Ethiopia plays down war fears
2006-09-30 20:30
Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Saturday that the threat of war with neighbouring Eritrea over their disputed border was fading.
"As time passes the risk of war is diminishing not increasing," Meles told journalists at a news conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.
The United Nations security council extended the mandate of peacekeepers in Eritrea and Ethiopia by four months on Friday, but threatened to overhaul the mission if the two sides didn't make progress toward demarcating their border.
Ethiopia has refused to implement an international commission's April 2002 ruling that awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.
Eritrea, meanwhile, has expelled and arrested UN staff and imposed restrictions on patrols of the border area.
Meles said Ethiopia had accepted the ruling but did not say whether his country would implement it, which was supposed to be "final and binding".
Border never agreed to
The security council has cut the number of peacekeepers deployed in the two countries from 3 500 to 2 300 in frustration over the lack of progress.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but a border was never agreed to.
Violence erupted again in 1998 and ended two years later. Ttens of thousands of people were killed.
Under the 2000 peace agreement, both countries agreed to abide by an independent commission's ruling on the position of the disputed 1 000km border, while UN troops patrolled a 25km buffer zone between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Meles told journalists that if Somalia's Islamic courts attacked that country's virtually powerless government it would be cause for concern for Ethiopia and the international community at large.
Witnesses say Ethiopian troops are already in Somalia, but the Ethiopian government has denied this.
- AP