Gov't urged to reverse restrictions on UNMEE flights

The United Nations Security Council has called upon the Eritrean government to reverse a decision to restrict within its airspace helicopter flights used by the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea [UNMEE]. "The Security Council calls upon the government of Eritrea to immediately reverse its decision and provide UNMEE with the access, assistance, support and protection required for the performance of its duties," Mihnea Ioan Motoc, the current president of the Council, said in a statement on Tuesday. The Eritrean decision, which takes effect on Wednesday, "would have serious implications for UNMEE's ability to carry out its mandate and for the safety of its staff", Motoc added. It would also contravene the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities signed by the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2000 in Algiers, Algeria, following their two-year border war. The statement did not say why the decision was taken. It was not immediately possible to get a clarification from the Eritrean authorities. The Council called on both parties to show maximum restraint and refrain from any threat of use of force against each other, and reiterated its call to them to achieve a "full normalization" of their relationship. "The Security Council reaffirms that both parties bear the primary responsibility for the implementation of the Algiers Agreements and the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission," Motoc said. On 13 September the Council extended UNMEE's mandate until 15 March 2006. The mission has about 3,000 peacekeepers patrolling the border, deployed in an area known as the Temporary Security Zone. In the resolution extending the mission's mandate, Eritrea was strongly urged to remove restrictions on UNMEE military police in Asmara, the capital, and to take immediate steps towards enabling direct UN flights between Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, and Asmara. Under the terms of the Algiers agreement, both sides agreed to accept as binding a ruling by an independent boundary commission on where the border should be. After initially rejecting the commission’s decision, Ethiopia in November 2004 accepted the ruling "in principle", but called for dialogue on its implementation of the ruling on disputed areas of the shared 1,000 km border. Eritrea, on the other hand, rejected the idea of dialogue and insisted on full implementation of the commission's decision beforehand.