Talks due on Ethiopia-Eritrea
2006-04-05 11:22
United Nations - The panel charged with
marking out the disputed border between Eritrea and Ethiopia
will meet again in London late this month to push for an end to
a stalemate between the Horn of Africa nations that fought a
bloody war from 1998 to 2000, diplomats said on Tuesday.
The international boundary commission, as part of a United States
mediation effort, met with legal experts from both nations in
London last month in hopes of convincing them to accept a
resumption of the demarcation process.
The United Nations said afterward the two countries had
agreed to resume laying out their shared frontier. But
officials of both countries later made comments questioning
that statement.
It was not yet known whether either country had agreed to
send officials to London to participate in the new round of
talks that United Nations diplomats said were set for April 28-29.
Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a
30-year struggle but relations between the two remained tense
and exploded into war in 1998, that cost about 70 000 lives.
As part of a peace agreement reached in 2000, both sides
agreed the boundary panel's 2002 ruling would be "final and
binding." But Ethiopia later rejected the decision and insisted
on further talks.
An angry Eritrea then imposed restrictions on UN
peacekeepers' movements including a ban on helicopter flights
over its territory, reducing UN capacity to monitor the
1 000km border.
A UN force of about 3 350 troops and observers has
maintained a buffer zone separating the two sides since the
border war.
The UN mission's mandate is due to expire April 15, and
some members of the Security Council have called for the force
to be scaled back if the peace process remains deadlocked.
But diplomats said on Tuesday the council was likely to
extend the mandate for another month to let diplomatic efforts
continue.