E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Ethiopia-Eritrea Dangerous but No New War
Tensions along the Ethiopia-Eritrea border are dangerous but there is no sign that a new war is imminent between the Horn of Africa neighbors, the head of the U.N. mission monitoring the border said Tuesday.
It’s Africa though so expect a pointless war by the end of the week.
Ethiopia’s refusal to accept the ruling of an international boundary commission has led to a stalemate and instability, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila told reporters. "The kind of tension that we are experiencing there is dangerous - especially dangerous in the sense that we are dealing with two countries which fought a terrible war more than three years ago and shed a lot of blood that killed more than 100,000 people," Legwaila said.
Oh, THAT kind of tension!
"So this stalemate is concerning us a great deal, but there is no sign on the ground that in the immediate future there will be a reignition of the war," he said. A 4,200-weak strong U.N. peacekeeping force monitors a 15-mile buffer zone along the 620-mile border separating the two armies.
Bet the Uruguayans dive into their holes every time a twig snaps.
Last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy as his special envoy for Ethiopia-Eritrea, expressing serious concern about the lack of progress in implementing a December 2000 peace deal in which both countries agreed to accept the ruling of the boundary commission.
They’re on African Standard Time when it comes to reaching agreements.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-02-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=25572