Eritrea: Pride, anger, and memories of war for port Massawa

Reportage

MASSAWA, Eritrea, Feb 17 - Mohamed Idris and Ibrahim Mohamed wheel through the humid backstreets of Eritrea's Red Sea port town of Massawa, past buildings still scarred by the shooting and shelling of battle.

The two men were shot respectively in Eritrea's 30-year fight for national independence and the subsequent 1998-2000 border war, and have been in wheelchairs ever since.

The veterans have travelled to Massawa, a town spread out across the mainland and two islands, for the bittersweet commemoration of Operation Fenkel -- the 1990 liberation of the port during the independence war.

"We feel happy and very proud," said Mohamed, 28.

"On the other hand, we feel sad because many people died," added Idris, 33.

Massawa endured two key battles during the independence war which began in the 1960s when Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa's top military power and famine house.

An Eritrean attempt in 1977 to recapture the sweltering city, where amputees now swap stories in cafes, was beaten back by Ethiopians, armed by the Soviet Union. A second attempt in 1990 was more successful, as Ethiopian morale crumbled and the Soviet Union began to collapse.

Ezedin Hussein, 23, a microbiologist, says his father -- then an Eritrean rebel -- brought Ezedin and his seven brothers and sisters back to Massawa just before the liberation.

Hussein, who was seven at the time, recalled living in a hole and going for two days without food during the bombing.

"Kids splattered, disintegrated. It's a horror story," he said, displaying shrapnel scars. And he remembered the end.

"My father came in his uniform, and kissed my mother. Then we knew we were free," he said.

LEGACY OF WAR

Eritreans have enormous pride in their successful fight for independence despite U.S., then Soviet, support for Ethiopia. They also nourish a deep suspicion of the international community.

"It's hard to think of another African country that was interfered with by foreign powers quite so thoroughly, and so disastrously, as Eritrea," writes author Michela Wrong in a recent book, making her case by also citing colonial intervention and disregard for Eritrean aspirations.

Eritrean distrust has intensified since the end of the latest war -- it blames world powers for not enforcing Ethiopian compliance with a ruling by an independent boundary commission on the disputed frontier between the two countries.

The ruling was called for in a 2000 peace deal but when the commission decided in favour of Eritrea, Ethiopia balked. It now says it wants more talks while Eritrea rejects any diplomatic efforts that do not proceed to the enforcement of the ruling.

Some fear a renewed war as Eritrea, which is tiny but highly militarised, has grown angrier.

As the border standoff continues, Eritrea has also ratcheted up the pressure on aid workers and United Nations peacekeepers with a series of restrictions and expulsions.

This week, the United Nations said 13 Eritreans employed by its peacekeeping mission had been detained and another 30 were in hiding for fear of being arrested -- a further blow to strained relations between the Red Sea state and the world body.

SELF-RELIANCE

International disappointments have also created a deep sense of self-reliance in Eritrea where people take pride in the fact that they have rebuilt their country, virtually from scratch.

Visitors can now take a swift new road to Massawa, starting above the cloud line and twisting agonisingly down through the lush and wooded slopes of Filfil.

The port of Massawa has been rebuilt, but still only receives around 400 ships per year. Port staff, some missing fingers or arms, take visitors on tours of the harbour.

"Eventually, what I see is that this (existing) commercial port will end up being a passenger terminal," said the port's general manager, Afwerki Tesfazion.

But away from the impressive infrastructure projects, life is not easy. The economy has been virtually stagnant since the World War One style trench warfare of 1998-2000.

In the Massawa district of Ammetere, where a barefoot girl chases a chicken past huts of wood and rusty metal, two men pull water from a well while a skinny donkey drinks.

"Life has not changed much in Ammetere," said one man. "People still struggle to survive."

Article contains material from Reuters: FEATURE-Pride, anger and memories of war in Eritrean port, 17 Feb 2006