Foreign Minister says final border ruling due in February

The Eritrean Foreign Minister has said that the Eritrea-Ethiopia border commission will give its final verdict on the demarcation of the disputed border line in February 2002, the Eritrean News Agency reported on Saturday. Ali Sayyid Abdallah told the news agency before he departed for Japan to attend the Afro-Japan cooperation conference in Tokyo, that the verdict would grant no right of appeal and would therefore be binding.

The border commission, which is made up of five representatives (two nominated by either side and one neutral member) is due to hold a meeting in the Hague, Netherlands, in the second week of December which Abdallah is due to attend. The body is charged with achieving a resolution of the demarcation of the contested border which led Ethiopia and Eritrea to fight a two-year war.

Speaking to IRIN last month, the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative to the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Legwaila Jospeh Legwaila, said that "it was very wise of both sides to agree beforehand that the findings of the border commission would be final and binding." He expressed confidence that both sides would accordingly abide by its findings.

Meanwhile, Eritrean President Isayas Aferwerki met and held talks with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary General Amara Essy on Friday to discuss growing tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Eritrean Radio has reported. Responding to recent accusations by the Ethiopian government that Eritrea was mobilising its soldiers within the Temporary Security Zone which separates the armies of the two sides, Aferwerki reportedly told Mr. Essy that the rumours were false.