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Eritrea frees UN local staff
23/02/2006 18:48 - (SA)
Asmara - The United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) said on Thursday that all but two of its 27 local employees detained by Eritrean authorities since early last week have been freed.
Unmee's acting spokesperson Musi Khumalo said all those who had been released had reported for work.
"During the past week, a total of 27 locally recruited Unmee staff were detained by the Eritrean authorities for varying lengths of time," said Khumalo.
"As of today, two national staff members have not reported for duty."
Asmara has not given any reason for the arrests, but diplomats say they were probably carried out on suspicion that those arrested were dodging national service.
Local employees of several embassies, United Nations agencies and other international organisations have been summoned this week to turn up for a two-week national service programme in the western town of Sawa in a move that has outraged some embassies.
"Western embassies are outraged at the way this is being done and we will write a letter to protest," said an Asmara-based diplomat.
No one exempt
Under the programme, Eritreans undergo six months of military training and 18 months of national service during which they work in different government departments.
Information Minister Ali Abdu said no one was exempted from the national service, pointing that it was a continuous programme for the service of the nation.
"'Every Eritrean' means that those Eritreans who work in embassies, in international organisations, in the UN, for example, are not immune from national service," said Ali. "You never finish your national service, meaning you cannot say there is a full-stop to serving your country."
Unmee, which has monitored the Eritrea-Ethiopia frontier since a 2000 peace deal ended their bloody two-year border war, has 3 000 troops, mostly from India and Jordan, and several hundred civilian personnel.
Not done enough
Since October, it has come under increasing pressure from Eritrea, which has banned Unmee helicopter flights, imposed restrictions on ground patrols and then expelled its North American and European staff.
Those curbs are widely seen as angry reactions to Eritrea's belief that the international community has not done enough to press Ethiopia to accept a binding 2002 border demarcation that emanated from the peace pact.
Eritrea has repeatedly warned that new conflict is looming because of Ethiopia's rejection of the ruling, and has lashed out, in particular, at the United Nations and United States for letting Addis Ababa off the hook.
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