Eritrea: We Don't Need UNMEE Anymore

11 April 2008, United Nations-- The permanent representative of Eritrea to the United Nations, Araya Desta, reportedly told Reuters on Thursday he saw no need for U.N. Peacekeepers (UNMEE) to remain on its border with Ethiopia, despite U.N. fears that a total withdrawal could spark a new war in the Horn of Africa

"We don't need UNMEE anymore," Eritrean Ambassador Araya Desta told Reuters in a telephone interview. He was referring to the U.N. mission on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

"The UNMEE issue is a dead issue," he said.

Responding to fears of a repeat of the two countries' 1998-2000 war, Desta said Eritrea was not planning to attack Ethiopia. But he warned Addis Ababa that his country was prepared to fend off any invasions into Eritrean territory.

"If the Ethiopians invade us, we'll be forced to defend ourselves," Desta said.

UNMEE has already withdrawn nearly 1,700 troops and military observers who for the past seven years had been trying to prevent another war between the Horn of Africa neighbors.

Some 164 peacekeepers are left in Eritrea to guard equipment, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report circulated to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Most UNMEE troops have been sent home temporarily, Ban said in the report, obtained by Reuters.

Ban's report said Eritrea was refusing to discuss the issue of the future status of UNMEE and accused Asmara of a "military occupation" of the official buffer zone between the countries established under the cease-fire agreement.

Desta said his government had not prepared an official response to the report but he vehemently denied that Eritrean forces had illegally seized the territory, which he said was land that belonged to Eritrea. Reuters

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