Eritrea expels members of UN peacekeeping mission

Eritrea’s order to expel US, Canadian and European members of the UN peacekeeping mission that monitors the tense border with neighbouring Ethiopia is likely to raise concerns about whether the peacekeepers can work effectively.

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea received the letter from Eritrea yesterday, but the details of the expulsion order were to be worked out, said Musi Khumalo, deputy spokeswoman of the UN mission.

Concern has been growing that war could again erupt between the two countries. Both have been increasing troops along the border and two weeks ago the United Nations threatened to impose sanctions if Eritrea fails to ease restrictions imposed on peacekeepers.

“As far as we are aware this is the first letter of its kind that we have received,” Khumalo said today.

Eritrean officials were not available for comment. US Embassy officials in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, declined to comment.

“The measures taken by the Eritrean government do not help the peace process. This is an additional obstacle to those already imposed by the Eritrean government,” Ethiopia’s Information Ministry said.

The letter said the Americans, Canadians and Europeans have 10 days to leave the Horn of Africa nation, said a Western diplomat who saw a copy of the letter. The diplomat said that no reason was given.

A senior UN official said that the expulsion could mean that 90 military observers and 50 civilian staff would leave as well as a still-to-be-determined number of contractors.

The official said that if the expulsion order covers contractors, then the mission’s job will become impossible because they will not have transport for important missions or be able to fly between the two countries.

India contributes the largest number of troops – more than 1,500 – to an Ethiopian-Eritrean peacekeeping force of nearly 3,300, and the force is led by an Indian, Major General Rajender Singh. There are 96 Americans, Europeans and Russians – military and civilian – in the mission.

The 3,300 peacekeepers and military observers from some 40 countries, 191 civilians and 74 UN volunteers work at the mission in the two countries.

Joel Adechi, deputy head of the UN mission, was holding emergency talks with Eritrean officials on the issue, Khumalo said.

In October, the Eritrean government banned helicopter flights by UN peacekeepers in its airspace over the buffer zone that separates thousands of its troops from those from Ethiopia. It then banned UN vehicles from patrolling at night on its side of the zone, prompting UN troops to vacate 18 of its 40 posts.

The UN resolution issued last month urged the two countries to reverse a major military build-up on their border. It also presses Ethiopia to accept a 2000 border agreement, but does not threaten any penalties if the country continues to ignore that appeal.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year war, but the border between the two was never formally demarcated. The border war broke out in 1998, claimed tens of thousands of lives and cost both countries an estimated $1m (€853,000) per day.

A December 2000 peace agreement provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed 621-mile border. Ethiopia has refused to accept the panel’s April 2002 decision.