UN sends peacekeepers to Eritrea, Ethiopia

UN sends peacekeepers to Eritrea, Ethiopia

December 09 2005 at 11:06AM

United Nations - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is sending two senior peacekeeping officials to Eritrea and Ethiopia to assess the situation in the wake of Eritrea's decision to expel Western peacekeepers from the area, his spokesperson said on Thursday.

Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Annan decided to send the head of UN peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, and military adviser General Randir Kumar Mehta to the two countries "as soon as practicable".

Their mission will be to "assess the situation on the ground and to see what steps can be taken to improve the situation" after Asmara gave North American and European peacekeepers from the UN mission monitoring its tense border with Ethiopia 10 days to leave, Dujarric said.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council and Annan demanded that Eritrea immediately rescind its decision.

'We have every right to expel some personnel'
But a senior Eritrean official said on Thursday that Asmara had no intention of complying with the UN demand.

"We are a sovereign country, we have every right to expel some personnel within the law," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is here at the invitation of both parties under Chapter Six of the UN charter," the official said, referring to provisions that make the hosting of such operations voluntary.

Ninety-one out of 210 military observers are affected as are nearly 100 civilian staff and volunteers, UNMEE officials said.

The expulsions were ordered amid soaring tensions along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border and rising fears of a resumption in hostilities between the arch-rival Horn of Africa neighbours.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody 1998-2000 war over the border that claimed some 80 000 lives, and Asmara says new conflict is looming because Addis Ababa has rejected a binding frontier demarcation emanating from a peace deal. - Sapa-AFP