Eritrea snubs UN envoys, Addis say Asmara girding for war

13 December 2005, Asmara, Eritrea- Ethiopia on Tuesday accused rival Eritrea of deliberately ratcheting up tension for a second border war as Eritrean officials refused to meet UN envoys trying to ease the deteriorating situation.

In a speech to parliament, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Eritrea was attempting to provoke a new conflict but stressed Addis Ababa would take deterrent measures to dissuade Asmara from resorting to a new war.

"The Eritrean government is making efforts to worsen the situation around the border," he told lawmakers. "If the Eritrean government believes that it can ensure victory there is no doubt it will do what it can to wage a war."

"The only alternative is to show the Eritrean government they will not win anything if a war is started," Meles said.

"In this respect, we have to show that there is proportional force and until a lasting peace has been secured this will continue," he said, confirming that Ethiopia would pull back troops from the border in line with UN Security Council demands.

Shortly after he spoke, diplomats in Asmara said Eritrean officials were refusing to meet with the envoys -- Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, and military adviser General Randir Kumar Mehta.

The pair had arrived in Asmara from Addis Ababa late Monday and had planned to see top Eritrean officials on Tuesday but the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) it said it had not been able to arrange any meetings.

"We do not have a meeting fixed as yet but we continue to seek a meeting with the Eritrean authorities for Mr Guehenno," UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte told reporters.

She said Guehenno and Mehta would "probably" leave Asmara as planned on Wednesday and that if Eritrea refused to reverse its decision to expel North American and European UNMEE staff, they would likely move to Ethiopia.

"If the situation remains the same, then the mission will be considering relocation (of affected personnel) within the mission area," Sainte said. "We do not want to have a confrontation."

Eritrea last Tuesday gave US, Canadian, European and Russian members of UNMEE -- believed to number about 160 people -- 10 days to leave the country, a moved condemned by UN chief Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council.

Annan dispatched Guehenno and Mehta to the region in a bid to convince Eritrea to rescind the decision and ease rising fears that the two countries are on the brink of new conflict.

But after meeting with Meles on Monday, Eritrea showed no signs of willingness to see the envoys, diplomats said.

"It's not looking good," one Asmara-based diplomat told AFP.

Guehenno said Monday the United Nations feared a "miscalculation" by either side could spark a resumption in hostilities between the Horn of Africa neighbors who fought a 1998-2000 border war that claimed some 80,000 lives.

Last month, the UN Security Council threatened both Ethiopia and Eritrea with sanctions if they return to war or do not reduce their troop presence near the border, which UNMEE says is "tense and potentially volatile."

The council also threatened Eritrea alone with sanctions unless it rescinds a ban on UNMEE helicopter flights it imposed in October, prompting an irate response from Asmara which has given no sign it will comply.

Diplomats believe there are now at least 100,000 soldiers on either side of the border and, on Monday, Eritrea dismissed as irrelevant Ethiopia's pledge to pull back its troops.

It also accused the United Nations of "meddling" by ignoring Ethiopia's refusal to accept a binding 2002 border demarcation emanating from the 2000 Algiers agreement that ended the war.

UNMEE has 3,794 peacekeepers and support staff on both sides of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border, many of whom are based in Eritrea and patrol a 25-kilometer (15-mile) buffer zone inside Eritrean territory.

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