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12 April 2007
ASMARA (AFP) - Eritrea on Thursday accused the United States of blocking the implementation of a ruling on its border dispute with arch-foe Ethiopia.
Yemane Gebremeskel, director of Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki's office, said Washington had stopped the United Nations Security Council from enforcing the 2002 border ruling by an independent panel.
"It boils down to the policy of the US government, for reasons that are not easy for us to understand," Yemane told reporters on Thursday, on the eve of the fifth anniversary since the end of a bitter border conflict with Ethiopia.
"The US administration has preferred not to allow the decision to be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the agreement."
Washington dismisses such accusations, and in a State Department report last month it blamed Asmara for using the border dispute to justify restrictions on civil liberties despite international efforts to resolve the situation.
The panel's decision awarded the flashpoint border town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia says the ruling must be altered since it will split families and villages between the two countries.
The result has been that the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) border remains undemarcated and a source of constant tension in the region.
Yemane warned that failure to enforce the decision by the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission -- due to disband in November -- could result in as serious a crisis as that in the war-torn nation of Somalia.
"If conflict erupts it is going to be equally grave and involve the loss of life," Yemane warned.