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The United Nations has appointed a new force commander for the Ethiopian and Eritrean peace mission in the disputed border between the duo, officials said here yesterday.
The force commander, Major General Mohammed Taisir Masadeh, who arrived this week in Eritrea's capital Asmara, will take over Major General Ragender Singh of India and assume command of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) as of April 9. The peacekeeping mission has more than 3,000 peacekeepers in the disputed area of the two countries. Masadeh is a Jordanian who served in the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and 1993, and has headed various UN delegations. Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 but relations between the two remained tense and exploded into war in 1998, that cost about 70,000 lives. As part of a peace agreement reached in 2000, both sides agreed the boundary panel's 2002 ruling would be "final and binding." But Ethiopia later rejected the decision and insisted on further talks. Eritrea then imposed restrictions on UN peacekeepers' movements, including a ban on helicopter flights over its territory, reducing UN capacity to monitor the 1,000 kilometers border. UNMEE's mandate is due to expire on April 15, and some members of the UN Security Council have called for the force to be scaled back if the peace process remains deadlocked. But diplomats here say the council is likely to extend the mandate for another month to let diplomatic efforts continue.
Source : Relief Web |
