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POLITICS: U.N. Protests Helicopter Grounding by Eritrea
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5 (IPS) - The United Nations has reacted angrily to a decision by the Eritrean government to restrict all U.N. helicopter flights monitoring a fragile cease-fire in the politically volatile Horn of Africa.
The expressions of "grave concern" came both from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the 15-member Security Council.
"The Council took a firm decision yesterday and I hope the Eritrean government will reverse its decision to ground all U.N. helicopters, placing the U.N. peacekeepers at risk," Annan told reporters Wednesday.
He said the Eritrean government has a responsibility to support and ensure the protection of U.N. peacekeepers, "and I hope that the message has got through and they will not move forward with the decision they have taken".
Asked why Eritrea wants to restrict U.N. overflights, Annan said: "They gave us no reason."
Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a two and a half year border war, ending in a ceasefire and a peace pact in June 2000. The peace agreement, called the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities, was signed in Algiers.
In April 2002, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission gave its ruling on the 1,000-kilometre border dispute between the two countries. But despite the ruling, there has been a continued stalemate over the longstanding dispute.
Asked whether the two countries would resume fighting, Annan told reporters: "Obviously, when you have an unresolved situation on the border, and when tensions begin to rise in one or the other of the countries, you get worried. And of course, we are keeping a keen eye on the whole Horn of Africa."
The U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was established in July 2000 and has a total military strength of about 3,400 peacekeepers. The 2004-2005 budget for UNMEE is around 216 million dollars.
The restrictions on U.N. helicopter flights came into force with immediate effect, warranting an urgent meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday "in view of the seriousness of the matter".
In a statement issued Wednesday, Annan said he was "very concerned" about Eritrea's decision, "which will seriously limit UNMEE's operational capacity to implement its mandate as requested by the parties and authorised by the Security Council".
"This development," he warned, "could exacerbate the existing suspicions at the border area and create instability. The restriction will also have a negative affect on the security of UNMEE personnel and their operations."
Annan said that "freedom of movement is a fundamental principle of all (U.N.) peacekeeping missions".
In a unanimous resolution adopted Tuesday, the Security Council expressed "its grave concern" at the decision of the Eritrean government "to restrict all types of UNMEE helicopter flights within Eritrean airspace or coming to Eritrea".
This will have "serious implications for UNMEE's ability to carry out its mandate and for the safety of the staff".
The resolution also underlined the need to implement the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission without further delay.
"The Security Council reaffirms that both parties bear the primary responsibility for the implementation of the Algiers Agreements and the decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission," the resolution added.
According to the Commission's ruling, the border town of Badme was awarded to Eritrea. But the Ethiopian government is insisting on further talks before it will cooperate in the act of physically demarcating the border. Eritrea, however, is refusing to discuss the issue until Ethiopia accepts the ruling.
Last month, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, head of UNMEE, warned that the continued bickering between the two countries could lead to a war.
Urging both the Security Council and the 53-member African Union (AU) to take action, he said the guarantors of the peace agreement - the United States, Algeria and the European Union - should also seek ways of resolving the dispute.
"The Security Council should do better than what it has done in the past to make sure that we can resolve this stalemate as soon as possible - and peacefully," he added.
The political tension between the two African nations has continued since the rebellious province of Eritrea became an independent nation state in May 1993, reducing Ethiopia to the status of a landlocked country.
Until its independence, Eritrea was part of Ethiopia. Eritrea's war of independence against Ethiopia lasted about 31 years.
A former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, once described the Ethiopian-Eritrean war as one of the worst in Africa.
Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun of Algeria, the U.N.'s former Special Representative mediating the dispute, said it was "the most devastating war in Africa" in terms of the number of people killed.
According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the war between the two countries claimed about 100,000 lives.
(END/2005)
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