By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 8 1999 (IPS)

The Organisation of American States (OAS) decided to designate a special envoy to evaluate the border conflict between Honduras and Nicaragua and facilitate dialogue in an attempt to relieve tensions in Central America, reported Honduran experts Wednesday.

Political analysts say the OAS Permanent Council made a “very opportune” decision in naming a special representative for the conflict that erupted a week ago, when Honduras ratified a maritime border treaty with Colombia that includes territory claimed by Nicaragua.

International law expert Jorge Ramón Hernández believes the presence of an OAS envoy will help guarantee a diplomatic solution to the crisis and dispel any risk of war along the Honduras- Nicaragua border.

“We believe the mediator, who will analyse the situation of both countries, will allow us to prevent the mobilisation of military troops on the border, and guarantee stability and peace,” he said.

“The Honduran people must understand that the OAS has taken a distension measure in order to overcome Honduras and Nicaragua’s differences,” said Hernández, former Honduran ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and liaison with international finance organisations.

The border dispute between the two nations, he asserted, should be brought before the International Court at The Hague, in Holland, if Managua persists with its claims.

The OAS, meanwhile, will have to commit both parties against accumulating troops on the border, and perhaps create a zone of exclusion in the Caribbean Sea to keep the two nations’ military patrol ships separate.

The function of the OAS envoy is not clearly defined, but he or she will concentrate exclusively on issues that threaten peace, “without intervening in deeper issues,” explained the inter- American forum’s secretary general César Gaviria.

The Colombian newspaper ‘El Colombiano’ assured that the special envoy will be Costa Rica’s former president Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize winner for his initiatives in the 1980s to end Central America’s civil wars. But the information was not confirmed in Tegucigalpa.

“We agree with the OAS decision, but if the mission fails, we will ask the United Nations to intervene, an option that has already been co-ordinated with secretary general Kofi Annan,” said Honduran foreign minister Roberto Flores, Wednesday, via telephone from UN headquarters.

Flores reported that he had presented Annan with legal documents that indicate Honduras’s border with Colombia and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea is the 14th parallel north.

Nicaragua, for its part, identifies its maritime border at the 17th parallel and claims that the Honduran decision to ratify its treaty with Colombia jeopardises Nicaragua’s claims on the San Andres archipelago, and the 130,000 square km of the surrounding area.

Honduras recognised Colombia’s sovereignty over San Andres by ratifying the treaty. Nicaragua ceded the archipelago to Colombia in a 1928 treaty, which Managua then challenged in 1980, arguing the document lacks validity because it was signed under pressure by the U.S. forces occupying the country at the time.

“We are within our legitimate and sovereign right to define our maritime and land borders,” affirmed foreign minister Flores, in response to Nicaragua’s demands.

Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Alemán affirmed this week that he is willing to utilise all international legal alternatives to resolve the conflict, “because we do not want to sacrifice the people in a war.”

Nicaragua declared Tuesday that Honduran troops had fired weapons in the border area, but the Honduran military command refuted the story.

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