethiopian citizen until this unhappy incident came,” he said. But now, he added, they would be treated as all foreign citizens, and would need a passport, visas and work permits to live and work in Ethiopia. “They should not look for a privilege, because those days are over,” he said.