UN concerned by resettlement of Eritreans near Ethiopian border

ASMARA, Feb 24 (AFP) — The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said Thursday it was concerned by the resettlement this month of 19,000 displaced Eritreans to villages near the tense Ethiopian border.

“We do have some concerns, we will raise this with the appropriate authorities,” UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte told a news conference here.

Tensions remain high between rival Ethiopia and Eritrea five years after their 1998-2000 border war and there are fears the relocation of displaced Eritreans close to the frontier could be provocative.

Last week, the United Nations and the European Union expressed concern about military buildups along the disputed border despite current relative calm and urged Addis Ababa and Asmara to exercise restraint.

The 19,000 resettled Eritreans had been living in camps for internally displaced people for six years after being forced to leave their villages in the southwest region of Gash Barka during the border war.

But since the beginning of February, the Eritrean government and its development partners have been resettling the displaced in or close to their homes in Gash Barka, which is in a UN-monitored buffer zone along the border.

Despite its concerns, Sainte said UNMEE was pleased that the displaced were no longer living in camps but noted that the UN mission was still carrying out landmine clearance operations in Gash Barka.

Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace agreement in December 2000 promising to respect a border demarcation to decided by an independent commission.

But in September 2003, Ethiopia rejected the commissions finding and in November 2004 called for “adjustments”.

Eritrea has repeatedly said it will only accept the full implementation of the independent commission’s “final and binding” ruling.