UN envoy to visit peacekeepers amid rising tension

Amid reports of rising tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea over their disputed border, the UN Security Council on Thursday authorised Kenzo Oshima, chairman of its working group on peacekeeping operations, to visit the UN peacekeeping mission in the region. The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) has reported that there were military movements by both parties towards the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), a buffer area between the neighbouring countries. Eritrea has maintained its flight ban against the UN, hampering UNMEE's operations. Oshima will visit the mission from Sunday to Wednesday. He told journalists in New York on Thursday that his assignment would be limited to reviewing the mission's concerns, speaking to the troop commanders and reporting back to the Security Council, the UN News Service reported. The 1998–2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea over border demarcation claimed the lives of an estimated 70,000 people on both sides. The boundary has still not been demarcated, despite the frontier's delineation by an international border commission, whose decision should have been respected by both parties. Both the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council have strongly urged Eritrea and Ethiopia to refrain from any threat or use of force. Annan, who briefed the 15-member Council in a closed session, said afterwards that all members had appealed for calm and were in contact with the leaders of both countries. In remarks to the media, Annan added that he had spoken to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Thursday. "We are seeking other measures to try and get our message through, to try and improve the situation on the ground so that we can carry out our mandate," said Annan. "Obviously if we had been able right from the beginning to implement the decision of the Border Commission we wouldn't be here now, but we are caught in a stalemate," he added. Ambassador Andrey Denisov of Russia, who holds the Security Council's monthly rotating presidency for November, told reporters that the Council was "deeply concerned" about reports from UNMEE that Ethiopia and Eritrea were moving military personnel on both sides of the TSZ. Council members were also deeply concerned about "the unacceptable restrictions imposed on UNMEE, which must be lifted, and the continued impasse in the implementation of the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission". In the Eritrean capital of Asmara, the UN special envoy, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, and UNMEE Force Commander Maj Gen Rajender Singh described to reporters the military changes manoeuvring on both sides of the TSZ between the two Horn of Africa countries. Singh said that in Ethiopia, the concentration of troops had increased and that they had moved about 20 km to 30 km closer to the TSZ. Tanks which had been located deep inside Ethiopia had advanced about 10 km closer to the boundary zone, while other tanks had been seen in areas where they were not previously located. On the Eritrean side, he said, the restrictions on UNMEE's freedom of movement were being tightened daily. There were also incursions into the TSZ by armed personnel who identified themselves as militia but were unwilling to show the required identity cards. Legwaila stressed that if the peacekeepers were not allowed to do their job, the UN would have to make some hard decisions, such as determining whether consent for the mission to operate in its assigned area is being withdrawn by one of the parties. "The Council must decide: is it useful to keep pouring [US] $200 million into maintaining a mission which is not allowed to do its work? " he said. Meanwhile, UNMEE said, its peacekeepers had continued to provide medical assistance to the local population, along with supplying bulk water to civilian communities in the TSZ and adjacent areas. Some 253,900 litres of water were supplied to the civilian communities during the past week. On Tuesday, for the third time since Eritrea’s ban on UNMEE helicopter flights came into effect on 5 October, a request for clearance from the Eritrean authorities for aerial medical evacuation of a peacekeeper had not been responded to, the mission said.