Ethiopia Insight

UN warns Eritrea over troop shifts nearer Ethiopia

20 October 2006

Addis Ababa, (ENA) - The United Nations (UN) warned Eritrea on Wednesday that its shift of troops and tanks into a U.N. buffer zone along the Ethiopian border could raise tensions in the region and harm residents.
The Former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shin also said " I have never heard harvesting crops with tanks," and that Eritrea's explanation for the deployment of its troops to the buffer zone was very unsatisfactory.

Kjell Magne Bondevik, the U.N. special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, expressed the concerns in meetings with Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki and other senior government officials, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Bondevik also renewed a U.N. plea that Eritrea withdraw its forces, "but the situation on the ground is unchanged," Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters. Bondevik left Eritrea on Wednesday after a five-day visit. The United Nations accused Eritrea on Monday of moving some 1,500 soldiers and 14 tanks closer to Ethiopia in a "major breach" of the 2000 peace agreement. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Eritrean government to withdraw its troops from the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), immediately. The United States earlier this year launched a diplomatic initiative to revive the peace process. But border commission meetings scheduled for June and August were canceled after Eritrea refused to attend.

The Former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shin on his part said “I have heard the Eritreans explain this move as putting troops into the buffer zone in order to harvest crops. On the other hand, I understand that there are quite a number of tanks that accompanied them and I have never heard harvesting crops with tanks. So that doesn't strike me as a very satisfactory explanation."

Shin said this would not be that first time that the Eritrean side has ruptured it up the pressure. It has made life difficult for the UN peacekeeping operation in that buffer zone area for some time, Radio France International (RFI) reported on Wednesday.

" I think it is a case of rupturing up the pressure I just doubt that Eritrea would risk going into all out war with Ethiopia, which is the far stronger military than Eritrea does," RFI quoted Shin as saying.