Ethiopia-Eritrea border set

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Ethiopia and Eritrea have been informed of a new border drawn up by an international committee in a bid to end a long-standing conflict and bring peace to the Horn of Africa.

The 96-member state Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague conveyed its decision to both countries on Saturday, court spokesman Dane Ratliff told Reuters.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged both countries to accept and implement the border commission's ruling.

Annan has described it as a milestone in resolving their 1998-2000 conflict which has claimed an estimated 70,000 lives.

"Once the commission's decision is known, it is imperative that the two countries implement it without delay," Annan said.

The court is expected to disclose the contents of its ruling on Monday.

Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, Annan's special representative to Ethiopia and Eritrea, said that there were no signs of tension along the border region, now monitored by U.N. peacekeepers patrolling in a so-called temporary security zone.

Key flashpoints in border areas claimed by both sides include the villages of Zalambessa, Badme, Irob and Alitena, all at the moment under Ethiopian administration.

For many Ethiopians, other key issues include their demand for control over the Red Sea port of Assab.

In Asmara, Solomon Bahta, 25, a student, said that it was not worth fighting another war over the border, adding: "I think the war is over."

A 33-year-old woman, who declined to be identified, told Reuters: "I am not interested in politics, but I'm interested in the verdict. We want what is ours. If it isn't ours, we don't want it."

Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea has yet made any statements on the court's ruling.

But on Friday, the Ethiopian government said the ruling would be the result of what it called Ethiopia's victory in the conflict.

"The ignominious defeat of the Eritrean army at the hands of the Ethiopian forces has clearly shown that any option to determine the border issue other than peacefully and based on legal grounds was impossible and counter productive," the information ministry said in a statement.

"Eritrea's embarrassing defeat at the hands of Ethiopian defence forces has taught a lesson to President Isayas (Afewerki), who believed that might is right to accept the unpalatable truth for him that right is might," it said.

Eritrea, a former province of the much larger Ethiopia, was granted independence in 1993.

The century-old PCA was established by the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, concluded at The Hague in 1899 during the first Hague Peace Conference.

The Conference was convened "with the object of seeking the most objective means of ensuring to all peoples the benefits of a real and lasting peace, and above all, of limiting the progressive development of existing armaments."

The 1899 Convention, which provided the legal basis for the PCA, was revised at the second Hague Peace Conference in 1907.