Ethiopia Eritrea UN force trimmed

Reuters
June 1, 2006

The council had pledged to scale back the U.N. mission policing a 2000 cease-fire between the Horn of Africa neighbours after they failed to meet council demands to accept the shared border drawn for them by international experts and end all restrictions on peacekeepers' movements and operations.

The United States had proposed reducing the force to 1,800 and linking the cutbacks to fulfilment of a long-stalled request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for reinforcements in a separate peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast.

If the force in Ethiopia and Eritrea was trimmed by 1,500 U.N. soldiers, an extra 1,500 troops and police could be deployed in Ivory Coast, U.S. officials suggested.

But Russia and Britain, among others, fought for less severe cuts, arguing that too few troops could endanger the shaky peace in the region. After days of tense negotiations, the council compromised and cut 1,000 troops.

"We're going to continue to work for a lower force," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told Reuters following the unanimous council vote to approve the compromise.

He declined to say how the deal might affect council action on Annan's plea for reinforcements in Ivory Coast.

The 15-nation Security Council voted in mid-May to give Ethiopia and Eritrea until the end of the month to meet its demands or see reductions in the peacekeeping force, which monitors a buffer zone along their shared 620-mile (1,000 km) frontier.

U.N. troops were sent to Ethiopia and Eritrea after a two-year border war that killed more than 70,000 people.

As part of the peace agreement, both countries agreed to accept a new border marked out by an international commission.

But Ethiopia rejected the border and insisted on further talks, prompting Eritrea to restrict peacekeepers' movements, including a ban on helicopter flights over its territory.

The October 2005 restrictions stoked tensions on both sides of the border by limiting peacekeepers' ability to monitor troop movements. They also irritated the governments that contributed troops to the mission, because they limited the ability to carry out medical evacuations and keep the soldiers' bases supplied.