Ethiopia reiterates troops withdrawal from tense border with Eritrea

Ethiopia reiterates troops withdrawal from tense border with Eritrea

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Tuesday his government will pull back troops from the increasingly tense border with Eritrea in line with a UN Security Council resolution.

"In respect to the request by the UN Security Council and to ease tension along the border with Eritrea, Ethiopia has decided to redeploy troops to their original positions away from the border," Meles told lawmakers.

On Friday, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said his country is prepared to redeploy its forces in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1640.

"Though we have seen no encouraging signs from Eritrea even after Resolution 1640 has been adopted, Ethiopia is convinced that its compliance with the Security Council's instruction is necessary even if doing so might have some risk for Ethiopia's security," Seyoum said in an open letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

In a report to parliament, Meles accused Eritrea of increasing tensions along the border.

"We are convinced that should Eritrea believes that it is militarily strong compared with Ethiopia, it would not hesitate to launch another cycle of war," he said.

"Cognizant of Eritrea's intention, Ethiopia has built a formidable force that would ensure Eritrea would never achieve victory should it attempt to launch war."

From 1998 to 2000, the two countries fought a border war, in which 70,000 people were killed. Since July 2001, a UN peacekeeping force, which now numbers about 3,000 troops and observers, has been patrolling a buffer zone separating the two countries' militaries.

In recent months, tensions have grown with renewed military buildup along the Ethio-Eritrea border.

Source: Xinhua