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UN appeals to Ethiopia, Eritrea
24/02/2006 18:37 - (SA)
Anthony Mitchell
Nairobi - Arbiters should move to mark the Ethiopia-Eritrea border proposed four years ago, and both countries should stop blocking a resolution of their tense standoff, urged the United Nations, America and others in a joint statement.
The United States, UN, European Union, African Union and Algeria - the five parties who witnessed and guaranteed a truce Eritrea and Ethiopia signed in 2000 - said the Eritrea-Ethiopia border commission should convene a meeting with Eritrea and Ethiopia and work out technical details on marking the border.
They "strongly urge the parties to attend the meeting and to co-operate with and abide by all requirements specified by the commission in order to successfully conclude the demarcation process".
The statement noted that "both Ethiopia and Eritrea committed themselves to accepting the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission as final and binding", under the 2000 agreement that ended a two and a half-year border war. The border commission made its proposal in April 2002.
International community
The US, UN, EU, AU and Algeria pressed Ethiopia to accept the awarding of the disputed town of Badme and other territories to Eritrea.
Ethiopia had refused to accept losing Badme, and a frustrated Eritrea had accused the international community of shirking its responsibility to ensure the border ruling was implemented.
Since October, Eritrea had restricted UN peacekeepers patrolling its border with Ethiopia by banning helicopter flights and movement of other vehicles at night.
Thursday's statement called on Eritrea to lift those restrictions, saying the border can't be demarcated unless the UN "is allowed full freedom of movement throughout its area of operations".
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but their 1 000km border was never settled.
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