Government denies restricting peacekeepers

Eritrea has rejected claims by the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) that restrictions have been imposed on the mission’s freedom of movement in and around the disputed border. The Eritrean Commission for Coordination with the UN Peacekeeping Mission said in a statement on Wednesday that “UNMEE has no restriction on any supply and access routes throughout the country where it has been granted all the necessary bases, camps and facilities”. Eritrea denied there had been an incident on the Mendefera-Tserona road, in which an UNMEE logistics convoy was reported to have been forced to turn back by Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) personnel. No UNMEE vehicle had tried to use the Mendefera-Tserona road on 3 May, and no such incident had occurred on that road, the statement said. According to Eritrea, UNMEE had never used that road to access the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The Commission said there had been several occasions where UNMEE units had moved into military zones in parts of the country “very distant” from the TSZ without notification, and refused to stop at checkpoints. “In all these cases, not a single warning shot has been fired,” the statement said. In accordance with the Algiers Peace Agreement, UNMEE is granted complete freedom of movement in and around the 25 km-wide TSZ. In a briefing to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, head of UNMEE, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila said that freedom of movement for UN peacekeepers within the TSZ was currently “the most serious problem” in the peace process.