Ethiopia says only talks can end border row with Eritrea

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

July 31, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — One day after the UN Security Council voted for the shut down of the 1,700-strong UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Addis Ababa said only border row can be settled through negotiated solution.

The Ethiopia government said on Thursday maintaining an unwavering stance that sustainable solution to the border conflict with Eritrea can only be possible peacefully and through dialogue.

However, it caught arch-foe Eritrea responsible for driving the United Nations to shut down its mission monitoring the countries’ disputed border.

The U.N. Security Council yesterday disbanded its 1,700-strong peacekeeping force on the volatile border — a move that had been expected since Eritrea cut the force’s fuel supplies in February.

The United Nations withdrew its peacekeeping force, known as UNMEE, from the border in February after Eritrea cut off fuel supplies. The force had been in place since 2000 after a two-year war between the Horn of Africa neighbors that killed some 70,000 people.

Eritrea is angry that the United Nations has not enforced a 2007 ruling by an independent boundary commission awarding most of the territory in dispute along their 1,000 km (620 mile) border to Eritrea.

A statement by Ethiopian Ministry of Information said the UNMEE mission and duties have long been impeded by the recalcitrance of the government in Asmara, which the statement said, has rendered the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) – a 25-km buffer zone where the mission was planted – useless.

“Asmara did a number of measures and moves at various times impeding the operations of UNMEE, giving deaf ears to all international parties that had involved in mediating peace between the two countries, including the UN,” the statement said.

“Dialogue would be the only option for finding solution to the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” the statement said.

Meanwhile Ethiopian officials played down fears Thursday that the country would begin a war with neighboring Eritrea following a decision to dissolve a U.N. peacekeeping force along their common border.

“War is not in our vocabulary, unless Eritrea invades our territory,” said in press statements Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spokesman Wahide Belay . “In Ethiopia’s view, war is not an option at all, unless Eritrea violates the territorial integrity of Ethiopia.”

Also, he criticised council members for failing to take punitive measures against Eritrea — which also says it will not start a war — for what he said were violations of the Algiers pact.

The two countries signed a peace agreement in Algiers in 2000 after a two-year war that killed some 70,000 people.

(ST)