By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – If U.N. peacekeepers abandon the border between Ethiopia Woyanne and Eritrea, a new war could break out between the two Horn of Africa neighbors, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report.
The U.N. border mission, or UNMEE, has already withdrawn nearly 1,700 troops and military observers who for the past seven years had been trying to prevent Eritrea and Ethiopia Woyanne from resuming a border war they fought from 1998-2000.
The peacekeepers had been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) buffer zone inside Eritrea. But Asmara turned against UNMEE because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding chunks of Ethiopian Woyanne-held territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.
Most UNMEE troops have been sent home temporarily and only 164 peacekeepers are now in Eritrea, Ban said in the report, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday. But those troops are only there to guard UNMEE equipment until it can be evacuated.
There are also a few peacekeepers on the Ethiopian Woyanne side of the border, but Ban said Addis Ababa told him: “Ethiopia Woyanne would find it extremely difficult to accept a long-term deployment of UNMEE limited only to the Ethiopian side of the border.”
UNMEE pulled most of its troops out of Eritrea after the government cut off access to fuel and restricted deliveries of food and other essential supplies. Asmara denies this and accuses UNMEE of enabling Ethiopia Woyanne to occupy its territory.
Ethiopia Woyanne has offered to hold talks with Eritrea but Asmara says Addis Ababa must first withdraw from Eritrean territory.
With Eritrea refusing to discuss the question of UNMEE’s return, Ban said there were several options for the future of U.N. forces on the border, where both sides have amassed troops in recent months. He also said the Security Council must make a swift decision on the fate of UNMEE.
“It is essential that the Security Council makes the necessary decisions as a matter of priority,” he said. In the meantime Ban said he could try to mediate between Ethiopia Woyanne and Eritrea and the council could also consider sending missions to both countries.
TOTAL WITHDRAWAL
One option is to remove all UNMEE personnel from the area, though this would be a very dangerous move to make, he said.
“The total withdrawal of UNMEE … 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.”
One of the problems of withdrawing UNMEE from the border zone is that their presence is required under the ceasefire agreement, which could then be dismissed as invalid.
A better option would be to deploy a small observer mission in the border area, which could try to defuse tensions between Ethiopia Woyanne and Eritrea. This mission, Ban said, could “serve as the eyes and ears of the international community and would continue to report to the Security Council on the situation.”
If one of the countries were to reject this option, observers could be placed on one side of the border, though that “could be perceived by one party as freezing the status quo and serving the interests of the other,” Ban said.
Other options would be for UNMEE to return to its original full deployment — an unlikely scenario given Eritrea’s refusal to discuss the issue — or to establish “liaison offices with civilian and military personnel” in Addis Ababa and Asmara.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
9 thoughts on “Horn of Africa war possible if UN leaves – Ban Ki-moon”
I d i o t i c !!!!!!!!!!!!!
The modification of the report would make sense with additional modification of replacing “Eritrea” with “Shabia”. Why be soft on shabia? Both woyane and shabia are the enemies of the people.
who the hell is ban, another kofi non of this so called leaders want peace in the region. I just feel sorry for the poor people in the region.If ban and kofi had any …… you know what we wouldn’t be in the same situation for the last 8 years. which is NO WAR NO PEACE
The UN has reduced itself to irrelevance. Thank god we did not mandate the UN to demarcate the boundary, we would have still been in a legal limbo.
The issue is legally finalized. The supposed ceasefire agreement is rather irrelevant at this point. The only thing that is left is for Ethiopia/weyane to leave sovereign Eritrean territories. Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UN have been given a copy of the commissions demarcation and anyone with a GPS can determine exactly where the border lay.
Banki-moon and the UN would do better to convince Ethiopia to obey the rule of law than to find pretexts to continue their collusion with Ethiopia in its occupation. UNMEE has no mandate anymore.
Peace
Selam.
wondu,
I respect your views like I do anyone’s. But, could you please tell me what “Shabia” has done to you or your interests that you are suggesting that Elias “Modify” as he routinely does with Weyane for Ethiopia. I am sure Elias is not going to bother to respond to your “no point” starter for I susspect he has better things to do. But, assuming, you do not know, ther is no difference beteen the Eritreans and “Shabia”. They are one and the same. I don’t know about you, but, I can not say the same about the Ethiopian people and the despicable Weyane.
UN is reduced to a laughing stock of the world! I am sure third graders would do much better jobs than crooked ones that are sucking the blood of poor people!
Now you know how the UN body works: more killings and killings for the benefit of interest groups and individuals. Had the “border of shame” been demarcated by now no one would have cared about where the border was or is; however, the beneficiaries of this conflict are, 1- Meles and all of his stooges, 2- the weapons manufactures, 3- the so called “UNMEE”, and finally 4- all the NGO’s that are molesting our beautiful youngsters in the whole region.
Bert,
I agree with your comment about the the Ethiopian people and and the despicable Weyane. However, your point about shabia and the Eritrean people being the same sounds to me a blind loyalist defending the sins of the devil. Regarding about my comment as “no point” I say at least it has gotten your attention to respond:).
The UN has no interest in maintaining peace in the region. If it had Eritrea and Ethiopia would not have waged war for 30 years without a single resolution or atempt to stop the bloodshed for such a long time. UN created the problem in 1952 with the intension of not finding peace to the region but as source of future conflicts. It is unfortunate the UN justify and credit its exsistent by manfacturing and encouraging conflict among poor nations. Now Ethiopia and Eritrea have declared that they do not want to go to war over the border. Instead of encouraging and/or enforcing the idea of peace the U.N. the Secretary every time he open his mouth or write a repot he like to tell the world that there will be war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Secretary is nothing but a dismal prophet who is disiminating false prediction to create doubt and suspecion among the people of ethiopia an eritrea. The secretary would help the people if he first follow the rule of his own organization and encourage other world leaders including his friend Meles to accept the rule of law, instead of playing with words such as ‘legal fiction’ etc. Both Mr. Bank and Mr. Meles must accept the 21st.Century Cyber technology instead of being stuck in “bricks and mortars” technology of past century menatlity. GPS map is reliable and much acurate than to any paper map that mankind have produced. I advise Mr. Banki to lease a car with GPS with a Bluetooth technology and experience the technology! Let Meles and Banki catch up with rest of the world accept the rule of law and free the people to solve their problems poverty.
Let it be peace for the people of the Horn of Africa!