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DATE=6/18/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ETHIOPIA/ERITREA (L)
NUMBER=2-263578
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Ethiopia and Eritrea have signed a cease-fire 
in Algeria, ending their two-year border war. V-O-A's 
Scott Stearns in Nairobi reports on the plan and the 
challenges ahead.
TEXT:  The Organization of African Unity cease-fire 
commits both sides to pull back to their pre-war 
borders.  Eritrea did that last month under military 
pressure from Ethiopia, but Ethiopian troops remain 
far inside Eritrea.
Under this plan, Ethiopia promises to withdraw from 
Eritrea within two weeks of the deployment of a United 
Nations force to monitor the cease-fire.
That force will control a 25-kilometer buffer zone 
inside Eritrea, keeping the two armies out of 
artillery range.  Although Eritrea's military will not 
be allowed to operate in that zone, civilian 
officials, including police, will work alongside U-N 
troops.
While questions remain about the size and mandate of 
the U-N force, regional diplomats are hopeful the plan 
will work, chiefly because, if the political will 
exists, both armies are professional enough to 
maintain the cease-fire while waiting for U-N troops.
There has been no fighting reported since Ethiopia 
agreed to the cease-fire late Wednesday.  On the war's 
western front, Ethiopian troops are more than 100 
kilometers inside Eritrea.  They also control Eritrean 
territory on the central front and the eastern front 
near the Red Sea port of Assab.
With Ethiopia's promise to withdraw as part of this 
cease-fire, Eritrea's government says it will not 
attack Ethiopian positions inside Eritrea unless 
provoked. 
The O-A-U plan calls for separate talks to resolve the 
border dispute with an international commission to 
draw up a new map.  Their exact border was not defined 
when Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in 1993.
That contributed to the war but was not the only 
cause.  The former allies also fell out over access to 
markets, economic development and Eritrea's decision 
to launch its own currency, which Ethiopia refused to 
float one-for-one against its own money.  (Signed)
NEB/SS/ALW/WD
18-Jun-2000 07:14 AM EDT (18-Jun-2000 1114 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.