UN special envoy arrives in Addis Ababa

Lloyd Axworthy, who has been appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a solution to the deadlock in the stalled peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea arrived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday. He told reporters hours later that it had not been determined when he would see Eritrean President Isayas Afeworki Axworthy stressed, however, that this did not spell the end of his mission. "It doesn’t help, but that doesn’t mean it is a permanent state [of affairs]," he said. "If we feel there is something we can build on, then we will make every effort to talk to him about it." "Having fought some nine elections for the Canadian parliament, I am used to having a few doors slammed in my face first time round. But I am pretty persistent in going back," he added. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-and-a-half-year war over their 1,000-km border, ending in a peace accord signed in Algiers in 2000. Under the deal, an independent boundary commission, based in The Hague, was set up to defuse tensions by demarcating the border. The commission issued its ruling in April 2002, but this was rejected by Ethiopia, terming it "illegal", because it had placed Badme, a symbolic border town over which the war broke out, in Eritrea. Ethiopia's reaction created a deadlock, prompting the boundary commission to suspend its operations, since when UN peacekeepers have been preserving a fragile peace between the two countries. Axworthy insisted that his plan was to ensure its observance. "The purpose here is to help bring about implementation," he noted. "We have to make it clear we are not here in any way to replace that decision or to even find an alternative way of dealing with the mechanisms. The president of Eritrea is still showing reservations and continues to assert that this is a replacement mechanism when in fact it is not," he said. "The sooner demarcation begins the better trust there can be so we can address other issues," Axworthy stressed, adding that his current visit was "open ended" to enable him to listen to concerns and try and get some kind of dialogue going. Axworthy is due to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Friday, and will also hold talks with African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, EU ambassadors and the head of the 4,200 strong UN peacekeeping mission, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila.