Ethio-Sudan plot in Eritrea bomb blast
24 June 2004
Asmara, Eritrea – EriTv paraded captured suspects to
corroborate Ethio-Sudan collaboration in last month’s bomb blast that killed 8
people and wounded 88 others in western Eritrea. The suspects admitted to
carrying out the bomb blast and pointed out Ethio-Sudan collaboration in the
murderous act.
A young Eritrean man has confessed on state
television here to carrying out last month's bomb attack in western Eritrea
which killed five people, and said radicals based in Sudan had planned the
operation.
The man, whose confession was shown on EriTv late on
Tuesday, was identified as Segid Mohamed Kelifa Mentay Ali, born in 1983 in
Sudan.
Several sources said Ali was arrested shortly after
the May 25 bombing in Barentu, which wounded nearly 90 people and was blamed
from early on in Asmara on radical groups based in Sudan.
The state television said his brother, identified by
his nickname Jama'y, had also been arrested.
Ali was shown on television describing the planning
of the attack and, using props, demonstrating how he made the bomb.
Ali said the blast was ordered and planned by the
Sudan-based "jihad" -- holy war, in Arabic -- but did not specify
whether he was referring to the Eritrean Islamic Jihad, an armed opposition
group.
Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed told AFP early
in June that the attackers had the support of the Tigre People's Liberation
Front, the majority party in Ethiopia's ruling coalition.
Eritrea, which fought a bloody two-year border war
with Ethiopia from May 1998, has accused the governments in Addis Ababa and
Sudan of forming an "axis of belligerence" together with Yemen.
Ali also confessed to staging several other
explosions in the western region, including a bombing on January 20 which
targeted the camp of the UN mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea. He said
"Abrahaley, an Ethiopian security agent" had ordered that attack.
Ali's brother Jama'y was badly burned at Tesseney,
near the Sudanese border in the west, on May 24 when an explosive charge he was
carrying blew.
He also was shown on television Tuesday, with part
of his body visibly burnt and his face hidden by bandatges.
EriTv was late on Wednesday to air the second part
of the report on the Barentu bombing, which came as locals were celebrating
Eritrea's Independence Day. AFP
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