UN: Eritrea and Ethiopia paying “big price” for simmering border row

By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Sep 29, 2004 (AP) — Ethiopia and Eritrea — two of the world’s poorest countries — are paying “a big price” for failing to resolve a simmering border dispute, a U.N. envoy said Wednesday.

Lloyd Axworthy, the U.N. Secretary General’s special envoy to Ethiopia and Eritrea, said his staff is crunching numbers to try and figure out how much the ongoing dispute has cost the two countries.

Even without any hard figures on monetary losses, the price has been steep: An estimated 70,000 people were killed in combat that often recalled the trench warfare of World War I during a 2-1/2 border fought by the two countries.

The war over their 1,000-km (600-mile) common border began in May 1998 and cost each country an estimated US$1 million a day.

Before the war, some 67 percent of Eritrea’s external trade was with Ethiopia, according to UN figures. But since the conflict ended, trade between the two countries has come to a near standstill.

“Both countries pay a big price for this ongoing dispute,” Axworthy told The Associated Press.

“To me that is the real tragedy … They have real issues they need to face and this is an enormous drain and diversion away from their economies,” said Axworthy, a former Canadian foreign affairs minister. His comments came at the end of two-day visit to Ethiopia, where he met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

As part of the deal ending the war, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to have the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission — part of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration — settle their dispute.

Ethiopia, however, has balked at some aspects of the commission’s ruling, made in April 2002, and there has since been no talks between the countries.

Eritrean officials have demanded the international community take action against Ethiopia for refusing to abide by the commission ruling, but have so far refused to meet Axworthy.

Ethiopia is one of the ten poorest nations on earth where average incomes are US$100 a year. Eritrea, where per capita incomes are US$190 a year, is facing fuel and food shortages for its 3.4 million population.