Annan urges cooperation to resolve border dispute

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged both Ethiopia and Eritrea to cooperate with a commission created to resolve their border dispute during its forthcoming meeting to overcome the longstanding stalemate over the frontier. The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission plans to meet this month with both parties to discuss the stalled demarcation of the disputed border, over which the two countries fought a bloody war between 1998 and 2000. "Eritrea and Ethiopia should seize this unique opportunity and extend the necessary cooperation to the Boundary Commission so that the expeditious demarcation of their common border can take place," Annan said in his latest report on the dispute. In the report, released on Monday, Annan also recommended the extension for two or three months of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which was deployed to patrol the frontier and maintain peace following the signing in 2000 of an agreement that ended the war. Annan said that the options proposed with regard to UNMEE in his previous report, which range from redeployment to total withdrawal, would be kept under review. The Secretary-General observed that the dispute had been worsened by Ethiopia's refusal to accept the boundary commission's binding decision as required by the 2000 accord, as well as Eritrea's subsequent ban on UNMEE flights and its expulsion of UNMEE staff of certain nationalities.