HORN OF AFRICA, IRIN Update
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: UN mission chief expresses confidence
The new head of the new United Nations Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia
(UNMEE) on Tuesday said he believed the peace operation would succeed
because the two countries "have signed an agreement that they are
determined to implement." UNMEE chief Legwaila Joseph Legwaila were made
during a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, during which UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan formally introduced his new Special
Representative to Ethiopia and Eritrea. Calling Legwaila "a seasoned
peacekeeper," Annan highlighted his role in the UN peacekeeping operation
in Namibia and on the Security Council, saying the Organization was
fortunate to have Legwaila as a UN representative in the
Eritrean-Ethiopian operation. "The peace process and the talks are going
very well. We have good offers for troops. We are not having, fortunately,
the problems we are having in Sierra Leone. I think we have a full
complement of troops and observers", said Annan.
Legwaila said he was confident the peace process would bear fruit. "After
so much bloodshed, they want peace between them," he said, noting that his
approach would be to monitor the ceasefire while they were negotiating the
delineation and delimitation of their common border. "So far, they have
been very successful in maintaining the ceasefire. It is one of the few
ceasefires that has been holding so well", he added. Legwaila said he also
planned to cooperate closely with all UN relief and development agencies
working in Eritrea and Ethiopia "to make sure that we know exactly what
they are doing, [and] to do anything that we can do to help them."
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