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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 15 June 2006

ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Ethiopia blames Eritrea for stalled border-dispute talks

NAIROBI, 15 Jun 2006 (IRIN) - Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of showing no interest in resolving an ongoing dispute over the border between the neighbouring Horn of Africa nations.

A meeting in The Hague on Thursday of the International Boundary Commission - which demarcated the common frontier following a 1998-2000 war between the two countries - had to be cancelled after Eritrea said that it would not attend.

"We are very disappointed. Ethiopia was prepared to participate at the meeting on full-heartedly, with open mind and good will [...] but it has been cancelled because the Eritrean government is not willing to participate," said Salomon Abebe, the spokesman for the Ethiopian foreign ministry in a statement released on Wednesday. "Eritrea is not seeking peace and the situation on the ground proves that it is meddling in the internal affairs of several neighbouring states, including Ethiopia."

In a letter to the commission, Eritrea argued that it would not attend the meeting unless Addis Ababa agreed to the terms of the 2002 border ruling, which Ethiopia has repeatedly said should be reviewed. "Eritrea has asked reasonably enough that Ethiopia be required to come into compliance with the Commission's previous orders, this includes [...] unambiguously accepting the terms of the delimitation award," said Lea Brilmayer, legal advisor to the Eritrean presidency. "Until Ethiopia's defiance stops, there can be no demarcation; there is, accordingly, no reason to have another meeting," the letter said.

To end border war, both parties agreed to abide by the ruling of the border commission, which was reached in April 2002. However, Ethiopia's rejection of the decision stalled the physical demarcation of the border in 2003. In November 2004, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi finally accepted "in principle" the boundary demarcation in a five-point peace proposal that called for a meeting with Eritrea to work out adjustments to the border on both sides.

Eritrea, however, has rejected calls for fresh talks. In the past year, there have been increased tensions and a buildup of troops along both sides of the frontier, which is patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers. Frustrated at the lack of progress in resolving the dispute, Eritrea banned UN Mission in Ethiopian and Eritrea (UNMEE) flights over its territory in October 2005 and expelled the peacekeeping mission's North American and European personnel.

The meeting scheduled for Thursday would have been the third round of talks aimed at ending the deadlock.

[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 2006