ENA – Addis Ababa, June 15, 2007 (Addis Ababa)
The Woyanne Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ethiopia has said the report circulated by the Associated Press (AP) on Friday concerning Ethio-Eritrea border demarcation is a “gross distortion”.
In an interview with Ethiopian News Agency, the ministry’s spokesman said, “We have seen the gross distortion by the AP of the contents of the letter by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister addressed to the President of the Security Council [of the UN].”
Anyone interested in the truth can simply go to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where the full text of the letter is posted, the spokesman said.
The thrust of the foreign minister’s letter is in fact not demarcation but rather a call on the Security Council to take measures against Eritrea as provided for in Article 14 of the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities for its violations of the Algiers Agreement, he said.
“Thus, unless one insisted on reading what one wanted to read in the letter, the message of the letter is clear. The urgent matter now is to restore the Algiers Agreements which are in tatters now; not demarcation,” he noted.
This is what is underlined in the letter, he said. ” The rest is misrepresentation. We trust that the distortion by the AP is not malicious.”