ERITREA: UNMEE dismisses criticism by top military official

ADDIS ABABA, 4 May 2004 (IRIN) - The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has dismissed claims by an Eritrean official that its peacekeepers were deviating from their role of monitoring the peace with Ethiopia.

Brig-Gen Abrahaley Kifle - a top military official who liaises with the UNMEE - accused the peacekeepers, in an interview on Eritrean TV last week, of engaging in "unlawful acts", spreading "unfounded rumours" and exhibiting a lack of accountability.

The interview had been preceded by attempts by UNMEE to persuade the Eritrean authorities to lift a travel restriction on the Keren-to-Barentu road. UNMEE said the restriction considerably hampered its operations.

Abrahaley, who represents Eritrea at the military coordination commission talks with Ethiopia, said that alternative routes were available to the peacekeepers. He claimed that UNMEE personnel travelled at night and registered plate numbers of vehicles belonging to the Eritrean Defence Forces, which he described as an "unlawful act". Some peacekeepers, he claimed, were engaged in the illegal trafficking of people, "duping female Eritreans", and making pornographic films.

UNMEE dismissed Abrahaley's accusations in a statement issued on 28 April, saying he was "rehashing" accusations dating back to 2002 and 2003. "We are deeply disturbed about the accusations levelled against UNMEE regarding the illegal trafficking of Eritrean nationals to neighbouring countries, production of pornographic films and related unlawful acts, and unacceptable social liaisons with Eritrean females," UNMEE said.

In 2002, an Irish soldier was repatriated after a woman appeared on Eritrean TV to say she had made a pornographic film with a peacekeeper. "As a result of an internal military investigation, the soldier has been severely disciplined and repatriated to his country of origin," UNMEE said at the time.

"UNMEE takes these accusations very seriously. We are dismayed that cases brought to our attention in 2002 and early 2003, and which had been thoroughly investigated and appropriately dealt with, are now being rehashed as recent developments," the statement said. "UNMEE is concerned that after three and a half years of good working relations ...the Commissioner [Abrahaley] would resort to making public comments which appear to be inciting the population of Eritrea against our staff."

UNMEE officials said that relations with the Eritrean authorities were good. But senior diplomatic sources told IRIN that relations had been "strained" by lack of progress on demarcating the contested 1,000-km border with Ethiopia.

The physical demarcation of the border, which was due to start in May 2003, stalled after Ethiopia rejected a decision on the exact route of the border by the independent boundary commission charged with the task.