UNMEE monitoring tense border despite setbacks

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is continuing to monitor the tense border between the two countries despite restrictions on operations and the expulsion of some of its staff, a UN official said. "The ban imposed by the Eritrean government on UNMEE helicopters is still in place [and] restrictions are continuing on the movement of UNMEE patrols," Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told reporters on Thursday. "Our capacities have been reduced by the obstacles that have been put in place," he said. "But I'm pleased to inform you that thanks to the ingenuity of the mission, we have been able in the last two months to maintain our capacity to monitor in the Temporary Security Zone, even in a degraded way." Guéhenno said the relocation on Thursday of 89 UNMEE staff who were ordered expelled last week by Eritrea was "temporary". "[The relocation] is in the face of the unacceptable actions and decisions that have been made recently by Eritrea," Guéhenno told reporters during a press briefing in the Eritrean capital, Asmara. "The Council has asked us to review the future of the mission and to promptly come up with a range of possible solutions or actions for the mission," he said. Guéhenno left the Horn of Africa on Friday after failing to meet any Eritrean officials. He had extended his stay since Wednesday in an attempt to break the deadlock, saying that meeting officials could help. "It is unfortunate, because I think it will be good to engage, to discuss the issues because that is the only way to move forward," he said. Guéhenno’s visit was prompted by Eritrea’s decision to expel around 180 military and civilian UNMEE staff. By Friday - the deadline for the expulsion - 89 personnel had been relocated to Addis Ababa. The envoy welcomed an announcement last week by Ethiopia that it would conduct a partial withdrawal of its forces from the frontier. Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi, however, maintained that a "proportional force" must be kept on the frontier to deter any pre-emptive attack by his neighbour. UNMEE described the border situation on Thursday as "tense and potentially volatile". Troop movements had continued on both sides of the frontier, where diplomats estimate hundreds of troops are entrenched. On Friday, the African Union and the European Union expressed grave concern over the deepening crisis between Ethiopia and Eritrea and said their organisations would continue to seek a peaceful resolution of the situation. The 53-nation AU bloc, a witness to the December 2000 Algiers Peace Agreement between the two nations, admitted that so far its attempts to resolve the standoff had failed. "This crisis is a serious one and is a matter of concern to AU leaders," Said Djinnit, head of the AU peacekeeping arm, told reporters in Addis Ababa. "A number of initiatives have been taken but unfortunately were not crowned by success." Without giving details of what actions the AU had taken, he said that although the AU had remained largely silent on the border dispute, the organisation was working behind the scenes to break the deadlock. The EU was also a witness to the peace agreement. Tim Clarke, head of the EU in Addis Ababa, said all measures were being taken to ensure peace. "We at the EU are extremely concerned about the present stalemate. All diplomatic and other means are being used to try to find a rapid resolution of the problem, to reduce the tension on both sides," he said. On Saturday, an EU delegation would make a one-day mission to Ethiopia and meet Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to try and ease the border tension, Clarke told reporters at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. The mission will be headed by David Triesman, parliamentary under-secretary of state in the foreign and commonwealth office. However, the EU mission had so far failed to gain access to Eritrea to meet officials there, Clarke said. On 23 November, the UN Security Council passed a resolution warning of possible sanctions against Eritrea unless it lifted restrictions on the UN peacekeepers. It demanded that both Eritrea and Ethiopia reverse the troop build-up on their common border. Ethiopia also faces sanctions unless it takes immediate steps to implement the ruling on an independent border commission which was set up as part of the Algiers peace agreement. Ethiopia rejected the commission’s ruling. The two countries were given 30 days to act on the Council's demands.