NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- An independent commission will demarcate the contested Ethiopian-Eritrean border on maps and leave the rival nations to establish the physical boundary themselves, a letter obtained by Reuters on Tuesday shows.
The Horn of Africa neighbors fought a 1998-2000 war over a border area of dusty villages and scrubby plains, and 70,000 people were killed. Although a 2000 agreement ended the conflict, the peace process soon ground to a halt.
"The commission has decided that it will complete the process of demarcation by the use of coordinates to establish fixed points on the boundary to be connected to each other," the November 7 letter from the commission to Ethiopia said.
"The parties may, if they wish, jointly erect boundary pillars on the fixed points."
It said both Ethiopian and Eritrean officials were invited to a November 20 meeting in The Hague to discuss the procedure.
"The parties will be afforded the opportunity to express their views regarding the foregoing procedure. Thereafter, the commission will deliberate and reconvene if it decides to proceed."
Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin wrote on Monday that Addis Ababa would ignore any such demarcation, saying violations by Eritrea had stopped the commission from carrying out its mandate and called for the November 20 meeting to be canceled.
"If the commission wishes to proceed along this path, which in Ethiopia's view is legally invalid and politically dangerous, we would have no choice but to conclude that by its own action the commission has lost its mandate," his letter, obtained by Reuters, says.
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu declined to comment.
Under their peace deal, both sides agreed to accept an independent boundary commission's ruling mapping the 620-mile border as "final and binding."
But the peace process ground to a halt after Ethiopia rejected the commission's border and insisted on further talks, prompting Eritrea to restrict peacekeepers' movements, including a ban on helicopter flights over its territory.
Each side has accused the other of using illegal tactics to end the war, and many fear their covert support for rival factions in Somalia could erupt into a war and give them a proxy battleground to settle the border fight militarily.
Ethiopia has said Eritrea has nearly 10,000 soldiers and militia inside a U.N. buffer zone on the disputed border. That figure is much higher than the 1,500 soldiers the United Nations last month accused Asmara of moving to the border.
Eritrea has not given numbers but acknowledged it has personnel in the area for agricultural work such as harvesting.
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