UN official warns against resumption of Ethiopia-Eritrea war
By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia and Eritrea risk re-igniting their border war because of their refusal to move forward on a peace deal they negotiated four years ago, the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission separating the two sides said Thursday.
Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, who is the political chief of the 3,300 U.N peacekeepers maintaining a fragile cease-fire, said breaking the deadlock “rests squarely” with Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Ethiopia has refused to respect an April 2002 ruling by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, Netherlands. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has called the commission’s finding “illegal and unjust.”
Eritrea has refused to discuss the border ruling until a U.N. team demarcates and confirms the border on the ground.
More than 100,000 people were killed during the 1998-2000 war along the two countries’ 1,000 kilometer (620-mile) border. As part of a 2000 deal to end the war, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to form an independent boundary commission and that its decision would be final and binding.
“The danger of a continued stalemate is war,” Legwaila told journalists in Asmara, Eritrea, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, via video-link.
He said maintaining the U.N. mission costs US$16 million (A?12 million) a month and that it could not be maintained forever.
Legwaila said countries that have clout with Ethiopia and Eritrea should impress on the leaders that dialogue to improve relations is in their best interests. He added that the international community “must take whatever action deemed necessary” to ensure the peace deal is maintained to prevent further conflict.
“Failure on the part of the international community to break it will have grave consequences for Eritrea and Ethiopia, for the Horn of Africa region and for the entire international community as a whole,” he added.
The U.N peacekeepers patrol the border between the two countries inside a 25-kilometer (15-mile) wide buffer zone known as the temporary security zone.