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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Peacekeepers facing more restrictions, says UNMEE
ADDIS ABABA, 11 Nov 2005 (IRIN) - Restrictions on United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the "tense and potentially volatile" Ethiopia-Eritrea frontier have increased considerably, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said on Thursday.
Troop movements from both armies also continued along the 1,000-km border, where the nations fought a bloody war from 1998 to 2000.
"The restrictions have increased almost daily," UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte said. "Before, the restrictions were more sporadic. Now, we have almost daily restrictions."
UNMEE estimates that the ban on helicopter flights imposed by Eritrea in October had cut their monitoring capacity by more than half. Almost all night patrols had been curtailed, Sainte added, while limitations on vehicle and troop patrols had "increased considerably".
"We have forces much closer to the border than we are comfortable with, particularly at a time when we cannot see. We have one group of forces that are 15 to 20 km closer to the border. We have another group which we have no idea where many of them are," Sainte told reporters.
"You have two large armies, both with armaments, and a peacekeeping force that we are not able to see in 55 to 60 percent of its area of operation," she explained. "Our concern is it creates a situation where there could be miscalculation."
Eritrean checkpoints in the 25-km wide buffer zone separating the two armies were stopping UN patrols, Col Mohamed Iqbal, the UNMEE chief of staff, said.
In one incident, a local translator for a UN patrol - who under the terms of the Algiers peace deal, was allowed in the demilitarised zone - was seized and tied to a tree by Eritrean militia.
The restrictions were being imposed in the central and western border areas, where most of the troop movements were also happening, Iqbal reported.
Some of the fiercest fighting during the 1998-2000 war took place in these regions. The disputed town of Badme, which is claimed by both sides and where the fighting erupted during the first conflict, is located along their common border.
"We are very aware that both of those areas are very sensitive," Sainte said via video link from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
Eritrea maintained that its troop movements were for harvesting, while Ethiopia asserted that its soldiers were carrying out training exercises.
Western diplomats estimate that around 300,000 troops are hunkered down along the boundary area. In recent weeks, tanks, additional troops and missiles had been shifted closer to the border, the UN said on 3 November.
Sainte added that the UN mission was concerned about the safety of its 3,200 peacekeeping troops and civilian staff who have been monitoring the stalemate between the two countries since early 2001.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but May not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005
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