Ethiopia calls up young, old, women to fight Invaders’

Press, 22 August 1977, Page 9

Ethiopia calls up young, old, women to fight Invaders’

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi Ethiopia. fighting fiercely on two fronts to keep its borders intact, prepared to embark yesterday on the national mobilisation ordered by the Head of State (Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam >.

Colonel Mengistu has already raised a 100.000-strong ■■people's army” to augment his 60.000-member armed forces and, in a radio broad- ■ ast on Saturday night, he called on “men, women, youths, and the old” to' help! in what he termed the country's life and death struggle against invaders. He alleged that regular, Somali soldiers aided by I troops from Iraq and Syria' had invaded the barren, wastes of the Ogaden De«ert‘ to the south-east and said heavy fighting was also; going on against secessionist movements in Eritrea province on the Red Sea. Details of the mobilisation would be disclosed “urgently i and regularly,” the Marxist military leadei promised in his emotional 30-minute' broadcast. After a month of fighting in which Ethiopian forces have been pushed out of the Oeaden region, Colonel Mengistu said that the industrial town of Dire Dawa, only, about 300 km east of Addis I Ababa on the country's main] rail link through Djibouti to' the Gulf of Aden, had come under tank and artillery fire. ] He also admitted for the; first time that Ethiopian forces had lost control ofi the towns of Nakfa, Karora, and Keren in Eritrea. “We have conclusive proof that both war-fronts, that is' io say the eastern and

northern war-fronts, as well ' as the political offensive, are being co-ordinated from one central command, headquarters,” he said. “At this very hour our . regulai and militia forces ■ are engaged in a life-or-death struggle for their revolution and unity in the vicinities of Dire Dawa. ■ Harar, and Jijiga to repulse ■’the war of invasion being 'carried out by the soldiers iof Mogadishu (Somalia) supported by tanks, artillerv, and aircraft," he said. ; "Men, women, youths, and the old. rise up everywhere with whatever you have. It l is indeed a great honour to die while fighting in liberty , rather than to live in slavery. subdued and defeated. ‘Prepare your war provi-l ■ sions. Get armed. Onward toi the front. “Revolutionary Ethiopia I or death.” Colonel Mengistu did not; ; name the headquarters, but; he said the armed forces ofi Somalia. Iraq, and Syria, i which he alleged had in-! vaded Ethiopia through the! Ogaden under the cloak of, | the so-called Western So-! malia Liberation Front,! would declare a government! I inside Ethiopia which would I seek union with Somalia. He said “invading forces”; in Eritrea would declare a! similar government which he; said would rapidly become a; member of the Arab League Ethiopia, w'hich is pre-,

i dominantly Christian, conjquered the Ogaden in the 1890 s, but its nomadic population remains Moslem and [Somali in race and language. ;As a result, Somalia regards the region as a lost and ocI cupied territory, but insists that W.S.L.F. guerrillas are [doing all the fighting there. 1 I In Nairobi, the Organisation of African Unity has appealed to Somalia and Ethiopia to end their conflict and respect each others territorial integrity. Both countries should honour an OA.U. heads of} i State resolution adopted in | Cairo in 1964 that urged rec-: ognition of boundaries be-1 tween African countries as! they existed at the time of, their independence. the! O.A.U. secretary-general (Mr) William Eteki) said.