Mines remain a "major threat

The Eritrean government has signed a convention seeking to ban the use of land mines, which is considered a positive step in the Ethiopia-Eritrea peace process, said a report by the UN Secretary-General to the Security Council on 5 September. It said Eritrea had on 27 August signed the 1997 Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel mines and their Destruction. Welcoming the move, the report said Eritrea had handed over 331 minefield records to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), while Ethiopia had "consistently stated that it does not possess centralised mine records". Ethiopia had provided UNMEE with 17 of the 30 "danger area records" jointly compiled by the international NGOs, the British de-mining HALO Trust, and the Ethiopian de-mining project, which focused on the Ethiopian positions during the war.

However, while Ethiopia had agreed to facilitate an information collection project organised by UNMEE, the report said that when the project was tested in the eastern sector of the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) it was found to be "unsatisfactory". "UNMEE is urging the Ethiopian authorities to develop new procedures for the collection of relevant mine information from Ethiopian army engineers," the Secretary-General's report stated. It said land mines remained a major threat in the TSZ and in areas adjacent to it.