UNMEE says peace on track

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, has said the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea is on track. He said this at press briefing in Addis Ababa on Thursday, according to a United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) press release. Legwaila admitted there were still "a few outstanding issues", such as direct flights between the two countries, and freedom of movement for peacekeepers, on the resolving of which UNMEE had so far made little progress. He said UNMEE had investigated accusations by Ethiopia that Eritrea was putting its army on high alert in preparation for war, but "so far we have found nothing to suggest that the Eritrean army is on alert". Meanwhile, Legwaila added, UNMEE troops in the Temporary Security Zone would continue to be vigilant "to make sure we are not caught by surprise".

Legwaila said he hoped the release by Eritrea of 24 Ethiopian prisoners-of-war (POWs) on Wednesday represented a resumption of the process of POW releases. The release and repatriation of POWs between the two countries came to a halt in September when the Ethiopians said they would not resume releasing POWs until they received information on the whereabouts of an Ethiopian air force pilot reportedly in Eritrean hands. Since Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace accord in Algiers last December, ICRC has organised the repatriation of 856 Eritrean and 653 Ethiopian POWs. UNMEE figures supplied by both parties indicate that about 1,800 POWs remained in Ethiopia and 400 in Eritrea.