Ethiopia agrees to give town to Eritrea

By LINDSAY HOLMWOOD, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 15, 12:21 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - After years of conflict and a tense border dispute, Ethiopia has accepted a U.N. commission's ruling to turn over a disputed town to Eritrea.
"I believe it's good news ... that was one of the bottlenecks in the situation," U.N. associate spokesman Yves Sorokobi said Thursday. "If they do agree, it should move the process forward a bit more quickly."

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. The Horn of Africa neighbors initially promised to accept the boundary commission's 2002 ruling awarding Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not handed it over.

In a letter last week to the

U.N. Security Council, the Ethiopian government gave its unconditional acceptance of the commission's decision announced five years ago.

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. A 2000 truce agreeing to cease hostilities has made the border more peaceful, but tensions have occasionally flared to the point international observers feared a new war could break out.

Last month the commission renewed its call for a response from the two countries, giving a November deadline for the implementation of its decision on the new border. Eritrea responded to the commission's request in May, agreeing with the decision.

There has been virtually no reaction to the Ethiopian acceptance. Eritrea's U.N. Mission said no one was available to comment.

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 probably will be discussed.

A 2005 U.N. resolution called for a 620-mile buffer zone between the two countries, but in the past year Eritrean forces have moved into the zone and have stymied efforts by U.N. peacekeepers to monitor the area. The Security Council has repeatedly called for Eritrea to lift its restrictions, including its ban on U.N. helicopter flights and night patrols.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in the tense buffer zone has been reduced in the past year by 2,500 troops to 1,700. Authorization for the force expires next month, but Sorokobi said that it will likely be extended.

If the new border decision is not implemented, Sorokobi warned that "positions will probably harden."

"There has been an increase of hostile rhetoric from both parties and it's something that has preoccupied the situation," he said.