Ethiopian-Eritrean border may have military buildup – UN

Oct 13, 2005 (ADDIS ABABA) — New restrictions on patrols by U.N. peacekeepers make it impossible to guarantee there’s no renewed military buildup along the tense border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a U.N. spokeswoman said Thursday.

“Because there are areas we cannot see, we cannot categorically rule out the fact there might be a military build up,” U.N. spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte told journalists via video-link during a regular weekly briefing from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

Earlier this month, Eritrea imposed limits on U.N. night patrols and banned air patrols along the 1,000-kilometer temporary security zone, Sainte said.

“We do not know the reasons for the ban or any indication of when the ban will be lifted,” she said.

The Horn of Africa nations fought a 2 1/2-year border war that ended after a December 2000 peace agreement. The deal provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of their disputed border.

But Ethiopia has refused to accept the decision issued in April 2002 by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission -part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, Netherlands. Ethiopia objects to the awarding of the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea.

Sainte said the flight ban also forced the cancellation of U.N. work to clear land mines because injured workers couldn’t be evacuated by air.

Last month, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the head of the U.N. mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea said the unresolved border dispute could lead to more war if the U.N. Security Council and the African Union did not do more to find a solution to the stalemate.

(AP/ST)