UNMEE head regrets "mistakes" in peace process

The head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, has expressed regret that details of "confidential" talks with the Ethiopian government were passed on to journalists. His comments follow an official protest by the UN after Ethiopian militia earlier this month illegally entered the demilitarised Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and threatened UN peacekeepers. The details were passed on to journalists during a weekly press briefing, three days after the Ethiopians said they would investigate the incident. In an interview with Ethiopian television, Legwaila - the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General - said he would never release details of confidential meetings unless both governments agreed in advance. “But I have always said to everybody, by the way, the people who are handling this peace process are human beings and the governments are also run by human beings," he said. “Once in a while there will be mistakes." “And here we are, we are enjoying relative tranquillity and the peace process is on track, we are preparing the border to be demarcated," he added. “The most important thing is you have to deal with those problems effectively in order to protect the integrity of the process you are developing,” he said. A border dispute in 1998 triggered a bitter two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. A peace deal, signed in December 2000, provided for the delimitation and demarcation of the common border.