UN envoy meets Ethiopian PM over border dispute with Eritrea

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 21 (AFP) — The UN special envoy for Eritrea and Ethiopia, Lloyd Axworthy, has held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on the two countries’ border dispute, officials said Saturday.

Axworthy urged both Addis Ababa and Asmara to solve the border crisis peacefully, while Meles reiterated that dialogue was the best way to end the conflict, a foreign ministry official who attended the talks late on Friday told AFP.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Axworthy, a former Canadian foreign minister, last month in a bid to resolve the border dispute over which Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a brutal two-year war.

The war’s end was capped with a peace accord signed in Algiers in 2000 that committed both nations to accept the ruling of an independent commission to determine their 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border.

But Ethiopia rejected the commission’s decision after it awarded the border town of Badme to Eritrea.

Ethiopia has expressed its willingness to work with Axworthy, but Eritrea has questioned his role, saying Asmara will not accept mediation until Ethiopia agrees to the ruling of the independent boundary commission that Badme belongs to Eritrea.

Eritrea has rejected any suggestion of a visit to the country by Axworthy, with a top aide of Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki saying that such a move was “out of the question”.

Yemane Gebremeskel, the director of Afeworki’s office, said on Thursday that the idea of an envoy was “not acceptable” for Asmara as the decision of the boundary commission was “final and binding and cannot be subject to diplomatic discussions”.