DATE=12/21/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ERITREA - YEMEN (L-ONLY) CQ
NUMBER=2-257369
BYLINE=CAROL PINEAU
DATELINE=ASMARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Eritrea has welcomed the ruling handed
down Monday by an arbitration tribunal in London
on a dispute that led to a brief war between
Eritrea and Yemen three years ago. Carol Pineau
reports from Asmara.
TEXT: Eritrea's Foreign Minister, Haile
Weldensae, reaffirmed his country will fully
comply with and immediately implement the
tribunal's decision. The ruling gives the
disputed islands in the Red Sea to Yemen, but
preserves Eritrea's traditional fishing rights
and sets the maritime boundary as a median line
between the two countries' coasts.
The minister told diplomats in Asmara that he
hopes the ruling will - in his words - "make the
Red Sea a sea of peace and a sea of cooperation."
Mr. Haile says the decision will open the
possibility for trade relations and joint
ventures between Yemen and Eritrea.
But Foreign Minister Haile also had a message for
Eritrea's southern neighbor, Ethiopia.
For the past year and a half, the two Horn of
Africa nations have been embroiled in a brutal
war with an estimated one-million troops facing
each other across the disputed border.
Foreign Minister Haile says he hopes the
tribunal's ruling will show that arbitration is
the only path to a peaceful solution for Ethiopia
and Eritrea.
/// HAILE ACT ///
The commitment to the peaceful and legal
settlement of disputes will not only pave
the way for the harmonious relationship
between the littoral states of the Red Sea,
but also opens up a new window of
opportunity for the consolidation of peace
and stability in the region and the
creation of a zone of peace, development,
and mutual benefit.
/// END ACT ///
A peace plan presented by the Organization of
African Unity, the O-A-U, calls for international
arbitration to decide the boundaries of the one-
thousand-kilometer Ethiopian - Eritrean border.
Eritrea has accepted the plan. Ethiopia says the
plan is "unsatisfactory," and is asking the O-A-U
for further changes. (Signed)
NEB/CP/GE/LTD/gm
21-Dec-1999 13:59 PM EDT (21-Dec-1999 1859 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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