From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2008 - 07:29:18 EDT
Ban offers help in border row
Published:Jul 31, 2008
In a statement released by his press office, the secretary general noted
that the 15-member council pulled back after both parties rejected
options for a possible follow-on presence.
"The secretary general regrets this decision by the parties but welcomes
the decision of the council to continue to remain actively seized of the
matter," it added.
Earlier in the day, the Security Council voted unanimously to terminate
the mandate of the 1,700-strong UN mission monitoring the border dispute
(Unme), which expires today.
Resolution 1827 calls on the two Horn of Africa rivals "to show maximum
restraint and refrain from any threat or use of force against each other
and to avoid provocative military activities."
The council decision came in response to crippling restrictions imposed
by Eritrea on the operation of Unmee and Ethiopia's refusal to recognise
a binding verdict by an international boundary panel that granted the
flashpoint border town of Badme to Eritrea.
Under a 2000 Algiers peace deal which ended their two-year border war,
Eritrea and Ethiopia had pledged to accept as "final and binding" a
verdict by the panel on their dispute.
Ban expressed hope that the parties would be "able to break the current
stalemate and create conditions necessary for the normalisation of their
relations, which is key to peace and stability in the region."
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