UN Security Council expresses concern about Ethiopia-Eritrea
Nov 3, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. Security Council expressed concern Thursday about troop movements along the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and dispatched Japan’s U.N. ambassador to the region to get a true assessment of what’s happening there.
The council passed a presidential statement noting “unacceptable restrictions” placed on U.N. peacekeepers in the region by Eritrea.
On Oct. 5, the Eritrean government banned helicopter flights by U.N. peacekeepers in its airspace in a buffer zone with Ethiopia. It then banned U.N. vehicles from patrolling at night on its side of the zone, leading the U.N. to vacate 18 of its 40 posts.
The council got a briefing from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan about reports Ethiopia and Eritrea were moving troops and military equipment closer to the buffer zone, which was established after a 2 1/2 years war over their disputed border.
“We have to find a way of breaking this impasse,” Annan told reporters. “I hope the leaders will exercise restraint and avoid any escalation, because they may not be intending to go to war, but there can be a miscalculation.”
The U.N.’s limited information indicated that no Ethiopian or Eritrean troops had violated the Temporary Security Zone dividing the two Horn of Africa nations.
“Members of the council strongly urge both parties to show maximum restraint and to refrain from any threat or use of force against each other,” the council said in a press statement.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but the border between the two was never formally demarcated. The border war erupted in 1998, killed tens of thousands of people, and cost both countries an estimated $1 million per day.
A December 2000 peace agreement provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed 621-mile border while some 3,200 U.N. troops patrolled a 15-mile buffer zone between the two countries. But Ethiopia refused to accept the panel’s April 2002 decision, which awarded the town of Badme to Eritrea.
In efforts to get a true sense of what’s going on there, the council agreed to dispatch Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Kenzo Oshima, whose nation holds a non-permanent seat on the body, to the region to meet with U.N. peacekeeping officials and government officials.
“My mission is not about negotiating any hard issues nor is it to convey a new message over and above what the Security Council has already in the past stated,” Oshima said.
(AP/ST)