Foreign Minister lobbies against Boundary Commission’s deadline

By Tewedage Sintayehu - Capital

19 November, 2007

The recent visits by the Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin to Russia, France and the Uk, all UN Security Council member countries, is intended to non-event the International Boundary Commission’s warning to fix the Ethio-Eritrean border on maps unless the two countries mark the border physically till the end of November, diplomatic sources told Capital.

The sources claimed that the omission of the warning in the November 13, 2007 statement of the President of the UN Security Council and the subsequent positive response to it by the Ethiopian office of the spokesperson shows that Ethiopia’s efforts to that end are being taken well.

In the statement, the President of the Security Council confirmed “The parties’ primary responsibility to resolve the border issue and their other differences, and expresses its readiness to endorse the commitments made by both parties with respect to demarcation and normalization but failed to the commission’s deadline warning.

On the other hand, the statement commended and expressed its full support for “UNMEE’s continuing operations, underscored the importance for the parties to provide UNMEE with the necessary access, assistance, support and protection required for the implementation of its mandate and welcomed the ongoing efforts by the Secretary-General towards the earliest appointment of a Special Representative.” Sources argue that this is an equivalent of a negative attitude to Eritrea as it has encroached the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ), blocked UNMEE movement and according to the International Crisis Group, deployed 4,000 troops.