Eritrea 'causing tension'

2005-12-13 15:25

Addis Ababa - Ethiopia on Tuesday accused arch-rival Eritrea of deliberately ratcheting up tension along their border and said it would take deterrent measures to dissuade Asmara from starting a new conflict.

In a speech to parliament delivered as two senior UN envoys were in the region attempting to prevent further deterioration of the border situation, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Asmara was engaging in provocative behaviour.

"The Eritrean government is making efforts to worsen the situation around the border," he told lawmakers.

"If the Eritrean government believes that it can ensure victory there is no doubt it will do what it can to wage a war.

"The only alternative is to show the Eritrean government they will not win anything if a war is started," Meles said.

"In this respect, we have to show that there is proportional force and until a lasting peace has been secured this will continue," he said.

Meles did not say what he meant by "proportional force" but stressed that Ethiopia would pull back troops from the border in line with UN demands.

He spoke a day after meeting with the UN envoys - Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of peacekeeping operations, and military adviser General Randir Kumar Mehta - who were dispatched by UN chief Kofi Annan in a bid to ease tensions.

'Risk of war by miscalculation'

After the meeting, Guehenno said the UN feared a "miscalculation" by either side could spark a resumption in hostilities between the Horn of Africa neighbours who fought a 1998-2000 war over the border that claimed some 80 000 lives.

"We believe that there is always a risk of war by miscalculation," Guehenno told reporters before he and Mehta headed to Asmara for talks with Eritrean officials. "Nobody should be complacent in the present situation."

Guehenno and Mehta arrived in Asmara late on Monday, but as of mid-Tuesday it remained unclear who, if any, Eritrean officials they would see, according to an AFP correspondent in the capital.

Annan sent the pair to visit both countries after Eritrea last week ordered the expulsion from its territory of all North American and European staff from the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

Annan and the UN Security Council have demanded under the threat of sanctions an immediate reversal of the expulsions as well as the lifting of a ban on UNMEE helicopter flights imposed in October.

But Asmara has yet to give any sign it will comply and on Monday slammed Addis Ababa and the United Nations.

It dismissed Ethiopia's troop withdrawal pledge as irrelevant and accused the world body of "meddling" by ignoring Addis Ababa's refusal to accept a binding 2002 border demarcation emanating from the Algiers agreement.

The UN has consistently refused to provide specifics about the numbers of troops involved but diplomats believe that each nation now has at least 100 000 soldiers on either side of the border.

- AFP