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Witnesses press on peace deal
24/02/2006 09:57 - (SA)
New York - Witnesses to a 2000 agreement ending a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea have increased pressure on the African countries to end an impasse and fully implement the deal, say diplomats on Thursday.
The diplomats said that the witnesses, in a statement adopted at an unpublicised meeting at the United Nations headquarters on Wednesday, pressed the Horn of Africa neighbours to accept a binding ruling on their shared border and end all restrictions on UN peacekeepers.
Attending the closed-door session, convened by Washington, were diplomats from Algeria, Britain, the Congo Republic, the European Union, the Netherlands, Norway and the UN as well as the United States.
Diplomatic initiative
The UN security council had asked the US to try to resolve the border dispute and gave it until March 10 to do so.
Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, travelled to the region in mid-January, but had not made much headway. The US diplomatic initiative appeared to be the main hope of resolving the issue.
If the initiative failed, the council could reconfigure, trim or end the UN peacekeeping mission there.
Under its mandate, the mission's 3 300 troops monitored a 25km buffer zone set up along the 1 000km border between the two neighbours.
Security council
The witnesses said it was crucial that both sides implement the peace accord "fully and without qualification".
Diplomats said that the security council was expected to adopt its own statement on Friday, welcoming the witnesses' action and calling on both sides to honour it.
US ambassador John Bolton asked the witnesses to assemble after Eritrea last year put severe restrictions on UN peacekeepers operating on its territory, raising fears of a repeat of the 1998-2000 border war that cost 70 000 lives.
Asmara expelled North Americans, Western Europeans and Russians from the UN peacekeeping force and banned UN helicopter flights used to monitor the border.
The Eritrean side acted after Ethiopia refused to accept the new boundary set out by an international commission after both sides had agreed in advance to be bound by the ruling.
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