H06984
Headlines : GovernmentUS bid to avert new Horn conflict
Here are some fast facts about the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea:
Dec 2000: Peace agreement
Apr 2002: Border ruling
Mar 2003: Ethiopian complaint over Badme rejected
Sep 2003: Ethiopia asks for new ruling
Feb 2005: UN concern at military build-up
Oct 2005: Eritrea restricts peacekeepers’ activities
Nov 2005: UN sanctions threat if no compliance with 2000 deal
(_Source: BBC News_)
For a more in-depth analysis of the current situation, you could read this:
How Horn of Africa brothers fell out
By Michela Wrong, the author of I didn’t do it for you: how the world betrayed a small African nation.
Now the U.S. government is sending a team of diplomats and military officials to the region to try to resolve the situation.
I wonder why “military officials” need to accompany what is essentially a diplomatic mission.
Probably because if a war breaks out between the two countries, which both are close to Yemen and Saudi Arabia, this would create the ideal safe haven for terrorists.
Or are they looking out for more strategic interests, like access to the Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula? Just like they did in Somalia.
[Posted By BurningMonk]Republished from BBC News
US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton presented the initiative to the UN Security Council.
He said the team of diplomats and military officials would spend 30 days trying to resolve the disagreement.
Last month, Eritrea ordered western UN peacekeepers to leave the buffer zone, amid fears of a renewed conflict.
UN peacekeeping head Jean-Marie Guehenno, who recently travelled to both countries, said the US had “the clout, the credibility to move the process forward”.
US assistant secretary of state for African affairs Jendayi Frazer is to head the mission, which is to travel to the region next week, Mr Bolton said.
Sanctions threat
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported back this month to the Security Council on resolution 1640, which carries the threat of sanctions against both countries if they do not withdraw troops they had sent to the border. He presented them with six options from leaving things as they are to pulling out.
The two neighbours fought a costly border war from 1997 to 2000, which ended with a peace agreement committing both sides to abide by the ruling of an independent commission which demarcated the boundary.
However, Ethiopia has not withdrawn its troops from the disputed border town of Badme, which the commission…
Posted by BurningMonk
RELATED ITEMS
- Army build-up near Horn frontier
Posted by BurningMonk on Wednesday, November 2nd 2005
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Year in Brief, Jan-June 2005 – A chronology of key events
ERITREA-ETHIOPIA: Year in Brief, July-Dec 2005 – A chronology of key events
thnx to alpinestar
Update:
Progress at Horn of Africa talks
Talks to end a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea have ended with what diplomats are describing as a measure of progress.
The conflict sparked a war that ended six years ago after some 76,000 deaths.
An international tribunal ruled on the border in 2002 but Ethiopia refused to let it be demarcated without further discussion and Eritrea objected.
Now a meeting has taken place in London between the two states along with US and United Nations representatives.
The talks, chaired by the international tribunal that decided where the border should run, brought together legal representatives from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
...
update:
ETHIOPIA-ERITREA: Second round of border talks postponed
ADDIS ABABA, 28 Apr 2006 (IRIN) – A second round of talks to resolve the standoff over the demarcation of the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has been postponed, according to United Nations and diplomatic sources.
The meeting of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, which would include representatives from both countries as well as members of the diplomatic community, was scheduled on Friday and Saturday in London, England, but has been delayed until late May or early June, diplomatic sources said.
“The talks have been cancelled, apparently because the head of the boundary commission is sick,” said an official with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which monitors the border and was invited to the meeting.
The talks would have been a follow-up to a meeting in March between legal representatives from the two Horn of Africa nations. The March meeting, which was part of a diplomatic initiative to resolve the dispute, was the first meeting between the parties since the boundary commission concluded it had reached an impasse in November 2003.
On Thursday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi reaffirmed his commitment to participating in the talks. “We in Ethiopia think this is a very important initiative. I will most certainly attend the upcoming London meetings … with an open mind,” he told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “We think that the fact that there is a forum for discussion is in itself an achievement.
“I very much hope that the other side [Eritrea] will recognise that the only sane option is to sit together and discuss the issues and resolve them through dialogue by peaceful means,” he added.
Officials from the Eritrean government were not immediately available for comment.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody war over their common border from 1998 until 2000, in which at least 70,000 people were killed. To end the conflict, both parties agreed to abide by the ruling of an independent 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, Meles finally accepted “in principle” the demarcation of the boundary 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 repeatedly rejected calls for fresh talks on the border issue and warned of renewed conflict. In the past year, there have been increased tensions and a build up of troops along both sides of the frontier between the two countries, which is patrolled by the UN peacekeepers. Frustrated at the lack of progress in resolving the dispute, Eritrea banned UNMEE flights over its territory in October 2005 and expelled the peacekeeping mission’s North American and European personnel. UNMEE’s mandate will expire on 15 May.