Eritrea and Ethiopia ask EU for help to avoid war grows

Date: 16/07/1998

By Mark Turner

DESPITE appeals for help from both Eritrea and Ethiopia, the EU insists there is little it can do to help resolve a potentially disastrous conflict over borders which continues to simmer in the Horn of Africa.

Delegates from both countries visited Brussels last week during a wide-ranging tour of European capitals in a bid to garner the Union's support for efforts to stop a war which all sides claim they want to avoid.

But while the EU has condemned "the bombings of each other's territories and the needless loss of lives" and called for restraint, officials say there is little it can do beyond supporting peace efforts within the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

A European Commission expert said the Union was very unlikely to make any announcements regarding the delineation of borders which would benefit one side or the other.

During the UK presidency, London intervened bilaterally, providing old colonial maps to the countries concerned, but did not recommend an EU-led mediation team for fear of duplicating US diplomatic efforts.

The Austrian presidency has also remained relatively quiet on the issue, although national experts were expected to reaffirm support for the United Nations, the OAU and international facilitators today (16 July).

While both parties to the conflict agree the OAU should remain the primary operator, Ethiopia's Minister of Economic Development and Cooperation Girma Birru feels more could be done by the Union. "We are asking all EU member countries, the Commission and the European Parliament to do one thing: to put pressure on Eritrea to accept what has been agreed by facilitators, the OAU and the Parliament. Otherwise we might be forced to go to war," he said.

Birru claims that if the EU tells Eritrea "enough is enough", the country will have no option but to comply with OAU demands.

But Amdemicael Kahsai, director-general of Eritrea's foreign affairs ministry, argues the EU can best help "when and if both sides agree to create a mechanism to resolve the dispute" by contributing funds to a UN team to demarcate borders. He added that it might be "a necessity to have a neutral body in the demilitarised zone" which would be African or UN-led but which could benefit from EU funding.

Meanwhile, concerns are mounting that EU development work in Ethiopia will be undone and that future projects in Eritrea could be undermined.