Leaders to sign peace agreement tomorrow

Ethiopia and Eritrea are expected to sign a peace agreement to end their two-year war in Algiers on Tuesday. Embassy officials in Nairobi told IRIN that the leaders of both countries were expected to be present in Algerian capital for the signing. According to agency reports, the signing ceremony will be attended, among others, by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim and US Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

The agreement will establish commissions to supervise border demarcation, prisoner exchanges, compensation, and action on displaced people. It will also seek to “identify and verify the causes of the conflict”, according to Mengistu Ayalew, counsellor at the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi. Meanwhile, the second secretary at the Eritrean Embassy in Nairobi, Thomas Tewelde, told IRIN that his country was optimistic over the agreement about to be signed. He said, however, that it would take goodwill on both sides to make the agreement a success. “You cannot clap with one hand only”, he added. [for full text of the Agreement, go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/WCE?OpenForm]