UN chief concerned at troop buildup along Eritrea-Ethiopia border
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed serious concern Wednesday about the military buildup along the border between arch-rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia and urged them to break the stalemate in efforts to demarcate the disputed frontier.
"The continued stalemate on this issue (demarcation), the tension between the two parties and the military buildup along the border area are matters of serious concern," he said in his latest report, released here Wednesday.
"There is no other option but for the two parties to find common ground that would allow the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission to proceed with the demarcation of the border," he added.
Ban renewed his call on the two Horn of Africa neighbors to show "the utmost restraint" and to pull back their forces and reduce military activities in the border area.
Tension has been growing between the two countries which have been at odds since a 1998-2000 bloody border conflict in which some 70,000 died, many in brutal First World War-style trench warfare.
In recent weeks, Eritrea has repeatedly accused its bigger and more powerful neighbor of bracing for a new border war, a claim dismissed by Addis Ababa as a bid by Asmara to divert attention from its internal woes.
Both sides have been flexing muscles and exchanging increasingly bitter rhetoric ahead of the expected closure of the UN-appointed boundary commission later this month.
The disputed frontier is then to be fixed on maps, with the panel complaining that uncompromising stances on both sides have prevented it from physically demarcating the border on the ground.
Ban called on the parties to extend full cooperation to the boundary commission "without further delay" and to "find a mutually acceptable way to implement the final and binding 2002 delimitation ruling of the Commission."
In 2002, the panel awarded the disputed border town of Badme to Eritrea.
Ethiopia says it is prepared to comply, but wants negotiation on implementation of the ruling to avoid families in Badme being split between the countries.
In this connection, Ban noted Eritrean forces have continued the construction of new defenses inside the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), a buffer area between the two countries, including in close proximity to Badme.
And he reiterated that the continued presence and deployment of Eritrean troops and heavy military equipment inside the buffer zone "constitute direct violations" of the 2000 Algiers ceasefire agreement.
Ban stressed the need to "preserve the integrity" of the TSZ and therefore appealed to Eritrea to withdraw its forces and military hardware from the area and to lift its continued restrictions on operations of the UN mission (UNMEE).
These restrictions include a ban on UN helicopter flights in Eritrea's airspace and its expulsion of UNMEE's North American and European staff.
UNMEE, which has monitored the Eritrea-Ethiopia frontier since the 2000 peace deal, fields around 2,000 military and civilian personnel, with the troops coming mainly from India and Jordan.
The UN chief also pressed Ethiopia and Eritrea to reactivate their joint military coordination commission, saying it provided "a unique framework for dialogue between military representatives of the two parties to peacefully address issues of border security."
