Security Council extends UNMEE mandate by six months

The UN Security Council has approved the extension of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) for another six months, but expressed concern over the lack of progress in efforts to resolve the dispute on the demarcation of the border between the two countries. The Council, which met to discuss UNMEE on Tuesday, also approved Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recommendation that the mission be scaled down. The peacekeeping force is currently made up of 3,800 civilian and military staff, and costs US $16.8 million a month to maintain. In a report to the Council, Annan had recommended a gradual two-phased approach that would see headquarters staff scaled down by almost a third. On the military side, Kenyan troops who patrol the eastern sector of the border would be pulled out, with more helicopter patrols being introduced to monitor the ceasefire. The three border sectors would be consolidated into two, covering the 1,000-km long frontier. A commercial demining team has already replaced a Slovak military group, resulting in a $6 million cut in costs. A further $20 million could be saved by troop reductions. The Council called on Ethiopia and Eritrea "to fully and promptly" cooperate with the international boundary commission and to create conditions that would allow the demarcation of the border to proceed quickly, including payment of Ethiopia's dues to the commission and the appointment of field liaison officers. The peace process between the two neighbours stalled after Ethiopia rejected an April 2002 ruling by the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission. Both countries had initially agreed to accept the ruling as "final and binding". Although the commission drew up and published details of the new border in 2002, the physical demarcation of the frontier has been suspended as a result of the dispute that erupted after Ethiopia's rejection of the ruling. The Council urged Ethiopia to show the political will to reaffirm unequivocally its acceptance of the commission's decision, and called on Eritrea to enter into dialogue with the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Ethiopia and Eritrea, Lloyd Axworthy. While Ethiopia remains opposed to significant parts of the border commission ruling, Eritrea has insisted that dialogue is not possible before the completion of the demarcation process and has so far refused to meet with Axworthy. The Council took note of positive developments in some areas of relations between UNMEE and both countries, saying that the mission had experienced a decline in restrictions on its freedom of movement and that anti-UNMEE statements by officials had ceased. It had also observed a significant decrease in the number of detentions of locally recruited United Nations staff and welcomed Ethiopia's decision to allow UNMEE to fly directly between the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and Addis Ababa. UNMEE was established after Ethiopia and Eritrea signed an Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities on 18 June 2000 in Algiers, Algeria. The two countries had gone to war in May 1998 because of a border dispute. The cessation of hostilities agreement was followed by the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement on 12 December 2000, also in Algiers.