Dear Netters:
It appears that I have been duped by the Eritrean government's propaganda machine. On September 3, the AFP wrote a story in which Eritrea alleged that Ethiopia was dumping Eritreans on the Kenya and Djibouti borders

Well, I was foolish enough to believe this allegation, and I crticized the Ethiopian government by saying: "The Ethiopian government embarrasses itself when it does such petty things. It is not the job of Kenya or Djibouti to handle Eritrean deportees."

However, it now turns out that the Eritreans were in fact not deported from Ethiopia. That was a lie put out by the Eritrean government. According to later Reuters and AFP reports, the Eritreans had left Ethiopia of their own free will.

When confronted, the Eritrean spokesman in Nairobi backtracked somewhat but tried to cover his lie by saying: ``It is still technically a deportation as they were told they could never enter Ethiopia again." Stranded Eritreans fly home from Kenya (Reuters, Sept. 3, 1998)

As for the new allegations about being told never to return, I am not willing to be duped again. The Eritreans are clearly going full steam to maximize use of the deportations issue as a propaganda tool. The Ethiopian government needs to respond much faster to the Eritrean allegations, otherwise Eritrea will be able to get a one-day free grace period where its propoganda is unchallenged.

For example, the AFP reported that Ethiopian officials had no comment to the Eritrean allegations on September 3.

If possible, the facts need to be ascertained quickly and accurately, and provided to the news agencies the same day.

-Dagmawi