UN Security Council to send mission next month

The UN Security Council is to send a mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea next month when a crucial border ruling will be announced by an international commission at The Hague. A statement read out on Wednesday after the Council met to discuss the situation in the two countries, reminded them that they had committed themselves to fully accepting the decisions of the Boundary Commission. "The Security Council looks forward to the border delimitation determination by the Boundary Commission which is final and binding," the statement said. "The Security Council, inviting the parties to make further contributions to fulfil their financial responsibilities regarding the Boundary Commission, expresses its determination to support the practical demarcation of the border," it added. In the Algiers peace accord, signed in December 2000 after a two-year border war, both Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to abide by the Boundary Commission's ruling on border delimitation and demarcation. The statement went on to say that the Council "welcomes the recent reduction in the use of rhetoric by the parties and encourages them to continue to defuse tension and exercise greater degrees of flexibility in their approaches to the peace process". It also welcomed Eritrea's repatriation on Tuesday of 25 Ethiopian prisoners of war (POWs), but urged both sides to release immediately and unconditionally all remaining POWs and detainees from the conflict.