French Ambassador to Eritrea says Ethiomedia report "misquoted him"
February 10, 2004
AMBASSADE DE FRANCE EN
ERYTHREE
EMBASSY OF FRANCE
TO
ERITREA
PARIS, le 10th February 2004
* Pièce 175 -23, rue La Pérouse
75775 PARIS Cedex 16
* 01.43.17.70.78/73.92 - fax 01.43.17.78.68
Sir,
* Pièce 175 -23, rue La Pérouse
75775 PARIS Cedex 16
* 01.43.17.70.78/73.92 - fax 01.43.17.78.68
I would like to draw your attention on the report you recently
published
on your website of the meeting on the Horn of Africa which took place
in Paris
on the 2d of February.
I strongly regret that this report grossly misquoted me by saying
that "the EPRDF ambassador 'was supported by none other than the French
ambassador
to Asmara' who boldly stated that the disaster that Eritrea is facing
now is
mainly a consequence of the political and economic policies of Issaias
Afeworki."
First, this report omits to say that, in the first part of my
declaration
in which I dealt with the question of the border between Eritrea and
Ethiopia,
I stressed the legality of the arbitration decision about the border
and the
obligation for Ethiopia to respect this decision. This should have been
mentioned by your contributor. It doesn’ t mean exactly supporting the
position expressed on this subject by the Ethiopian ambassador who
stressed on
the request of her government for amendments to this decision.
Second, I never said that the present difficulties (I never used
the word
"disaster") Eritrean economy is facing are "the consequence of the
political and economic policies" of the President of Eritrea. This a
totaly
biased and superficial summary of what I declared by saying that the
economy
of Eritrea had certainly suffered a lot from the war but that it was
also
disturbed by dicrepancies in the economic policy of the government, and
particularly the lack of space given to the private sector.
Therefore, and to make your report complete, I would be very
grateful to
you to kindly publish this comment or make the necessary rectifications
on
your web site.
In any case, my declaration will shortly be made available in the
summary
of the meeting to be soon published.
Best
regards
Gerard Sambrana,
Warmest regards,
Ambassador of France to Eritrea
Dear Ambassador Sambrana:
Ethiomedia.com highly regrets that our report on the Horn of Africa meeting in Paris has been misleading. And thank you for helping us put the facts back on track.
Abraha Belai
Chief Editor
www.ethiomedia.com .
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