Ethiopia may pull back troops
2005-12-01 17:42
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia has indicated willingness to comply with a recent United Nations resolution demanding the country and neighbouring Eritrea reverse a worrisome military build-up on their tense border, a senior UN official said on Thursday.
Details of the military pull out, however, have not been worked out, "but I am hopeful some positive response will come", said Major General Rajender Singh, commander of UN peacekeepers who were deployed at the border after the two countries fought a two-year war that ended in 2000.
Western diplomats estimate that some 380 000 troops are entrenched along the border and thousands of militia are also armed on both sides.
"I have had some discussions with the authorities regarding the pull back of their additional troops which they have brought up to the border," Singh said from Eritrea's capital, Asmara.
'This is very positive'
"As far as Ethiopia is concerned, they have indicated they are willing."
"This is very positive," said Singh, whose 3 285 troops and military observers monitor the "tense and potentially volatile" 1 000km border that separates the two Horn of Africa nations.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but the border between the two was never formally demarcated.
The border war erupted in 1998 and has claimed tens of thousands of lives while costing both countries an estimated $1m (about R6.5m) per day.
A December 2000 peace agreement provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed border while UN peacekeepers patrolled a 24km buffer zone between the two countries.
But Ethiopia refused to accept the panel's April 2002 decision, which awarded the town of Badme to Eritrea.
- AP