Skip to main content
CNN EditionWorld
The Web    CNN.com     
Powered by
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SERVICES
 
 
 
SEARCH
Web CNN.com
powered by Yahoo!

Commission delays marking Ethiopia-Eritrea border


Story Tools

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Diplomacy
United Nations

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters) -- An independent boundary commission, locked in a dispute with Ethiopia over its ruling on a new border with Eritrea, said on Thursday it would not be able to start defining the new frontier as scheduled this month.

Ethiopia has repeatedly attacked the Hague-based Ethiopia Eritrea Boundary Commission's (EEBC) decision on a new border, which it drew up under a peace deal to end the two neighbours 1998-2000 border war.

"Under the current circumstances, the EEBC is unable to proceed with activities as envisaged in the July schedule of the order of activities ahead," the commission said in a statement released in Addis Ababa through the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

"But (it) is ready and willing to proceed as soon as conditions permit," the statement said.

Contractors had been due to start hammering in pillars to physically demarcate the 1,000-km (600 mile) boundary this month, following earlier postponements, but diplomats say the work is unlikely to go ahead this year.

Ethiopia issued its latest broadside against the commission on October 16 when the foreign minister wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying that the commission had ceased to exist as a neutral body.

Ethiopia was particularly angered by the commission's decision to award Eritrea the town of Badme, a dusty border settlement of several thousand which has served as the flashpoint at the start of the war in which 70,000 people died.

Ethiopia has appealed to the U.N. Security Council to help resolve the dispute by setting up a new mechanism to resolve the disputed frontier, but its request was rejected.

Eritrea called last month for the international community to impose sanctions on Ethiopia for its objections to the new boundary, warning that Ethiopian "lawlessness" could lead to "the disastrous war" it accused its neighbour of threatening.



Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Story Tools
Subscribe to Time for $1.99 cover
Top Stories
Iran poll to go to run-off
Top Stories
CNN/Money: Security alert issued for 40 million credit cards
 
 
 
 

International Edition
CNN TV CNN International Headline News Transcripts Advertise With Us About Us
SEARCH
   The Web    CNN.com     
Powered by
© 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.
external link
All external sites will open in a new browser.
CNN.com does not endorse external sites.
 Premium content icon Denotes premium content.
Add RSS headlines.