Annan urges Eritrea to lift flight ban, Eritrea rejects it
Oct 21, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter urging Eritrea to lift its ban on peacekeeping flights, saying the move jeopardized troop safety along a buffer zone between the Eritrean and Ethiopian armies, a spokesman said Friday.
In a blunt response, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki rejected Annan’s appeal, telling him that he lacks the “humanitarian high ground on matters of law, the rule of law and humanitarian issues.”
Annan expressed his concern about a prolonged humanitarian crisis in Eritrea, where 2.3 million people are in need because of poor nutrition and lack of food, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The letter was dated Monday, the same day that Annan told reporters the United Nations may have to withdraw troops from the area if the ban isn’t lifted.
Eritrea informed the United Nations that it was banning helicopter flights by U.N. peacekeepers in its airspace in a buffer zone with Ethiopia starting Oct. 5. It also banned U.N. patrol vehicles from operating at night on its side of the 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) Temporary Security Zone.
On Thursday, Afwerki responded with an oddly worded letter thanking Annan but dismissing his appeal.
“Your Excellency, I have to state with much regret that your good self, and the Security Council, has forfeited your relevance on the very issues raised, in a rather habitual matter in your letter,” he wrote. “Allow me to underline that you cannot claim the legal, political, moral or humanitarian high ground on matters of law and humanitarian issues.”
“Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration,” the letter ended.
The buffer zone was established after a December 2000 peace agreement that ended a 2 1/2-year border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors.
The deal provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed border, but Ethiopia refused to accept the panel’s April 2002 decision, which awarded the town of Badme to Eritrea.
(AP/ST)