Eritrean troops mass on border

2003-11-28 18:50

Addis Ababa - Eritrea has moved thousands of troops into western parts of the country, a region that was the flash point of the nation's 2 1/2-year border war between it and Ethiopia, UN officials said.

Gail Bindley Taylor-Sainte, spokesperson for the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, told reporters on Thursday that Eritrean authorities said the troops had been moved to the west from central and other parts of the Horn of Africa nation for agricultural and construction purposes.

UN peacekeepers in the country were "watching the situation", she said, adding that the region remains tense.

"We are watching the situation very carefully because we are very aware that the situation right now is politically tense," she said.

Taylor-Sainte declined to say how many troops had been moved into western Eritrea, but another UN official, who did not want to be identified, said 40 battalions - some 20 000 troops - had been transferred to the region.

It was not immediately possible to contact Eritrean officials.

Under a December 2000 peace deal that ended the border war, 4 200 UN troops patrol a 25km wide buffer zone along the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, inside Eritrea. The peacekeepers also monitor a 15km wide area adjacent to the buffer zone and the Eritrean troops have not moved into either area, Taylor-Sainte said.

The troops are supposed to monitor the buffer zone while an international boundary commission demarcates the disputed 1 000km. But the physical demarcation of the border has been postponed indefinitely because Ethiopia has criticized the boundary commission's ruling, in particular its decision to locate the western town of Badme in Eritrean territory.

The war erupted in May 1998 when Ethiopia accused Eritrea of invading Badme, which Ethiopia had administered prior to the conflict.

Tensions between the two impoverished countries have remained strained, and the disputes over the demarcation have worsened the situation.

In a transcript of a press briefing released Friday, the UN mission said "there is frustration, concern and anxiety over the that fact that demarcation has not taken place, further aggravated by unsettling talk of war reflected in the media."

"All this has led to a palpable tension which is what UNMEE (UN) observers see reflected on the ground."

Ethiopian Information Minister Bereket Simon said Friday he hoped the Eritrean government was not planning to take "reckless action".

"Ethiopia is closely following and monitoring the situation," he told The Associated Press. "Our hope is that the Eritrean government will not be reckless and attempt a suicidal act."

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but the countries' border was never formally demarcated.

- AP