German president calls for peaceful end to Horn of Africa border crisis
ADDIS ABABA, Dec 13 (AFP) — German President Horst Koehler on Monday called for a peaceful settlement of the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, warning that a resumption of war would jeopardise development in the Horn of Africa.
“The international community should be united in seeking a peaceful solution so that war should not be started again in this area as it would destabilise the region’s peace and development,” Koehler told a press conference in Addis Ababa, flanked by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
In November, Ethiopia offered fresh hope for a breakthrough in its stalled peace process with Eritrea when it finally accepted a supposedly binding decision by an independent commission on the path of the two countries’ border.
The Horn of African neighbours fought a war over the border between 1998 and 2000.
The two countries signed a peace accord in December 2000, under which they pledged to respect as “final and binding” the demarcation that was pronounced in April 2002 by an independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission (EEBC).
Since September 2003, Ethiopia has rejected the demarcation, but late last month, it said it had finally accepted the “principle” of the EEBC’s ruling, but called for “adjustments,” which Eritrea has rejected.
Asmara has said Addis Ababa is trying to buy time and warned that a fresh war could erupt if the border issue remains unresolved.
Koehler warned against a new conflict, saying: “War is not in the interest of either (Ethiopia or Eritrea). The destruction that will follow the war would not be affordable to people of both countries.”
The German president said his nation would back Addis Ababa’s attempt to kickstart the stalled peace process.
“I am here to to confirm German’s support for the Ethiopian peace initiative as it has already been stated by the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder” who visited Ethiopia in January, he said.
Since the two countries signed the accord in Algiers in 2000 to end the war, hardly any progress has been made towards peace.
The border has remained closed to all but United Nations peacekeepers, and bilateral relations are limited for the most part to hostile declarations.
Since Ethiopia dismissed the ruling in September 2003, both states have refused to give an inch despite a desperate search by the international community for some kind of compromise.
Eritrea has repeatedly taken the moral high ground, insisting that Ethiopia had violated international law because the Algiers accord called for the ruling on the path of the border to be “final and binding”, and rebuffed appeals for dialogue and UN mediation.