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Standoff between Horn of Africa duo continues

By Anthony Mitchell

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Eritrea reined in United Nations peacekeepers along its border with Ethiopia, leaving the force incapable of giving the world much warning if the Horn of Africa rivals were to clash again.

Increasingly isolated, Eritrea also is seen as the main obstacle to restarting talks that may be the only way to avert a new and devastating war concerning territory between two of the poorest countries in the world. But Ethiopia - often touted as a prime candidate for breaking the hold that war, dictatorship and poverty seem to hold in Africa - could do more to calm tensions.

The deadlock has grown out of Ethiopia's refusal to implement an international ruling on the border made in 2002, two years after the end of a two-and-a-half-year war that killed 70 000 people and cost each country an estimated $1-million (about R6,6-million) a day.

Since December, Ethiopia has deployed up to seven army divisions as close as 25km to the buffer zone and ignored UN Security Council requests that they be withdrawn. Both it and Eritrea are believed to be buying weapons, diplomats said.

Ethiopia-Eritrea tensions are long-standing. A 1952 UN resolution paired Eritrea and Ethiopia in a federation, despite Eritrean pleas for independence. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie unilaterally annexed Eritrea in 1962, sparking a protracted uprising. Eritrea declared its independence in 1991, but border issues simmered and finally erupted seven years later.

Ethiopia's main objection to the ruling meant to settle the border is that the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission - part of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration - gave Badme, now in Ethiopian hands, to Eritrea. The initial skirmishes in the last war flared over the village, and each side portrays its claims to Badme as moral justification for war.

On Saturday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he was ready to hold talks with Eritrea's president or other officials on resolving the dispute. But he said nothing about Badme.

Eritrea says it will not resume talks until the boundary commission ruling is implemented.

Meles told journalists at the weekend that without dialogue, it would be impossible to finalise a border snaking across 1 000km from Sudan to Djibouti and where about 300 000 heavily armed troops face off.

"You could implement the decision by dissecting villages left, right and centre and creating a permanent source of tension, or... on the basis of give and take, mutual understanding, try and find a solution that has lasting effect as far as peace is concerned," said Meles, a former guerrilla fighter who fought alongside Eritrean President Isayas Afeworki in toppling Ethiopia's former brutal military junta.

His words sound reasonable and Meles has been fêted by the likes of British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a reform-minded African leader.

Meles's reputation for reform was bruised earlier this year when his party was accused of stealing parliamentary elections and his security forces killed scores of demonstrators protesting the conduct of the vote. But he still has far better relations with the West than does Isayas.

While Ethiopia's elections may have been flawed, Eritrea has held no elections at all since winning independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The West has accused Eritrea of restricting freedom of religion and expression. In July, Eritrea asked the US Agency for International Development to stop its operations there, giving no reason. Four Eritrean employees of the US Embassy in Eritrea were being held for unspecified reasons.

Eritrean officials have a habit of not explaining themselves - none responded to phone calls seeking comment for this article. Eritreans have been suspicious of the international community since the UN ignored their pleas for independence in the 1950s.

President Isayas has further isolated his country by refusing to meet Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, appointed head of the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, since 2003.

At a news conference in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Legwaila expressed frustration at restrictions Eritrea has placed on his work.

Eritrea informed the United Nations without explanation that it was banning helicopter flights by UN peacekeepers in its airspace in the border buffer zone from October 5. It also banned UN patrol vehicles from operating at night on its side.

"If we are to be able to warn the international community in advance that war is about to break out, we are not going to promise anybody that we still have the capacity to do that because our wings have been cut," Legwaila said.

He said his operations were at best "40 percent" useful now.

"But we need to be 100 percent useful in order to justify the amount of money being spent on keeping us here," Legwaila said. His 3 300-strong operation costs $185,99-million a year, but his soldiers are often reduced to returning stolen cattle.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday the Eritrean restrictions could force the UN to pull out altogether.

"The presence of the UN peacekeepers is very important for Ethiopia as they act as a trip wire in case of any potential attack," Information Minister Berhan Hailu said in an interview on Tuesday.

The withdrawal of peacekeepers from isolated posts in Eritrea's side of the border in response to the restrictions "is a source of concern for us and we will be paying close attention," Berhan said.

Eritrea's recent moves could be a bid to strong-arm the international community into taking action against Ethiopia, diplomats said.

"The status quo suits Ethiopia," said Horn of Africa analyst Medhane Taddesse. "Time is running out for Eritrea because they cannot sustain the stalemate politically, economically or militarily."

About 350 000 Eritrean men and women - 10 percent of the population - are conscripted into the armed forces, draining an already beleaguered economy of a work force. The country also has been hit by massive food shortages.

UN mission chief Legwaila said foreign powers must do more to find a political solution. - Sapa-AP