From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2008 - 12:15:41 EDT
UN ends Eritrea-Ethiopia peacekeeping mission
August 28, 2008
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to
end an 8-year-long peacekeeping mission between Eritrea and Ethiopia
despite continuing tensions, a move that the United Nations' chief has
warned could lead to a new war.
Council members voted unanimously
to withdraw the remaining peacekeepers from what was once a
1,700-strong force monitoring a 620-mile-long buffer zone between the
Horn of Africa neighbors.
Belgian Ambassador Jan Grauls told the
council that the mission, known as UNMEE, "had become impossible to
implement" because Eritrea progressively limited the peacekeeper
movements, supply routes and the supply of diesel fuel.
The
mission was also undermined by Ethiopia's refusal to accept an
independent boundary commission's ruling in 2002 to award the town of
Badme to Eritrea, Grauls said.
"The border dispute between
Ethiopia and Eritrea remains total, and the United Nations is
withdrawing without having been able to assist the two countries in
finding a common ground, in spite of having tried all to achieve it,"
he said.
Mission officials said about 320 peacekeepers remain on
the Ethiopian side of the border but most of their colleagues on
Eritrean side have already left. They said the "formal liquidation" of
the headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Asmara, Eritrea, would
begin Friday.
The mission, which cost about $113 million a year,
also has fewer than 400 civilian staffers still in place, mainly
responsible for guarding U.N. equipment until it can be evacuated.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, who warned in April of the dangers of ending the mission,
wrote the council Monday cautioning that the risk of "a resumption of
hostilities, by accident or design, following the withdrawal of UNMEE
remains a reality."
Troops from both countries have exchanged gunfire several times in recent months, he said.
Ban
included letters from Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin saying
the Security Council could have done more to protect the mission and
Eritrean Ambassador Araya Desta saying the council should have thrown
its weight behind the boundary commission's ruling.
In a
statement after the council vote Wednesday, Ban urged the two nations
to "break the current stalemate and create conditions necessary for the
normalization of their relations, which is key to peace and stability
in the region."
Wednesday's resolution demands that Ethiopia and
Eritrea comply with their previous agreement "to show maximum restrain
and refrain from any threat or use of force against each other, and to
avoid provocative military activities."
Eritrea and Ethiopia have
been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence in
1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war. The U.N. sent in peacekeepers under
a 2000 peace agreement that ended a 2 1/2-year border war in which at
least 70,000 people died.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hgx0YecZDSK9rppHhENJtkoAFVsQD928BUFO0
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