Security Council lambasts Eritrea for obstructing UN mission

Friday, 22 February 2008

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The Security Council took Eritrea to task Thursday for continuing to obstruct a planned evacuation of UN personnel caused by Asmara's refusal to provide fuel and food.

A statement issued by the council's 15 members following closed-door consultations "condemned Eritrea's systematic violations of successive Security Council resolutions as well as declarations of its president."

They expressed support for UN boss Ban Ki-moon's efforts to resolve the situation and said they were awaiting a special report from him "to deal with this issue in a more comprehensive manner."

Meawhile, the personnel of the UN mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) are still being regrouped in the capital Asmara ahead of the planned evacuation, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Thursday.

"Due to lack of cooperation by Eritrean authorities", all UN staff in Eritrea were "being moved to Asmara to facilitate further relocation out of the country," she told reporters.

UN officials said UNMEE personnel had been prevented from crossing into Ethiopia.

They also said that food stocks were running extremely low for the blue helmets after an Eritrean commercial company supplying rations to UNMEE said it would no longer fulfil its contractual obligations.

UNMEE made the decision to relocate the staff to Ethiopia after Eritrea cut off diesel fuel supplies to the mission, paralyzing the operation on that side of the border.

Asmara's move was apparently in protest against the world body's stance on the border dispute with Ethiopia.

UNMEE is tasked with monitoring the tense Eritrean-Ethiopian border along which a total of some 200,000 troops from both sides are deployed, fueling fears of a new flare-up.

In a communique, the Eritrean Foreign Ministry said last week it could not discuss or acquiesce in the "temporary relocation" of UNMEE or some other new "arrangement" that is at variance with the provisions of a peace agreement.

Under the 2000 Algiers peace deal which ended their two-year border war, Eritrea and Ethiopia pledged to accept as "final and binding" a verdict by a UN-backed boundary commission on their dispute.

But the panel dissolved early in December, leaving the frontier delineated only on maps. In its final ruling, it granted Eritrea the border town of Badme, which Ethiopia has refused to accept, saying it split families between the countries.

Eritrea has repeatedly accused its bigger and more powerful neighbor of gearing up for a new war, a claim dismissed by Addis Ababa as a bid by Asmara to divert attention from its internal problems.

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