A new war could break out between Eritrea and Ethiopia if the United Nations peacekeeping mission that has been prevented from patrolling both sides of the border withdraws entirely, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Wednesday.
Ban’s report to the Security Council found no good options for its members to consider, other than somehow persuading Eritrea to restore the UN’s ability to patrol its side of the border.
Total withdrawal, he said, ”could result in an escalation of tensions in the border area with the risk of a resumption of open hostilities, despite declarations by the two parties that they have no intention to restart the war”.
A 1 700-strong UN force has been monitoring a 24km-wide, 1 000km-long buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea under a December 2000 peace agreement that ended a two-and-a-half year border war.
The Horn of Africa neighbours have been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.
Tensions between the two countries remain high because of Ethiopia’s refusal to accept an international boundary commission’s ruling in 2002 on the border demarcation, which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.
According to Ban, the Eritreans have obstructed the peacekeeping efforts for the past year and a half with its military occupation of part of the buffer zone, and restrictions on UN night patrols, supply routes and diesel fuel. Eritrea also banned UN helicopter flights in its airspace in October 2005.
With tensions rising, Ban said, troops on each side of the border exchanged gunfire several times in recent months.
Ban ordered the temporary withdrawal of UN peacekeeping troops from Eritrea on February 11.
Only 164 peacekeepers remain in Eritrea, mainly to guard UN equipment until it can be evacuated, Ban reported.
He said Ethiopia told him that it would have a hard time accepting peacekeepers only on Ethiopia’s side of the buffer zone.
”There is still an opportunity for Eritrea to reconsider its position,” Ban said.
If that doesn’t happen, the $113-million-a-year peacekeeping mission ”could be terminated, leaving no United Nations peacekeeping presence in the area”, the UN chief said.
Eritrea’s UN ambassador, Araya Desta, dismissed warnings of a new war and criticised the UN for withdrawing.
”Why should war break out? There is no border dispute. There is nothing that drives us to go to war,” he said on Wednesday.
”When someone who has been in your house, was in your house for seven years and goes out without consulting you, do they have any right to come back in?” Desta said.
”We didn’t ask the UN to withdraw. This was done without consulting Eritrea,” he said. — Sapa-AP