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U.N. Security Council rejects calls
from Ethiopia to set up new In a copy of a letter obtained by The Associated Press Friday, John
Negroponte, the current Security Council president and U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations, said council members had ``deep regret'' that Ethiopia was
not willing to accept the ruling of Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission that
has been demarcating the border. The letter was handed to the Ethiopian government Thursday, a
diplomatic source said. The boundary commission -- part of the Hague-based Permanent Court of
Arbitration -- was set up after Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace deal in
December 2000 that ended a 2 1/2-year border war between the two impoverished
Horn of Africa nations. Under the peace deal, the commission is supposed to demarcate the
1,000-kilometer (620-mile) boundary while some 4,000 U.N. troops patrolled a
25-kilometer wide (15-mile) buffer zone along the border. The boundary commission announced its decision in April 2002, and both
countries had agreed to abide by it. But the Ethiopian government has
criticized portions of the ruling that give certain areas to Eritrea, in
particular the town of Badme, the war's flashpoint. The town was administered
by Ethiopia before the conflict. In a Sept. 22 letter to the Security Council, Ethiopian Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi described the ruling by the commission as ``a recipe for
continued instability and even recurring wars.'' He called on the Security
Council to set up ``an alternative mechanism'' to demarcate the boundary's
contested areas. But Negroponte said in his letter that ``the members of the Security
Council ... wish to convey to you their deep regret at the intention of the
government of Ethiopia not to accept the entirety of the delimitation and
demarcation decision as decided by the boundary commission.'' The boundary commission does not comment on its work, but the
twice-delayed physical demarcation of the disputed border was supposed to
begin this month. That, however, looks increasingly unlikely as tensions
between Ethiopia and Eritrea rise. In his letter, Negroponte expressed ``serious concern at the
continuous and abnormal absence of political dialogue'' between the two
countries. On Thursday, Eritrea's Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella told the
United Nations that Ethiopia ``has threatened to unleash another war of
aggression against Eritrea'' if its conditions aren't met. In a speech to the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, he
said Ethiopia had informed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Ethiopia
had rejected the decision by the boundary commission. A day earlier, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told the
meeting that the December 2000 agreement was designed to lead to durable
peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and ``not meant to punish the victim of
aggression.'' ``That is why Ethiopia has felt it necessary to call on the Security
Council to help us,'' Seyoum said. The border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea erupted in May 1998, and
killed tens of thousands of people and cost both countries an estimated US$1
million per day. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a
30-year guerrilla war, but the border between the two was never formally
demarcated. Initially, the process was regarded as one of the United Nation's
easier peacekeeping missions in Africa because it involves two sovereign
nations, both of which have disciplined armies. Western nations lined up to
send troops for the U.N. force, but nearly three years after the first U.N.
soldiers landed, the process -- which is costing around US$250 million per
year -- is plagued by disputes. |