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| Africa: Horn |
| Ethiopia-Eritrea: Troop Movements Near Border 'Provocative' |
| 2005-01-22 |
| A senior Eritrean military official has dismissed guarantees that Ethiopian troop movements near their common border were purely defensive, according to the United Nations. Eritrean Col Zecarias Ogbagaber said he believed the troop deployment was "provocative", the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said. Ogbagaber "expressed serious concerns about the movement of additional Ethiopian troops towards the northern border of Ethiopia", UNMEE said in a statement. "He said that he did not consider these deployments defensive in nature and interpreted them to be provocative," the statement added. Ogbagaber also "expressed the hope that with the beginning of a new year, there would be fresh impetus, which [would] help move the peace process forward". Ethiopian Gen Yohannes Gebremeskel stressed "the redeployment of Ethiopian army troops along the Eritrean border was a purely defensive measure and part of the reorganisation process of the army". Ethiopia first announced in December it would redeploy troops near the border region, providing details to the UN peacekeeping force. UNMEE force commander, Maj-Gen Rajender Singh told the MCC that the military situation remained "stable and calm". Singh said he was "fairly satisfied" with the security situation and urged both countries not to take any steps that would jeopardise the situation. He also added that the "sanctity and the stability" of the 25-km demilitarised zone was being "maintained effectively" by the 3,800 UN peacekeepers. |
| Posted by:Fred |