UN warns Eritrea over troop shifts nearer Ethiopia
Source: Reuters
By Irwin Arieff UNITED NATIONS, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations has warned Eritrea that its shift of troops and tanks into a U.N. buffer zone along the Ethiopian border could raise tensions in the region and harm residents, an official said on Wednesday. Kjell Magne Bondevik, the U.N. special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, expressed the concerns in meetings with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and other senior government officials, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Bondevik also renewed a U.N. plea that Eritrea withdraw its forces, "but the situation on the ground is unchanged," Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters. Bondevik left Eritrea on Wednesday after a five-day visit. The United Nations accused Eritrea on Monday of moving some 1,500 soldiers and 14 tanks closer to Ethiopia in a "major breach" of a 2000 peace agreement. The accord ended a two-year border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors that killed more than 70,000 people. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Eritrean government to withdraw its troops from the zone immediately. But Eritrea defended the move, citing its sovereign right over the area and saying the troops were there to work on development projects. Ethiopia said it would not respond militarily to what it called a "minor provocation." U.N. peacekeepers set up the 15-mile (25-km) buffer zone along the 600-mile (1,000-km) border as part of the peace agreement and have been monitoring it since. But the peace process ground to a halt after Ethiopia rejected a new border with Eritrea laid out by an international boundary commission and insisted on more talks. Eritrea then restricted peacekeepers' movements, including a ban on helicopter flights over its territory. The U.N. force in Ethiopia and Eritrea now stands at 2,300 troops, down from 3,300 last May. Due to the impasse, the Security Council has threatened more troop cutbacks unless the two countries make progress on their shared border. The United States earlier this year launched a diplomatic initiative to revive the peace process. But border commission meetings scheduled for June and August were canceled after Eritrea refused to attend.
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