Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea deteriorated sharply after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi last week declared an independent border commission ruling "null and void," for failing to correct what he called "key flaws" within the ruling of April 13, 2002.

The border ruling handed over several areas to Eritrea, including Badme, the flashpoint of the 1998-2000 war, and the prime minister said the ruling was unthinkable to be implemented, and was "null and void" on the Ethiopian side.

The Ethiopian people have been denouncing the actions of the prime minister who abruptly ended the last war without any guarantees to Ethiopian demands, although the Ethiopian army was within a striking distance of Eritrea's capital, Asmara.

The United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF), a front of 15 opposition parties, has rejected the Algiers Agreement altogether, and considers the measure taken by Meles as a publicity stunt to saving his widely-criticized government than a complete reversal of grand blunders which also include the handing over to Eritrea a 1000-km Red Sea frontier.

"Through systematic political maneuvers and sheer military force, Ethiopia has been turned into a landlocked nation. If there was sincerity in Meles' opposition to the ruling, it must center on the Red Sea Afar homeland with the peripheral areas such as Irob and Badme included," one opposition leader said. "Ethiopians would stop short of restoring what they lost to two Eritrean groups in Asmara and Addis."