UN orders staff families out of Eritrea, Ethiopia
Oct 10, 2005 (ASMARA) — The United Nations mission monitoring the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has ordered family and friends of peacekeepers to leave.
The instruction came days after Eritrea banned U.N. helicopters from flying in its airspace, but a U.N. spokeswoman said the two events were unconnected.
The helicopter move had prompted some fears the tiny Red Sea state was moving military personnel and equipment in preparation for renewed conflict with Ethiopia after a 1998-2000 border war that killed an estimated 70,000 people.
But senior officials at the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) say they have seen no signs of any military build-up on either side. And a spokeswoman said the clampdown on families was just enforcement of an existing rule.
“There is no connection between the grounding of the helicopters and the family members having to go,” spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor-Sainte told Reuters.
“We are a non-family mission. We can have family visits, but we are not supposed to have family members living here.”
Family and friends have been given 10 days to leave.
Asmara has given no reason for stopping the U.N. helicopter flights that typically resupply peacekeepers and conduct aerial reconnaissance.
UNMEE officials say their monitoring capacity has been reduced by as much as 50 percent.
Analysts believe the ban imposed on Oct. 5 over a 15-mile (25 km) wide buffer zone along the 1,000 km (620 miles) long unmarked border may be Eritrea’s attempt to force what it considers a neglected issue higher up the international agenda.
Last month, angered by the continued lack of demarcation of its border with Ethiopia, Eritrea warned it might rekindle its border war with Ethiopia.
Under a 2000 treaty, both sides agreed to accept the ruling of an independent boundary commission. But Ethiopia rejected its April 2002 ruling and refused an opportunity for dialogue with Eritrea and the commission in February this year.
Eritrean officials were unavailable to comment on Monday.
UNMEE employs some 3,950 troops and civilian workers around Eritrea and Ethiopia.
(Reuters/ST)