'Ethiopia, Eritrea = poverty'
2005-01-14 16:52
Addis Ababa - The inability of Ethiopia and Eritrea to agree on their disputed border is keeping 15 million Ethiopians in poverty, said the United Nations special envoy for the region on Friday.
Canadian former foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy said: "The conflict on the border has an impact on about 15 million Ethiopians.
"They have been denied the possibility to rise above the poverty line."
Axworthy said Eritrean citizens also were 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.
He said 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".
'Conflict affects development'
Axworthy said that instead of bickering about the demarcation line, the two sides should be looking first at how to improve the lot of their populations.
Axworthy was named to the special envoy post last year.
He said: "The first debate that should take place is how this conflict affects development."
Axworthy was in Addis Ababa for talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who 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 then accused Ethiopian troops of invading its territory.
Axworthy said he had been pleased at the tenor of his discussions with Zenawi, who "has properly identified" key areas that can bring about stability on the border: water, energy and transportation.
A routine redeployment
He said: "They can have a positive impact on people on the border."
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 had been observed by UN peacekeepers, from the Ethiopian defence ministry.
The ministry which said they were part of a routine redeployment.
He said: "The disposition of troops by Ethiopia until now does not indicate any offensive intent and is not provocative as it stands now."
Unmee troops, deployed in the wake of the border war, are stationed mostly in the buffer corridor that hugs the length of the 1&nbps;000km border between the two states.