More restrictions imposed on UN peacekeepers

United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the tense border separating Ethiopia and Eritrea are facing more restrictions on their movements, an official has said. Peacekeepers in some areas have been ordered to confine vehicle movements to the main roads in a 25 km-wide demilitarised buffer zone and surrounding areas, UN spokeswoman Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte said on Monday. The latest restrictions, which she said further hampered their patrols on the border region where the two armies face each, come amidst growing fears of a new war. Eritrea banned helicopter flights by the peacekeepers in its airspace in a buffer zone with Ethiopia on 5 October. It also banned UN patrol vehicles from operating at night on its side of the 1,000 km Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a letter last week urging Eritrea to lift the ban, saying it jeopardised troop safety along the buffer zone that separates the two armies. He warned the UN could be forced to pull out altogether if the ban continued. Sainte said the new restrictions were imposed around 7 October in the central and western border areas but no explanation for the restrictions were given. The restriction imposed by the Eritrean Government on helicopter flights and the ban on the movement of vehicles in some areas inside the TSZ at nighttime are continuing," she told reporters. The UN mission has also been requested to confine its vehicle movements to the main roads, she said. "The request to confine our vehicles to the main roads has been part of the sporadic and increasing restrictions of movements experienced since last week," she added. Sainte said Eritrean officials had denied issuing any official orders imposing restrictions but the restrictions continue. The two Horn of Africa nations fought a two and half-year border war that ended after the Algiers Agreement, signed in December 2000. The deal provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of their disputed border. Disagreement arose over the decision issued in April 2002 by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission -- part of the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, Netherlands. Ethiopia objects to the awarding of the disputed village of Badme to Eritrea. Sainte said the restrictions could be related to the border stalemate. "We are very conscious of Eritrea's feeling of frustration over the non-demarcation of the border and surmise that this may be a consequences of this," she added. Last month Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, the head of the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea said the unresolved border dispute could lead to more war if the UN Security Council and the African Union did not do more to find a solution to the stalemate. Last week Eritrea downplayed the significance of restricting UN helicopters. Yemane Ghebremeskel, a presidential adviser in Eritrea, said instead Ethiopia had "violated the Algiers Agreement flagrantly and repeatedly". "If anything Eritrea has shown the maximum patience, the maximum restraint so far," he added. "We feel both Ethiopia and the [UN] Security Council have violated the agreement."