UNMEE allowed direct Addis-Asmara flights

The Ethiopian government has allowed the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to operate direct flights between Addis Ababa and Asmara, lifting a ban that was put in place after the border war between the two countries ended in 2000. "The (Ethiopian) Prime Minister wrote to the Secretary-General and we were informed [of the decision to lift the ban] by the office of the Secretary-General," George Somerwill, UNMEE's deputy chief spokesman told IRIN by telephone from Addis Ababa, on Friday. "Some of our flights will now be able to fly directly to Asmara," said Somerwill, adding that UNMEE planes in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, would also fly directly to Addis Ababa, if there was need to pick up equipment or personnel from the Ethiopian capital. UNMEE had not been operating direct flights from Asmara to Addis Ababa. Instead its planes would first stop in the Eritrean port town of Assab. In July, the UN requested Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, to allow direct UNMEE flights between the two capitals. The Ethiopian News Agency quoted a statement from the Ministry of Information in Addis Ababa, as saying: "The prime minister has made it clear that UNMEE can commence its direct flights whenever it needs to do so." Earlier this month, the Eritrean government reopened a supply route to the west of the country, which had been closed to UNMEE since March. The Asmara-Keren-Barentu road was closed following accusations by the Eritrean government that UNMEE forces were using the road to illegally monitor its troop movements. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-and-a-half-year war over their 1,000-km border, ending in a peace accord signed in Algiers in 2000. Under the deal, an independent boundary commission was set up to defuse tensions by demarcating the border. The commission issued its ruling in April 2002, but this was rejected by Ethiopia because it placed Badme, a symbolic border town over which the war had broken out, in Eritrea. The 4,200 UNMEE force was deployed to monitor the cessation of hostilities and to help ensure the observance of security commitments by the two countries.