Eritrea blames US of backing Ethiopia in border talks

5/26/2006 AFP
NAIROBI • Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki has accused the United States of favouring Ethiopia in talks with Eritrea to end a dispute over their border. Stuck in a dangerous stalemate since their 1998-2000 border war, tensions have been high between the two Horn of Africa countries over the past year.

The United States has tried to break the impasse and persuade the two countries to accept a 2002 decision by an independent commission which demarcated the border.

But Isaias said the United States is giving “misinformation on ‘people and villages that will be divided’” as part of a ploy to back Ethiopia’s position.

“It is engaged in putting pressure on the boundary commission as well as trying to wrest the case from its jurisdiction,” Isaias said in a speech on Wednesday marking the 15th anniversary of the liberation of the capital Asmara.

“The US administration is in effect vouching for and encouraging the TPLF’s (Ethiopian government’s) defiance of international law thereby undermining the integrity of treaties, the rule of law and the boundary commission’s decision,” he said.

The speech was later posted on the Eritrean Information Ministry’s Web site shabait.com.

The United States embassy in Asmara had no immediate comment. In a 2000 peace deal, the two countries agreed to mark their border according to a final independent boundary commission ruling, which was made in April 2002.

Ethiopia, which balked at carrying out the decision that awarded a key town to Eritrea, has since said it will accept it as long as there are talks about how it will be done.

Eritrea has demanded that the deal be followed as agreed, with no questions asked.

“The U.S. administration bears primary responsibility for the complication of the process,” Isaias said.