UN Council action demanded on Eritrea flight ban
Oct 19, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — Nations participating in a U.N. peacekeeping mission on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border told Security Council members on Wednesday to pressure Eritrea to reverse its ban on U.N. helicopter flights, with some hinting they might withdraw from the mission.
Eritrea on Oct. 5 prevented U.N. helicopters from flying in its airspace, reducing the capacity of the 3,300-strong U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea to monitor military movements, resupply troops and conduct emergency medical evacuations.
The two northeast Africa countries fought a 1998-2000-border war that killed more than 70,000 people.
“Council members gave no immediate commitments,” Indian envoy Ruchira Kamboj told Reuters after a closed meeting among some 30 troop contributors and the 15 council members.
“We will now wait to see the response of the secretariat and of the Security Council. The ball is in their court,” she said. India is the largest contributor, with some 1,500 military personnel, followed by Jordan with more than 900.
Jordanian envoys, according to participants in the meeting, threatened to consider withdrawing troops if the ban were not reversed, saying that two weeks after Eritrea’s action nothing had been done.
U.N. peacekeeping officials are now unable to monitor some 55 percent of a buffer zone between the two countries. U.N. staff has already been withdrawn from 18 of the 40 border posts because supplies can no longer reach them easily.
Jordan’s U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, noted that Eritrean authorities had recently denied air evacuation for Kenyan soldiers injured in a road accident, forcing them to be transported overland in an eight-hour trip.
“So in the event of a more serious medical emergency, our troops would not be afforded the medical attention that we have come to expect,” Zeid told Reuters. “This does not fill us with confidence.”
Diplomats said the council had not agreed on any definitive action aside from quiet diplomacy and for member states to use their influence with both Eritrea and Ethiopia.
Some envoys suggested a visit to the region and one said Eritrea should be told there would be no progress on settling the border dispute until the flight ban was lifted.
Under a December 2000 peace treaty, both sides agreed to accept the ruling of an independent boundary commission. But Ethiopia rejected the April 2002 ruling, which gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.
Several diplomats believe Eritrea may have imposed the helicopter ban in an attempt to get international pressure on Ethiopia to accept the boundary decision.
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Eritrea was reinforcing troops in the buffer zone “and this is a matter of concern to us.”
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general in charge of peacekeeping, told a news conference he had no evidence of “any significant movements.”
But he said the “present situation is obviously not acceptable and it has to be redressed.” At the same time Guehenno sought to prevent any confrontations.
“I think in a difficult situation like this it is important not to precipitate events, rather to slow them down to give a chance to diplomacy,” Guehenno said.
“We are very much aware that the very presence of the United Nations in the country’s security zone is a contribution to stability and that we have to be careful in any move we make,” he said.
(Reuters)