Eritrea rejects peace proposal
2004-12-07 12:03
Asmara - Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki on Tuesday rejected an Ethiopian peace proposal made late in November, in what was his first declaration on the issue, an official statement said.
The Ethiopian proposal "contains no new developments" and it would "drag the peace process another step backwards," he insisted in a statement published by the Eritrean information ministry.
Eritrea "will not accept any alternatives to the Boundary Commission's decision and the Algiers Agreements," he added.
From 1998 to 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war. In 2000, they signed a peace accord in Algiers. The two parties promised to respect the demarcation which would be imposed by an independent Boundary Commission (EEBC). Since September 2003, Addis Ababa had been rejecting the chosen demarcation. But in late November, Ethiopia announced that it finally accepted the "principle" of the EEBC's decision, although it called for "adjustments" within the framework of a peace proposal.
The Eritrean authorities had already said they rejected the proposal, but Tuesday was the first time that the Eritrean president had expressed himself on the issue.
"There is no reason why the international community cannot pass a resolution to pressure Ethiopia to pull back its troops from sovereign Eritrean territory, which it continues to invade, when the international community can persuade Syrians to withdraw from Lebanese territories," the president said.
He made his comments during a meeting with the Dutch Minister of International Cooperation, Agnes Van Arden, the statement said.