Eritrea says UN most to blame for border impasse

Sat 10 Nov 2007, 10:07 GMT

By Jack Kimball

ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea's president laid most of the blame for its five-year border impasse with Ethiopia on the United Nations on Saturday.

Both countries have more than 100,000 troops close to the frontier, raising fears of a repeat of their 1998-2000 war. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki met U.N. assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, Edmond Mulet, on Friday.

"The greatest abuse and accountability squarely rests on the Security Council and the secretary-general, and not Ethiopia per se," Isaias was quoted as saying in the English-language Eritrea Profile newspaper on Saturday.

Addis Ababa and Asmara have been locked in a bitter dispute over their shared border after a 2002 decision by an independent boundary commission gave Eritrea the town of Badme.

Eritrea has long complained that the international community has done nothing to make Ethiopia accept the ruling. Addis Ababa says it accepts the ruling but wants dialogue about how demarcation should occur, which Asmara refuses.

"The silence and the unjustified stance of the United Nations including the Security Council has been and continues to be an encouraging factor for this situation," Isaias told the U.N. peacekeeping head.

Under a peace deal that ended the war, a U.N. peacekeeping force of 1,700 monitors a security buffer zone on Eritrea's side of the 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier.

Eritrea has had strained relations with the force, and restricted helicopter flights and expelled western peacekeepers.

The border is set to be marked on maps if the two sides do not begin to physically mark the frontier by the end of the month. Isaias told the newspaper the border ruling was not "subject to any change".

On Friday, the United States urged "maximum restraint" by Addis Ababa and Asmara.

Ethiopia, which is Washington's main counterterrorism ally in the region, said on Friday it had no plans to invade Eritrea even as Asmara repeated Addis Ababa was preparing an assault.

The United States has strained ties with Eritrea, which it accuses of backing Somali insurgents battling Ethiopian and Somali government troops in Mogadishu.

Reuters