Eritrea rejects Ethiopian, UN assurances on border troop movements
NAIROBI, Jan 18 (AFP) — Eritrea has rejected assurances from Ethiopia, backed by UN peacekeepers, that troop movements near their disputed border are routine redeployments and accused Addis Ababa of provocation, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Eritrea made the allegation on Monday at a meeting in Nairobi of the so-called Military Coordination Commission which oversees the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea known as UNMEE, it said.
Eritrea’s acting representative to the commission, Colonel Zecarias Ogbagaber, “expressed serious concerns about the movement of additional Ethiopian troops towards the northern border of Ethiopia,” UNMEE said.
Ogbagaber “said that he did not consider these deployments defensive in nature and interpreted them to be provocative,” it said in a statement.
Ethiopia’s representative, General Yohannes Gebremeskel, denied the claim and repeated previous explanations that the movements were “a purely defensive measure and part of the reorganization process of the Ethiopian Army.”
UNMEE commander, Major-General Rajender Singh, who last week accepted Ethiopia’s explanation, said he still believed the “sanctity and stability” of the UN-monitored border security zone was “being maintained effectively.”
Singh “expressed the view that he was fairly satisfied with the security situation in the mission area and requested both the countries not to take any steps that would jeopardize the situation,” UNMEE said.
On January 13, Singh told reporters in Addis Ababa that he did not believe the Ethiopian troop movements were a sign of a build-up of Addis Ababa’s forces for a new war with its neighbor.
He said UNMEE had reported Ethiopian troops moving in the country’s northern border sectors of Badme and Zala Anbessa near Eritrea’s southern border but stressed that it did not “indicate any offensive intent.”
The Ethiopian troops are well outside the 25-kilometer (15-mile) Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) that UNMEE peacekeepers monitor, he stressed.
UNMEE troops, deployed in the wake of a 1998-2000 war fought over the border, are mostly stationed in the buffer corridor that hugs the length of the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border between the two states.