UN may reconsider Eritrea-Ethiopia force

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Security Council members said on Wednesday they may reconsider the future of a peacekeeping force on the Eritrean border with Ethiopia because of obstruction of the force's work by Eritrea.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report earlier this month that if the peacekeepers abandoned the 620-mile (1,000-km) border, a new war could break out, although both countries have said they do not plan to renew hostilities.
Council members voiced anger last week at moves by Eritrea to force the U.N. peacekeeping mission to leave its border.
The United Nations has almost completely withdrawn some 1,700 troops and military observers from a buffer zone along the border between the two Horn of Africa rivals after Eritrea cut fuel supplies to the mission.
Eritrea said countrywide shortages had prompted the move, but President Isaias Afwerki has stated that the continued presence of U.N. peacekeepers on the Red Sea state's border with Ethiopia, scene of a 1998-200 war, was illegal.
The peacekeeping force, known as UNMEE, had been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) zone inside Eritrea.
Eritrea turned against UNMEE because of the United Nations' inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding Asmara chunks of Ethiopian-held territory.
South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, current Security Council president, said in a statement on behalf of the council that the continuation of Eritrea's "obstructions" had reached a level that undermined the force's mandate.
"The Security Council recalls its previous condemnation of Eritrea's lack of cooperation," Kumalo said.
He said the council stood ready to assist the parties reach an agreement but the responsibility to do so lay with the two Horn of Africa countries themselves.
"The Security Council will, in the light of consultations
with the parties, decide on the terms of a future U.N. engagement and on the future of UNMEE," he said.
Ethiopia has offered to hold talks with Eritrea but Eritrea says it must must first withdraw from its territory. Both sides have amassed troops in recent months.