UN troop to stay on border despite Eritrea restrictions

Oct 18, 2005 (ASMARA) — UN troops monitoring the increasingly tense border between Ethiopia and Eritrea will stay despite restrictions imposed by Asmara that severely curtailed their ability to operate, officials said Tuesday.

A day after UN chief Kofi Annan said the world body might have to reconsider its deployment in light of the new regulations, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said it would remain but protested at the new difficulties it faces.

“We are not about to withdraw from the mission,” UNMEE head Joseph Legwaila told reporters at news conference in the Eritrean capital that was called amid growing fears that a new conflict could erupt between the arch-rival neighbors.

However, referring to Eritrea’s ban on UNMEE helicopter overflights, which he said had left the mission “only 40 percent useful,” Legwaila said: “No peacekeeping operation can function with its legs cut off.”

Despite protests from UNMEE and the UN Security Council, Eritrea has yet to give a formal explanation for the ban and Legwaila suggested the mission was having difficulty in communicating with senior officials in Asmara.

Asked when he last met with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, he responded: “More than two years ago.”

In addition to forcing UNMEE to abandon nearly half of its 40 observation posts in a buffer zone on the Eritrean side of the border, the ban has hampered the evacuation of injured UN troops from the area, officials said.

On Monday, the mission was forced to ferry three soldiers who were wounded in a road accident to hospital in Asmara by ambulance rather than fly them due to the ban, according to UNMEE force commander Major General Rajender Singh.

“Three of our personnel were injured, one very seriously,” he said, adding that the troops had still not arrived in the capital by Tuesday morning.

Last week, UNMEE said the helicopter ban, along with restrictions on its ground patrols that have limited its night operations, had left it unable to verify with certainty troop levels on the Eritrean side of the border.

(AFP/ST)