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Addis Ababa - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi criticised on Thursday the UN Security Council for failure to take action on Eritrea's deployment last year of troops and tanks into a frontier buffer zone.
In talks with Pierre Chevalier, Belgium's envoy to the UN Security Council, Meles said it was "inappropriate" for the world body "to fail to take measures when Eritrean troops crossed a temporary security zone", he said. Meles said "the Security Council need to discharge its responsibilities appropriately." Last year, the UN accused Eritrea of moving about 1 500 troops and 14 tanks into a demilitarised buffer zone on its border with Ethiopia in a "major breach" of a bilateral ceasefire. Asmara said the troops were deployed to harvest crops and blamed Ethiopia for forcing it to use its military to do the work of civilian farmers. It maintained the real "major breach" of a 2000 peace deal that ended a very bloody two-year border war between the Horn of Africa nations was Addis Ababa's refusal to accept a new frontier demarcation that emanated from the agreement. Eritrea has long complained that Ethiopia violates the peace deal by refusing to accept the binding ruling by an international boundary commission and accuses the UN of failing to put enough pressure on Addis Ababa to accept it. Strong desire to resolve despute The demarcation awarded the flashpoint border town of Badme to Eritrea and while Ethiopia has said it accepts the decision in principle, it wants revisions, a stance Asmara says is illegal. At the meeting in Addis Ababa, Meles said "the issue of the demarcation of the boarder should be resolved through dialogue". "The people and government of Ethiopia have strong desire to resolve the border dispute between the two countries peacefully." Chevalier said Belgium "would hold discussions with the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea to address the problem regarding the boarder dispute." To show its displeasure to the world body, Asmara last year slapped restrictions on patrols by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) in its territory and expelled its entire European and North American staff. Last month, the Security Council extended the mandate of the UNMEE force for six months, to July 31, but decided to reduce its strength from the current 2 300 to 1 700. The border stalemate has left the status of the 1 000km frontier dangerously unclear more than six years after the peace deal ended the 1998-'00 war and has raised tensions. source: News24 |
