ETHIOPIA: U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN COMMENTS ON PEACE DEAL BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA DURING VISIT TO THE COUNTRY

Record ID: 223050

  • Title: ETHIOPIA: U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN COMMENTS ON PEACE DEAL BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA DURING VISIT TO THE COUNTRY
  • Date: 7th December 2000
  • Summary: ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (DECEMBER 6 2000)(REUTERS) 1. SLV UNITED NATIONS DELEGATION GETTING OUT OF CAR 0.18 2. SCU U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN IN COMPOUND, SHAKING HANDS WITH MILITARY OBSERVERS; POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS (4 SHOTS) 0.48 3. MV UNITED NATIONS TROOPS 0.55 4. SOUNDBITE (English) UN REPRESENTATIVE FOR PEACEKEEPING MISSION, LEGWAILA JOSEPH LEGWAILA: "Well the latest development is that the two parties, Ethiopia and Eritrea will be signing a comprehensive peace agreement on the 12th of December, that's next Tuesday in Algiers. 1.10 UNDISCLOSED LOCATIONS, ETHIOPIA (FILE)(REUTERS) 5. SLV WAR/ ARTILLERY/INJURED AND DEAD PEOPLE/SOLDIERS; MORE ARTILLERY FIRE (10 SHOTS) 1.40 ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (DECEMBER 6 2000)(REUTERS) 6. SLV CAR DRIVING/ FLAG FLYING (3 SHOTS) 1.46 7. SCU ANAN SHAKING HANDS WITH UNIDENTIFIED OFFICIAL AND IN MEETING WITH OFFICIALS (2 SHOTS) 1.57 UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, ETHIOPIA-ERITREAN BORDER (DECEMBER 6 2000)(REUTERS) 8. SCU SMALL GIRL WITH HOLDING SMALL BOY ON HER BACK AND U.N. VEHICLES PASS BY ON ROAD BEHIND HER; SLV CONVOY OF U.N. VEHICLES ALONG ROAD; SCU UN OBSERVERS/SCU SENIOR U.N. MEMBER JEAN-MARIE GUEHENNO, CHIEF OF U.N. PEACEKEEPING MISSION, MEETING UN TROOPS (5 SHOTS) 2.17 9. SOUNDBITE (English) UN REPRESENTATIVE FOR PEACEKEEPING MISSION, MR LEGWAILA: "They'll help them demarcare the border and while this border is being demarcated, will help them maintain peace on the border between them. 2.27 10. SLV U.N. OBSERVERS (5 SHOTS) 2.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ADDIS ABABA, EHTIOPIA
  • Country: Ethiopia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8GQUNDR0CLPX8FBOX9V2SI7XD
  • Story Text: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, scenting a rare
    success for peacekeepers in Africa, said on Wednesday a peace
    deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea showed the way forward for
    the continent.

    The two Horn of Africa neighbours are expected to
    sign a comprehensive peace agreement next Tuesday (December
    12), ending a war that erupted in May 1998 and killed tens of
    thousands of soldiers before a ceasefire deal was reached in June.

    "I think it is a positive story, a great story for
    Africa," Annan said after meeting with Ethiopia's prime
    minister Meles Zenawi.

    "This is what we need to see, not only between Eritrea and
    Ethiopia but on the whole African continent, where we must end
    these conflicts and focus on the essential issue of economic
    and social development," he said.

    The U.N. plays a key part in the agreement, deploying a
    4,200-strong peacekeeping force in a buffer zone along the
    disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

    After a string of bitter experiences in Somalia, Rwanda
    and Sierra Leone, the U.N. believes its mission here has a
    very strong chance of success.

    Both nations appear committed to the agreement and their
    disciplined armies have stuck to the ceasefire even in areas
    of the 1,000-km (600-mile) border where their soldiers stand
    less than 200 metres (yards) apart.

    U.N. CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS
    The full U.N. force is to be in place by mid-January and
    Annan is confident there will be no return to war.

    "I am hopeful because both parties are fed up with war.

    People want peace, they want to get on with their lives."
    Meles said the peace process was in its "final stretch"
    and that Ethiopia's parliament would meet on Friday to discuss
    its backing for the agreement to be signed next Tuesday in
    Algiers. Eritrea has already said it will sign.

    Although U.N. officials are holding up the settlement as
    an example for Africa, the war was ended more by Ethiopia's
    battlefield victories during a huge offensive earlier this
    year than by diplomacy.

    Eritrea made territorial gains in the first round of
    fighting in 1998 but Ethiopia's army won back its occupied
    land in May and pushed deep into western Eritrea.

    The ceasefire was agreed soon afterwards and the peace
    deal reflects Ethiopia's gains -- the 25-km (15-mile) buffer
    zone separating the two armies will lie on Eritrea's side of
    the border.

    Under the agreement, U.N. experts will help the two sides
    to fix their common border and a commission will be set up to
    arbitrate compensation claims from civilians and both
    governments for damage, loss and injury caused during the war.

    Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the
    fighting and both sides allege thousands of their nationals
    are still being detained on the other side of the border.

    Many civilians are unable to return home because the rival
    armies planted land mines along the war fronts. Annan urged
    both sides on Wednesday to provide detailed maps allowing the
    de-mining operation to begin.

    He will fly to the Eritrean capital of Asmara on Friday on
    the last leg of an African tour that has already taken him to
    Sierra Leone and Benin.


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