Eritrea cool to US diplomacy on border

February 9, 2006ASMARA -- Eritrea on Thursday reacted coolly to a US pledge at the United Nations to pursue diplomatic initiatives in a bid to resolve the tense border stalemate between it and archrival neighbor Ethiopia. Asmara, which last month snubbed a senior US envoy, said that the time had come for Ethiopia to be forced to accept a four-year-old border demarcation, the rejection of which is the main cause of the current tensions. "They are talking about mechanics, what we want to see are tangible results on the ground," said Yemane Gebremeskel, director of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki's office. On Wednesday, the United States won another month from the UN Security Council for its mediation bid on the matter despite Eritrean resistance to it and demands for the immediate enforcement of the border ruling. As part of the US bid, it said that efforts were underway to convene a meeting of the witnesses to the 2000 Algiers peace deal that ended the bloody two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea to be followed by a further discussions by the international panel that set the new border two years later. But Yemane said that the time for talk had passed and that Eritrea's stance could no longer be ignored. "The Eritrean demands are long overdue, we have to see the implementation of the Algiers agreement and the demarcation," he said. "The border decision was made in 2002, four years ago. Nobody can justify the delay." Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 that cost some 80,000 lives before the Algiers accord was reached in which both vowed to respect the border ruling. Ethiopia, however, has thus far rejected it and Eritrea has repeatedly warned of a new conflict unless it is accepted and complained vehemently that the international community is favoring its larger neighbor. To show its displeasure with the United Nations, Asmara has slapped restrictions on UN peacekeepers monitoring the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border and expelled North American and European peacekeeping staff. It has refused to respond to UN Security Council demands, backed by the threat of sanctions, to lift the curbs. In late January, Asmara slammed the United States for "evil" foreign policies that encouraged Ethiopia to ignore the border ruling and brought the two nations to the brink of new war. "The current extremely sad and dangerous situation is the outcome of the erroneous US foreign policy," the information ministry said on January 29. Earlier that month, Eritrea refused to cooperate in a fact-finding visit to the country by a senior US diplomat.