CHRONOLOGY-Key events in Ethiopia-Eritrea border row

CHRONOLOGY-Key events in Ethiopia-Eritrea border row
15 Dec 2005 12:25:11 GMTSource: Reuters

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Western peacekeepers began leaving Eritrea on Thursday after the United Nations agreed to pull out Americans, Canadians and Europeans from its mission set up to prevent war with Ethiopia.
Below is a chronology of the border conflict between the two countries that has killed 70,000 people since 1998.
May 1998 - Eritrean and Ethiopian forces clash in the western border region of Badme, launching the border war.
May 12 - Eritrea occupies Ethiopian-administered Badme.
June 4 - Ethiopia accepts a peace plan drawn up by the United States and Rwanda which requires Eritrea to withdraw to pre-May 6 positions.
June 14 - Both sides agree a moratorium on air raids as the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the United States attempt to negotiate a peace deal.
Nov 8 - Ethiopia accepts the OAU peace plan but Eritrea objects to certain elements, talks fail.
Feb 6, 1999 - Fighting erupts again.
Feb 26 - Ethiopia recaptures Badme after days of World War One-style trench warfare with the loss of thousands of lives.
May 17, 2000 - U.N. Security Council votes for an arms embargo against both sides in punishment for renewing the war.
May 31 - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declares the border war has ended.
June 18 - A peace agreement brokered by the OAU is signed in Algiers. The plan calls for an immediate ceasefire and the deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force in a 25-km (15 mile) buffer zone.
Jan 2001 - A 4,200-strong UN peacekeeping force is deployed to monitor peace between the two countries.
April 13, 2002 - The Hague-based five-member Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) delivers a ruling on border but fails to delineate the disputed town of Badme on the ground, saying it requires more time.
Mar 21, 2003 - The EEBC finally rules that Badme is in Eritrea, but Ethiopia rejects the ruling.
Nov 25 - Ethiopia accepts "in principle" the 2002 EEBC ruling but wants a dialogue with its neighbour first, which Eritrea refuses.
Oct 4, 2005 - Eritrea bans U.N. helicopters from its airspace.
Nov 2 - U.N. peacekeepers say both Ethiopia and Eritrea have moved troops and tanks towards the border.
Nov 23 - The U.N. Security Council threatens sanctions on both nations if they fail to step back.
Nov 24 - The U.N. says Ethiopia has occupied a demilitarised zone for five days; Eritrea dismisses the threat of U.N. sanctions as a glaring example of big power bias.
Dec 7 - Eritrea orders U.N. peacekeepers from Western countries to leave within 10 days.
Dec 14 - The U.N. Security Council agrees to pull out American, Canadian and European peacekeepers from Eritrea and relocate them "temporarily" in Ethiopia.

AlertNet news is provided by Reuters