US plays its ace in Eritrea-Ethiopia border stalemate

January 16, 2006Nairobi: The United States is throwing its geo-political might into breaking the Eritrea-Ethiopia border deadlock, but analysts say its only hope is to persuade Addis Ababa to fully accept the deal that ended a murderous war between the Horn of Africa neighbours.Washington is sending a delegation to the region this week to try to end a years-long stalemate between the countries, so divided over the enactment of a legally binding mapping of their common border that some fear a new war could start. Diplomacy in the sense of brokering a deal will not cut tensions, analysts say, because Eritrea insists that the border is a clear-cut matter of law, where compromise has no place. Only persuading Ethiopia to follow a ruling that awarded a disputed town to Eritrea will solve the dispute."The Americans have to deliver something on the Ethiopian side to be credible, and that is Ethiopia accepting the border decision," said Princeton Lyman, a former United States ambassador to South Africa, who has also worked in Ethiopia. In a pact to end a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70 000 people, Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to accept an independent commission's mapping of the frontier. The commission gave a disputed town to Eritrea. But Ethiopia refused the ruling, branding it unfair because it would separate Ethiopians from their farmland.

New dialogueEritrea has repeatedly said a deal was a deal, and that the international community - especially the United Nations - had failed miserably in enforcing it. It has rejected any efforts at diplomacy, including Ethiopia's offer in late 2004 to accept the deal after new dialogue. Where other diplomatic forays have failed, one thing may give Washington a foot in the door - influence with Ethiopia. Although militarily superior, Ethiopia is the top US counter-terrorism partner in the Horn of Africa, while Eritrea has good relations with Sudanese rebels groups in the east, west and south. That was valuable for the US in terms of solving the Darfur crisis in the Sudan's west, analysts said.Where the US may have been reluctant to push Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi too hard before, raised fears of war in the Horn and the prospect that the UN peacekeeping mission could fail has prompted action. The US mission, headed by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, has already been given more of a welcome by Eritrea than the last high-level diplomatic effort. - Reuters