Religious leaders to meet

Religious leaders from Ethiopia and Eritrea are to meet in the two countries for the first time, in what has been hailed as a breakthrough in peace-building after the border war between the two sides.

Leaders from the Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Evangelical Church in both countries, as well as Muslim representatives, are due to meet later this week. The initiative has been taken by the NGO, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), which has organised several meetings in third countries.

"It is the first meeting in their respective countries," Estrid Hesselund of NCA told a press briefing last week. "So this will be a breakthrough, we think, on this mission of peace-building between the two countries. We believe that the religious leaders are very important stakeholders of the peace process, and that is why we are supporting them."

Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), said the meeting was an important step for both countries.

"This is a great step forward," he told IRIN. "They have been struggling to meet and, with our support and encouragement, finally they have agreed to meet in each other’s capitals... We will be with them all, and we have been with them from the beginning."

"I am very grateful to the two patriarchs for never losing patience. When we hit stumbling blocks they kept going," he added. The meetings are due to be held on Friday and Saturday.