Eritrean president says UN mission 'dead' in Ethiopia border row

AFP May 25, 2008

Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki said Saturday the United Nations mission monitoring its disputed border with Ethiopia was "irrelevant and dead" and blaming the US for the impasse.

The UN Mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE) relocated from Eritrea in March after the Asmara administration cut off its diesel supplies, crippling its monitoring activities.

Asmara accuses the UN of failing to force Ethiopia to accept the ruling of a UN-backed independent boundary commission which granted Eritrea the disputed border village of Badme.

In a speech marking the country's 17th independence anniversary, Issaias blamed the US for Ethiopia's refusal and the UN's non-action.

"The US administration is currently resorting to acts of putting under question mark the authority of the Boundary Commission and ... at other times trying to divert attention through raising irrelevant and dead issues such as that of UNMEE," Issaias said.

"There is no remaining issue at all, other than the withdrawal of the invading Ethiopian forces from sovereign Eritrean territories. The UN Security Council is duty-bound to live up to its legal and moral obligation to put an end to such invasion and its dangerous consequences," he added.

Early this month, the UN Security Council unanimously criticised Eritrea for cutting off diesel supplies to the UN mission monitoring the Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute, forcing it to pull out of the country.

The council adopted a non-binding statement that reminded both sides that they had the responsibility for achieving a lasting settlement of the border row.

Under a 2000 Algiers peace deal which ended their 1998-2000 border war, Eritrea and Ethiopia pledged to accept as "final and binding" a verdict by the panel on their dispute.

The commission granted the flashpoint border town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has refused to recognize it, saying it split families and demanded fresh negotiations, which Asmara has rejected.

Eritrea got independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after bloody guerilla war.