Eritrea Rejects Ethiopia Acceptance Of UN's Border Town Ruling

 

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Eritrea rejected on Friday Ethiopia's "unconditional" acceptance of a U.N. boundary commission ruling that it return a disputed town to Eritrea, arguing that the ruling was riddled with conditions that undermined the spirit of the agreement.

In a letter last week to the U.N. Security Council, the Ethiopian government agreed to the commission's decision, announced five years ago, that it return the key town of Badme to Eritrea. The status of the town was part of a tense, nine-year-long, border dispute.

But Amanuel Giorgio, a diplomat at Eritrea's U.N. Mission, said "so far as Eritrea is concerned, Ethiopia continues to present conditionalities to the decision of the boundary commission which is final and binding."

"If you read page one, it says Ethiopia accepts without preconditions, but if you keep reading there are a lot of but, but, but...," he said, adding that Eritrea had accepted the decision.

"It's asking the Security Council to demand that Eritrea enter into dialogue," he said. "That means reopening the decision of the boundary commission. Our reading of the letter is that Ethiopia has not yet changed its position."

The Horn of Africa neighbors initially promised to accept the boundary commission's 2002 ruling awarding the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not handed it over.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. Ethiopian officials have long accused Eritrea of terrorist acts in Ethiopia and for lending support to insurgent groups in Somalia.

Both countries claim Badme and fought a bloody 2 1/2-year war after Ethiopian soldiers opened fire on Eritrean soldiers in the border town in 1998.

There is not much the U.N. can do to force the two parties to cooperate, U.N. associate spokesman Yves Sorokobi said Thursday.

The Security Council will be in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday and Saturday to meet with African Union and Ethiopian officials at the start of a five- country African mission. Sorokobi said the Ethiopia-Eritrea border issue will probably be discussed.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  06-15-071440ET
  Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.