U.N. council backs peace force for Ethiopia-Eritrea

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (Reuters) -- Security Council members generally endorsed on Monday proposals by Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a large U.N. peacekeeping force to monitor an accord halting a two-year-old border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

But in an initial debate on the proposals, they stressed that a ceasefire was not enough as the two impoverished Horn of Africa nations must forge a genuine peace and that the planned U.N. force could not remain indefinitely.

MESSAGE BOARDS The Horn of Africa     RESOURCE Click for key incidents in Ethiopian-Eritrean war

Council members, who referred to the dire humanitarian situation in the region, worsened by a serious drought, also witnessed an exchange of recriminations by representatives of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

"The search for better bilateral relations goes on forever; the presence of U.N. peacekeepers should not," Ambassador Nancy Soderberg of the United States told the council.

She was participating in the debate on a report by Annan recommending expanding a recently established 100-member U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) into a full-scale peacekeeping operation comprising up to 4,200 troops.

The United States was drafting a resolution and looked forward to "the quick deployment of a full U.N. mission," Soderberg said. "Our fondest hope is that both governments will turn their attention to the genuine needs of their people: health, education, food security, jobs and housing."

Ethiopia and Eritrea signed an accord in Algiers on June 18, under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), to halt a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted more than a million people and at times involved World War One-type trench warfare. The accord is intended to lead to the demarcation of the disputed border.

Fighting which first broke out along the 600-mile (1,000 km) border in 1998 flared up again in May this year, with each side accusing the other of seizing disputed territory.

Britain's deputy U.N. representative, Stewart Eldon, said: "Particular care will be needed to define the time-scale of UNMEE's deployment. We agree fully with the secretary-general's concern that UNMEE's peacekeepers should not be expected to deploy indefinitely," he said.

He urged both sides to maintain the ceasefire and to continue to work for a negotiated, lasting peace agreement.

Netherlands ambassador Peter van Walsum said one step toward restoring confidence between Ethiopia and Eritrea would be "to put an end to all mutual recriminations and other forms of propaganda, and to start treating each other's nationals in a more decent and humane fashion."

Eritrea's charge d'affaires, Tesfa Alem Seyoum, told the council it was meeting "at a time when a vast sovereign territory of the state of Eritrea has been invaded and occupied by neighbouring Ethiopia, with impunity, since last May."

Welcoming Annan's report recommending a full-fledged U.N. force, he said over a million of his countrymen were internally displaced and some 95,000 others had fled to Sudan "as a result of Ethiopia's invasion which was aimed at destroying the small nation of Eritrea and the dignity of its people."

Fesseha Tessema of Ethiopia, who also expressed satisfaction with the main elements of Annan's report, agreed with speakers who said the war should never have happened. But he added: "Our conscience is clear. Not only were we victims of blatant aggression but also our government and our people gave their best try to end it peacefully."

He said Ethiopia had strictly observed the agreement signed in Algiers while "thousands of women and children are being deported from Eritrea to Ethiopia under inhumane and harsh conditions."

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Government of Eritrea
Eritrean Network Information Center
Organization of African Unity (OAU)
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Ethiopian National Congress
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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