Ethiopia, Eritrea border talks end without progress
May 18, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Talks between Ethiopia and Eritrea on resuming the demarcation of their common border ended Thursday without any progress after Eritrea refused to lift restrictions on U.N. peacekeepers, an Ethiopian official said.
The talks, which opened Wednesday in London, were intended to break a deadlock between Ethiopia, Eritrea and the international Boundary Commission, which is charged with marking the border between the two Horn of Africa nations. Ethiopia had refused to accept the commission’s decision to award the town of Badme to Eritrea, while Eritrea protested by placing restrictions on peacekeepers operating along the border.
An official in Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AP that the Ethiopian delegation attended the talks with “an open mind and in a flexible manner.”
“Eritrea failed to show any flexibility on its part by not lifting the restrictions placed on the U.N. Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea’s operations,” the official said.
Eritrean officials weren’t immediately reachable for comment. The Boundary Commission was also not immediately available for comment.
International mediators, who witnessed the Algiers Peace Agreement that ended the two-year border war between the two countries in 2000, told Eritrea talks on marking the border couldn’t continue until the restrictions on the peacekeepers were lifted, the official said.
“Eritrea has been asked by the witnesses to lift the restrictions they imposed on the movement of UNMEE in full by Monday, May 22,” the Ethiopian official said. “The next meeting will be June 15.”
(ST/AP)