First postwar bilateral meeting of local commanders

Ethiopia and Eritrea held their first-ever local military border talks on Wednesday at a meeting set up by the United Nations to help defuse potential border flashpoints. The talks were also the first occasion since the end of the border war in 2000 on which local military commanders have met face to face to discuss ways of resolving tensions. The military officials met on the Mereb Bridge which links the two countries, in an encounter which the UN hopes may boost confidence and trust between the two countries. The commander of the UN peacekeepers, Maj-Gen Robert Gordon, hailed the Sector Military Coordination Committee (SMCC) meeting, saying it would help towards assuring stability on the frontier. He said the SMCCs would ensure that "continued military stability and security prevails" to allow demarcation of the 1,000-km border to proceed. The two countries fought a bitter border war that claimed tens of thousands of lives, but agreed to a full peace deal in December 2000 after a six-month ceasefire. Since then there have been no further clashes, but border incidents like cattle rustling and shootings by unidentified armed groups have alarmed UN peacekeepers, who believe that localised meetings between the two sides could serve to reduce such outbreaks of violence. Physical construction of the border, originally scheduled to have commenced in May 2002, has been indefinitely delayed due to continued wrangling over the border. The officials of the Eritrean Defence Force and the Ethiopian Armed Forces had also expressed support for the one-day meeting, pledging full cooperation, the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said in a statement, noting that it had been held in a "cordial" atmosphere. It said the issues discussed had included cattle rustling, border crossings, live firing and military exercises conducted by both armed forces. Also addressed had been restrictions imposed in recent months by both sides on movement by UNMEE peacekeepers in certain parts of the 25-km-wide Temporary Security Zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Similar local military meetings will report to the full military coordination committee attended by senior military leaders from both countries under the auspices of the UN. UNMEE envisages that the local commanders will meet on neutral territories such as the bridges between the two countries, or at UN bases. UNMEE added in its statement, issued from the Eritrean capital, Asmara, that the SMCCs would be held in the eastern and western border regions. The next one is scheduled to convene on the Humera Bridge in the western sector next Tuesday.