By Moyiga Nduru
NAIROBI-KHARTOUM, Jun 9 1998 (IPS)

The border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea has spawned outpourings of patriotic fervour not only within the two countries but also among Ethiopians and Eritreans forced to live abroad by political or armed conflict at home.

This week, Ethiopian exiles in the Kenyan capital forgot their differences with their country’s rulers, pledging to support them, while Eritreans based in Sudan began raising funds for the war effort back home.

The four-week-old conflict between the two countries had calmed down over the weekend, but resumed in earnest this week near the town of Zalambessa. Each government blamed the other for the fighting around the town, captured last week by the Eritreans.

As heads of government of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from Monday to Wednesday, added the dispute to the list of conflicts that need the attention of its mediators, nationals of the two countries prepared to contribute to the war effort.

In Nairobi, images on TV and in newspapers of Ethiopians screaming and weeping over the bodies of relatives killed in a Jun. 5 bombing raid by Eritrean bombers, helped to galvanise support for Prime Minister Meles Zenawi from exiled Ethiopians. About 50 people reportedly died in the raid which was staged against Mekele, capital of the north Ethiopian province of Tigray.

“It’s a scene we cannot take anymore,” said journalist Sintayehu Birro. “We must support Meles to defeat the Eritrean aggression.”

Biro, former publisher and editor-in-chief of a weekly, fled Ethiopia in June 1997 after he escaped a second detention without trial because of reports he published on alleged human rights violations there. “I am prepared to return home and defend my country,” he told IPS in Nairobi. “Some of the Ethiopians in the diaspora say they are willing to come home should their service be required by the Ethiopian government,” he added.

Thousands of Ethiopians were resettled in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia during their country’s 30-year civil war that ended in 1991. Others — mainly supporters of former Marxist leader Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam — fled after Zenawi’s government took over that year.

“Our Ethiopian compatriots in the diaspora call us every day to express their disgust about Eritrea’s aggression,” said Fekadu Ibrahim, a former army officer of the Mengistu regime, toppled by Zenawi’s rebels in 1991.

In the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Eritrean refugees decided at the weekend to collect money to support the government of President Issaias Afewerki against the “Ethiopian aggression”, Maria Haile, an Eritrean refugee, told IPS. Since then, contributions have been pouring in, she said.

The confrontation with Ethiopia has buried the differences between Eritrean political forces, Haile explained. She claimed that the dispute was not about borders but another attempt by Ethiopia “to annexe our country”.

Part of present-day Eritrea used to belong to the Ethiopian empire until 1889, when Italy colonised the area.

Italian rule was followed in 1941-1952 by British military administration, and later by a federation between Eritrea and Ethiopia. However, then Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie gradually reduced Eritrea’s autonomy, sparking a guerrilla war that began in 1961, one year before he reduced Eritrea to an Ethiopian province.

The war ended in 1991 with Eritrea’s liberation while formal independence from Ethiopia followed in 1993. Since then, relations between the two neighbours appeared smooth until the conflict erupted on May 13, when each side accused the other of occt

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