Ethiopia: Armies just metres apart from Eritrean soldiers

[rudy-Diiriye]

Well...Dont say that i didnt told u before that this is gonna happen soon! read below...! Eritrea must do this to take advantage of Amxaaro multiple war fronts going on.

 

Tue. September 11, 2007 03:15 pm.- By Bonny Apunyu. - Send this news article

 

(SomaliNet) Ethiopia said on Monday that its army was just metres apart from Eritrean soldiers who had moved into a buffer zone on the Horn of Africa foes' disputed border.

 

"Eritrea has moved thousands of troops and heavy weapons inside the Temporary Security Zone, despite numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding their withdrawal".

 

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told reporters that: "At this time there is little separation of troops from the two neighbours.

 

The armies of the two countries are only 70 or 80 metres apart," he added at a news conference.

 

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 war over their frontier, resulting in a boundary ruling by an independent commission that has been a source of friction ever since.

Seyoum said Eritrea's actions on the border - which Ethiopia has been denouncing for about a year - ruined recent talks between the two nations and a Hague-based international commission that ruled on the boundary in 2002.

 

"The talks in the Hague stalled because Eritrea occupied the 25km Temporary Security Zone, in violation of the secession of hostilities agreement, which would have allowed demarcation of the border," he told a news conference.

 

"Eritrea's actions are in open defiance of a number of Security Council resolutions and constitute a fundamental breach of the Algiers agreement," he added, referring to a peace agreement after the war that killed 70 000 people.

 

At the weekend, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of scuppering the Hague talks by refusing to move forward even if Eritrea followed the boundary commission's recommendations on its side.

 

Asmara denies sending its army close to Ethiopia's, saying Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government is inventing allegations to distract attention from domestic problems.

 

As part of their 2000 peace deal, both Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to accept as final and binding the boundary commission's ruling. But the process halted after Addis Ababa rejected the decision which awarded the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.-Reuters