WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

"One day she disappeared." The young Ethiopian professor said sadly of the classmate he had admired, "I don't even know where in Eritrea she is."

Nearly nine years have passed since the agreed cessation of Eritrea and Ethiopia's border conflict, but it remains impossible for civilians to travel freely back and forth across their common border. There are no direct telephone lines, and individuals in Ethiopia have reportedly been jailed for communicating with family and friends in Eritrea via the internet. Husbands and wives, parents and children, adult siblings, and many others remain not only physically separated, but continue to be socially isolated. Perhaps no other impact of war begets greater agony than being kept away from loved ones. It causes an unnecessary toll on society that must be ended.

"Family separation is the problem," a young Eritrean man, now living as a refugee Ethiopia, explained quietly but emphatically. "My parents were born in Eritrea but lived in Ethiopia for 40 years. At age 21, I was deported to Eritrea though I had never been there and didn't know anyone.

"Now I'm nation-less. Eritrea doesn't consider me Eritrean. Ethiopia does not consider me Ethiopian. I consider myself a prisoner in this camp. My younger brother was caught trying to go to Sudan. My sister is in Kenya, but I've had no news from her in five years."

During the 1998-2000 conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, over 70,000 people were killed, 650,000 displaced and at least 70,000 people deported - Ethiopians from Eritrea and Eritreans from Ethiopia. But these were not the only victims of the conflict. In addition to the bereaved and those who returned to re-establish their homes and livelihoods, countless families were ripped apart by the deportations, and continue to be so. The personal and psychological scars of separation run as deep as the two countries' years of shared history and common blood.

In Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, a man recalled, "They detained me, tied my hands and legs, and beat me until I went to sleep. I was kept in an underground cell. Every day I was given only bread and water. After two months, I became ill. Recently I returned to Ethiopia. I was arrested and detained for a month. Then they brought me back to the refugee camp. My brother is a soldier in Eritrea, but my sister crossed the border to another country. We can't be together again until the governments are changed."

This post was originally published on Reuters Alertnet and written by Maureen Lynch. To read the rest of the blog post, please visit Alertnet.org. For a copy of Maureen's new report on stateless children, Futures Denied, visit www.refugeesinternational.org.