Ethiopia, Eritrea reject border proposal

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 21 November 2006

Ethiopia and Eritrea on Monday rejected a proposal put forward by an independent boundary commission as a way around a four-year impasse over the demarcation of their shared border.

The Horn of Africa neighbours fought a war from 1998 to 2000 over a frontier area of dusty villages and scrubby plains during which 70 000 people were killed.

Although a 2000 agreement ended the conflict, the peace process ground to a halt after Ethiopia rejected the border as set out by the boundary commission in April 2002 while Eritrea refused to consider any changes.

In hopes of ending the deadlock, the commission said earlier this month that it would demarcate the border on maps and leave the two countries to establish the physical boundary themselves. It invited both sides to a November 20 meeting in The Hague to discuss procedure.

Ethiopia, however, said it would not recognise any demarcation of the contested border, telling the commission its plans would be illegal and "must be rejected".

"Ethiopia calls upon the commission to withdraw its letter and to cancel the proposed meeting," Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, insisting the commission could not "redefine its mandate at this point" without both sides' agreement.Eritrea, for its part, said it could not accept the decision to schedule a meeting to reconsider how the boundary should be marked out.

"Eritrea maintains that it is appropriate that the commission face the problem of Ethiopia's non compliance directly rather than searching for ways to skirt the issue," Lea Brilmayer, legal adviser to Eritrea's president, wrote to the commission.

Under the peace agreement ending their war, both sides agreed to accept the boundary commission's ruling mapping the 1 000km border as "final and binding".But after the ruling was issued, Ethiopia objected to the placing of the border village of Badme on Eritrean soil, and demanded further negotiations.But Eritrea dug in its heels, insisting the ruling could not be altered. – Reuters

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