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    Eritrea Releases Four Djiboutian Soldiers After Eight Years Imprisonment

   by Salem Solomon

   After nearly eight years in prison, four Djiboutian prisoners-of-war
   have been released by Eritrea.

   A total of 19 POWs were captured by Eritrea in June 2008 during a
   border skirmish, but some of them escaped prison in September 2011,
   said Djibouti's Ambassador to the U.S. and Permanent Representative to
   the United Nations Mohamed Siad Doualeh.  The others remain in
   detention.

   The release was negotiated by Qatar and the freed soldiers were flown
   back to their home country on March 18 on a Qatari Airways plane
   accompanied by Qatar's foreign minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman
   al-Thani.  Upon landing they knelt down to kiss the ground and were met
   by dignitaries as a military band played. Later they met with
   Djibouti's President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh.

   Ambassador Doualeh, told VOA that the prisoners had been held
   "incommunicado" over the years without the ability to communicate with
   their government or families.

   "Four Djiboutian families are today rejoicing," he said.  "They have
   not had any information about their whereabouts, the conditions or the
   health of their loved ones and today I think it's a moment of deep
   relief for them, for all Djiboutians in fact."

   Eritrea lauded the Qatari effort. "Eritrea has been saying from day one
   that it is committed to the Qatari mediation and the Qatari mediation
   has seven articles in it and one of them was Article 3 concerning
   missing persons and POWs," Ambassador Girma Asmerom, Eritrea's
   Permanent Representative to the U.N. told VOA.  "So we have been
   consistent in this issue that the only process is through the Qatari
   mediation."

   Doualeh said Djibouti holds 19 Eritrean POWs and 267 Eritrean military
   deserters who were handed over to the UNHCR in 2014.  He stressed that
   the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international
   organizations have regular access to the POWs.

   "They are there, they are safe and they are treated as humanely as you
   can imagine," he said.

   The U.N. Secretary General and U.S. State Department have applauded the
   release.  The U.S. expressed concern for the welfare of the remaining
   POWs.

   The dispute between the two Horn of Africa countries relates to the
   shared land border, rights to the Doumeira Islands in the Red Sea and
   the delineation of the maritime boundary.  Doualeh said he believes the
   boundaries should be based on 1900 and 1901 treaties between then
   colonial powers Italy and France.  Those treaties, he said, would give
   the contested islands to Djibouti.

   Fighting erupted in 2008 between armies from the two countries in a
   sandy outcropping known as Ras Doumeira.

   Doualeh  said he is cautiously optimistic that the prisoner release
   signals a step forward in relations between the two neighboring
   countries.

   "We are hoping and praying. We don't want to prejudge what the future
   has, but I think this signals a change," he said.  "What do you say in
   English `Once bitten [twice shy]?' In French we say, `chat échaudé
   craint l'eau froide.' We don't want to doom the peace process.  We want
   a final and lasting solution."

   Similarly, Asmerom said a cooperative relationship between the two
   nations is the only viable option.

   "There is no option B," he said.  "There will be peace and stability in
   the whole region and Eritrea's vision is there should be regional
   integration, there should be free movement of people, there should be
   free movement of goods, so Eritrea from day one has been committed to
   regional peace and stability."

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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/eritrea-releases-4-djiboutian-soldier
   s-after-eight-years-imprisonment/3246435.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/eritrea-releases-4-djiboutian-soldiers-after-eight-years-imprisonment/3246435.html