EU envoy urges rethink on UNMEE restrictions

A European Union envoy has urged the international community to continue to press for the easing of tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea in order to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa. David Triesman, the British minister responsible for African affairs, who visited Ethiopia on behalf of the EU presidency on Saturday, told reporters in Addis Ababa it was important to defuse the situation. "The decision to order the removal of some detachments of the UNMEE [United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea] forces, the decision to prevent helicopter flights by UNMEE forces, raises tension," he said at the end of a one-day visit to Ethiopia. "I think that is a mistake, and we have tried to convey that to [Eritrean] President Isaias [Afwerki], although I know at present he is not willing to see representatives from the international community," Triesman said. UNMEE, he said, was the "best preservation of security" along the increasingly volatile border between the two neighbours. Both Horn of Africa nations have been massing troops near their common border, raising fears of a reprise of their bloody 1998-2000 boundary war, a dispute that remains unresolved. Diplomats estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops are dug in along the 1,000 km Temporary Security Zone separating the two nations. Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, but the border was never agreed on, causing renewed fighting to break out in 1998. The 1998-2000 war for territory claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost both countries - two of the world's poorest - an estimated US $1 million a day. An international commission set up under a 2000 peace agreement demarcated the frontier, awarding the key town of Badme, where the war first flared up, to Eritrea. Ethiopia refused to accept the ruling and has yet to withdraw from Badme. Eritrea has accused the international community, particularly the UN, of failing to enforce the ruling of the coundary commission. However, last week Ethiopia offered to partially pull back its troops. Triesman welcomed Ethiopia's partial troop withdrawal from the border in compliance with UN Security Council demands but said both countries must implement the boundary ruling. Eritrea banned helicopter flights by UN peacekeepers in its airspace in the buffer zone on 5 October. It then banned UN vehicles from patrolling at night on its side of the frontier, prompting the UN to vacate 18 of its 40 posts. Despite repeated appeals from the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Eritrea has refused to lift these restrictions. Last month, the Council passed a resolution warning of possible sanctions unless Eritrea lifts restrictions on the peacekeepers and both sides reverse their troop build-up. The Security Council is expected to meet on 23 December to review the situation.