Agreements needed "without delay"

The report of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Ethiopia and Eritrea, distributed 7 March, said important issues remained unresolved which affected the peace keeping operation of the United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). Of primary concern was the fact that Eritrea "maintains a significant military presence" in the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The continued failure of UNMEE to secure a direct high-altitude route between the two capitals meant it was now "essential that both parties grant UNMEE unimpeded and unconditional freedom of movement," the report said. Another issue concerned negotiations with both parties on status-of-forces agreements and freedom of movement, particularly Eritrea. "Eritrea... continues to insist on the inclusion in the status-of-forces agreement of provisions which would require the United Nations, contrary to the existing practice in other peacekeeping operations, to test all UNMEE personnel arriving in the country for HIV/AIDS." On public information, Radio UNMEE has managed to broadcast programmes about the peace process and humanitarian issues in Eritrea; but the Ethiopian government had "raised objections to the possibility of providing facilities to UNMEE broadcasting at no charge." The report also pointed out that despite repeated requests from UNMEE "neither party has so far provided complete information on mine fields." This constituted "a serious limitation" on UNMEE, the Secretary-General said. Eritrea had further cited objections to the Temporary Security Zone map as a reason for not transmitting information on mine fields. Another issue highlighted in the report was that although "the military situation between the two armed forces has generally remained calm... UNMEE has reported small arms and instances of destruction of property attributed to one or the other party." [For full text of report see http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/reports/2001/202e.pdf]