Sides urged to keep up peace momentum

Eritrea and Ethiopia have been urged to keep up the momentum of the peace process, two months before demarcation of their common border is due to take place, diplomatic sources told IRIN on Tuesday. Both the European Union and the US handed over a diplomatic note, known as a demarche, to the two countries. Both sides have been stepping up their war of words recently as demarcation approaches. “We just want to make sure that eyes are firmly focused on the peace process,” one senior diplomat close to the peace process told IRIN. “We do not want to rock the boat, but we want to ensure that both Ethiopia and Eritrea fully realise that the goal here is peace and it is not worth losing sight of that.” Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have publicly committed themselves to a peace deal - signed in December 2000 after a devastating two-year border war - which states that an independent border ruling issued in April 2002 is “final and binding”. The double demarches were handed over last month and come after a two-day high-level meeting in London between the two sides, hosted by the independent Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC). Ethiopia was reported to have issued a lengthy document, seeking further "clarification" of the ruling.