Border demarcation again postponed

Demarcation of the contested 1,000-km frontier between Ethiopia and Eritrea will not take place as planned this month, the United Nations acknowledged on Friday. After being hampered by two earlier delays, the independent border commission charged with the task had planned to begin physically marking out the border this month. The commission, based in The Hague and established under a deal to end the 1998-2000 Ethiopia-Eritrea war, has yet to announce a new date for the exercise. "As the special representative Legwaila [Joseph Legwaila, head of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, UNMEE] has said, obviously it will not happen in October," the UNMEE spokesman, George Somerwill, told IRIN on Friday. Ethiopia has rejected parts of the ruling under which the border commission awarded symbolic territories like Badme town - where the war first flared up - to Eritrea. Sources close to the peace process told IRIN that the international community was now considering the possibility of appointing a special envoy to help resolve the current impasse. One diplomatic source said that a number of names had been put forward in this context. The demarcation dispute has also heightened tension between the two countries, which have both warned of a risk of renewed conflict over the matter. "Those members of the [UNMEE] force who are keeping the peace are doubly aware of what they are doing and why they are there," Somerwill said. "The state of watchfulness has always been very high," he told journalists during a video briefing between Asmara and Addis Ababa. "There has not been a dramatic increase, but people are watchful, of course people are watchful, given the current political impasse." During the past week, the force has conducted 684 regular mobile and nine air reconnaissance patrols across the buffer zone and adjacent areas. "The situation remains militarily stable with the normal level of activities being conducted by the military of both parties," Somerwill stated. The latest delay coincides with a visit to the region by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto, who is seeking ways of defusing the tension and ensuring peace. He met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa on Monday and is next due to travel to Asmara for a meeting with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki. US diplomats have described his tour, which also took in Djibouti, as a "fact-finding and familiarisation" mission.