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Eritrea dismissive of Ethiopia
12/12/2005 12:22 - (SA)
Asmara - Eritrea on Monday dismissed as irrelevant Ethiopia's pledge to meet United Nations demands to pull back troops from their tense border and accused UN chief Kofi Annan of "meddling" amid rising fears of a new war.
As two senior UN officials met with Ethiopian authorities in Addis Ababa and prepared to travel in a bid to calm soaring tensions, Eritrea's foreign ministry denounced Annan for allegedly trying to let Ethiopia "off the hook" in phone calls to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
"This unwarranted political meddling is principally aimed at letting the Ethiopian regime off the hook by raising issues that have no legal relevance so as to undermine the rule of law and to obstruct its implementation, and, to indict Eritrea unjustly," it said in a statement.
The ministry said Annan had spoken several times to Meles since Eritrea last week ordered out North American and European staff at the UN Mission for Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee), a step that ratcheted tension up further.
It did not give details of the calls but implied that Annan had asked Meles to redeploy Ethiopian troops on the border to ease the situation, something Addis Ababa said at the weekend it would do.
"The government of Eritrea underlines, repeatedly, that it will not be derailed into an illicit blind alley," the foreign ministry statement said.
"The withdrawal or non-withdrawal of Ethiopian troops is a matter that concerns the Ethiopian government only and to which tune it can dance alone," it said.
In a letter to Annan made public on Saturday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said his country would comply with UN Security Council demands to pull back recently deployed troops from the border.
"In the interest of peace ... Ethiopia is prepared to redeploy its forces consistent" with a November 23 resolution that threatened sanctions against both Addis Ababa and Asmara if they resumed hostilities.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody 1998-2000 war over the border that claimed 80 000 lives and Asmara says new conflict is looming because Addis Ababa has rejected a binding frontier demarcation emanating from a peace deal.
Eritrea's decision to expel US, Canadian, European and Russian peacekeepers is the latest sign of Asmara's increasing anger and frustration with a lack of international pressure on Ethiopia to accept the 2002 border ruling.
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