Eritrea gives new orders to UN

2005-10-24 16:14

Addis Ababa - Eritrea has imposed new restrictions on United Nations peacekeepers who had said their ability to patrol the disputed Eritrea-Ethiopia border was already seriously hampered, said a UN spokesperson on Monday.

Eritrea has ordered the UN mission in Eritrea to "confine its land vehicle movements to the main roads" in the 25km wide demilitarised buffer zone, said UN spokesperson Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte. She said Eritrea gave no explanation.

Eritrea also offered no explanation earlier this month when it informed the UN it was banning helicopter flights by UN peacekeepers in its airspace in the border buffer zone starting on October 5. It also banned UN patrol vehicles from operating at night on its side.

Border war claimed thousands of lives

Diplomats have said Eritrea's recent moves could be intended to force the international community into taking action against Ethiopia, which has refused to accept an international ruling on the border made in 2002.

In 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea ended a two-and-a-half-year border war that killed 70 000 people and cost two of the poorest countries in the world an estimated $1m a day each.

Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, said last week the earlier restrictions meant his operations - meant to warn the world if a new war were to break out - were at best 40% useful.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter last week urging Eritrea to lift its ban on peacekeeping flights. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki rejected Annan's appeal, telling him he lacks the "humanitarian high ground on matters of law, the rule of law and humanitarian issues".

- AP