| ADDIS ABABA, Tuesday Ethiopia and Eritrea yesterday rejecteda
proposal put forward by anindependent
boundary commission as a way around a four-year
impasse over the demarcation of their shared border. The Horn of Africa neighbours fought a 1998-2000 war 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 is appropriate that the commission face the problem of Ethiopia’s noncompliance directly rather than searching for ways to skirt the issue," in a statement by Lea Brilmayer, legal adviser to Eritrea’s president. Reuters | 
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