afrol News, 13 August - After a year with a steadily worsening atmosphere between Eritrean authorities and the UN peacekeepers in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE), Asmara yesterday declared "a new page" in its relations with the UN. The Eritrean government reopened a major road to traffic by UN peacekeepers, something it in any way was obliged to do.

UN-Eritrean ties soured after the Asmara government stated that the UN peacekeepers had become a "grave danger" to the "peace and stability of the people and government of Eritrea" in May this year. There followed UN protests and threats to end the UNMEE mission. Eritrea, on its part, restricted the movements of the "dangerous" UN peacekeepers.

Earlier this year, Eritrean authorities imposed restrictions on movements on the important Asmara-Keren-Barentu road north of the Temporary Security Zone, which the UN peacekeepers are supposed to monitor. In Barentu, several of the minor access roads to the Zone have their starting point.

The restricted access to the Barentu road had caused frustration and repeated protests by UNMEE troops. The peacekeepers, which are not let to carry out their mission by neither Eritrean nor Ethiopian authorities, have felt an increased pressure and demotivation during the last year, especially on Eritrean soil.

Eritrean authorities yesterday however finally gave into UN pressure and reopened this major road connection to the UN peacekeepers, as they are obliged to by their acceptance of the mission's presence. Asmara officials however presented the reopening as "a new page" in Eritrean-UNMEE relations.

The UN mission turned polite and expressed its gratefulness towards Eritrean authorities. UNMEE regarded the move as "a sign of good faith" by Eritrea, the mission's spokesperson Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte said in a statement to the press in Asmara.

- I would say at this point for us the relationship looks positive, she added. Ms Sainte said that, as far as she knew, the Eritrean government had not imposed any conditions. The UN Security Council only recently had appealed to Eritrea to give UNMEE "the freedom of movement it needs to carry out its mandate."

Also the UNMEE military leadership turned polite. "I think the Force Commander was very pleased that the road has been reopened and what he was told was that this was a new page in relations with the Eritrean government and he has accepted that and expects that we will put all the other things on the back burner for the time being and move ahead," Ms Sainte said.

Eritrean authorities recently had declared they were carrying out "investigations" into the alleged security threat that UNMEE posed to Eritrea. It remains unclear whether the reopening of the Barentu road was a result of these investigations, but Ms Sainte noted that, as she understood it, UNMEE had not received any results of such an investigation.

UNMEE is charged with monitoring the ceasefire and ensuring observance of security commitments after the two countries fought a bloody two-year border war. Fighting between Eritrea and Ethiopia erupted in May 1998.

A cessation of hostilities agreement finally was signed in Algiers on 18 June 2000. The same year the UN Security Council established UNMEE, comprising "political, military, public information, mine action and administrative components," with a maximum military strength of 4,200 troops.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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