Ethiopia-Eritrea rancor hurting some 15 million Ethiopians: UN
ADDIS ABABA, Jan 14 (AFP) — The inability of Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on their disputed border is preventing 15 million Ethiopians from escaping crushing poverty, the UN special envoy for the region said Friday.
“The ongoing conflict on the border has an impact on some 15 million Ethiopians,” the envoy, Canadian former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, said. “They have been denied the possibility to raise above the poverty line.”
Axworthy told reporters that Eritrean citizens were also hurt by the lack of a final resolution to the border dispute, the cause of a 1998-2000 war for which only a fragile peace accord is in place.
The leaders of both nations “have to take into account that this is having a serious (impact) on opportunities for a lot of people in both countries,” he told reporters at a news conference.
Instead of bickering over the demarcation line, the two sides should be looking first at how to improve the lot of their populations, said Axworthy, who was named to the special envoy post last year.
“The first debate that should take place is how this conflict affects development.” he said.
Axworthy was in Addis Ababa for talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who in November reversed long-standing opposition to a border resolution set out by an independent panel.
The two sides had agreed to accept this decision in a 2000 peace accord.
Zenawi said he accepted the “principle” of the Boundary Commission’s ruling but wanted “adjustments.” Eritrea, however, said the position was nothing new and shortly thereafter accused Ethiopian troops of invading its territory.
Axworthy said he had been pleased at the tenor of his discussions with Zenawi, who he said “has properly identified” key areas that can bring about stability on the border: water, energy and transportation.
They “can have a very positive impact on people on the border,” he said.
Axworthy made his comments a day after the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said he did not believe that recent Ethiopian troop movements along the border indicated a build-up of forces for a new war.
Major-General Rajender Singh said he had sought an explanation of the movements, which have been observed by UN peacekeepers, from the Ethiopian defense ministry which said they were part of a routine redeployment.
“The disposition of troops by Ethiopia until now does not indicate any offensive intent and is not provocative as it stands now,” he said.
UNMEE troops, deployed in the wake of the border war, are mostly stationed in the buffer corridor that hugs the length of the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) border between the two states.