Annan ‘encouraged’ by border talks between Ethiopia and Eritrea

Annan ‘encouraged’ by border talks between Ethiopia and Eritrea

Kofi Annan

13 March 2006 – Encouraged by agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea on arrangements to settle their volatile border dispute, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged both parties to cooperate fully with the commission charged with determining that boundary.

“The Secretary-General firmly believes that full and prompt demarcation of the border is a central element in the overall peace process and can be a key to its early and successful conclusion,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in formal statement.

Mr. Annan said he was pleased by the constructive participation of both parties in the Boundary Commission meeting convened in London on 10 March towards a permanent demarcation of the border.

“The Secretary-General hopes that this positive development will allow the Commission’s decision to be implemented without further delay,” Mr. Dujarric said, urging the parties to cooperate both with the Commission and with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) for this purpose.

The two countries fought a bitter war over the border between 1998 and 2000 and a Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), monitored by UNMEE, now separates them.

A binding decision of the Boundary Commission in 2002 awarded Badme – the town that triggered the conflict – to Eritrea, which has become increasingly critical of the UN for not forcing Ethiopia to accept that demarcation.

As a result, Eritrea has banned UNMEE flights and peacekeepers of certain nationalities from its territory while restricting the mission’s patrols. Mr. Annan, in a recent report on the issue, called the stalemate and the restrictions on UNMEE “untenable.”

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Ethiopia and Eritrea, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, who attended the Boundary Commission meeting in London, briefed the UN Security Council this morning on recent developments.