For what does he need the TSZ or is Ethiopia so small??? For what does he need UNMEE when he has the strongest army in Africa...??? Read what his ministry in Ethiopia is saying this week in his so-called defence letter of the TSZ, UNMEE to Security Council.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia
A Week in the Horn of Africa (22/02/2008)

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Seyoum wrote to the President of the Security Council concerning the Government of Eritrea’s open defiance of the Security Council. He called on the Council to take appropriate action against Eritrea as a matter of extreme urgency, including the imposition of punitive sanctions. Minister Seyoum pointed out that Eritrean actions were deliberately designed to humiliate the United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), and enforce the removal of UNMEE from the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). Eritrea, he added, was deliberately putting Mission personnel at severe risk, and threatening to hold the entire Mission hostage. He underlined the fact that Eritrea had taken over the TSZ, created by the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities, an agreement signed by Eritrea and Ethiopia in June 2000 and endorsed by the Security Council. All this, Minister Seyoum underlined, raised fundamental issues of serious concern for the United Nations and indeed for the very future of UN peace-keeping operations as well as the authority of the Security Council. The immediate implications for peacekeeping operations around the world were deeply disturbing. Eritrea’s treatment of UNMEE was unprecedented in over 50 years of UN Peace-keeping. It constituted a most grave violation of the UN Charter, setting an extremely dangerous precedent.

Minister Seyoum recalled that it was the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities which had established the TSZ and provided for the mandate and deployment of UNMEE. The Agreement guaranteed the integrity of the Temporary Security Zone (article 14) and constituted the foundation of the Algiers peace process. Minister Seyoum’s letter noted that the guarantee included measures “to be taken by the international community should one or both of the Parties violate this commitment, including appropriate measures to be taken under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter by the UN Security Council…”. Other elements of the guarantee included the creation of UNMEE and its activities in the Temporary Security Zone. All of this had been endorsed by the United Nations as one of the Witnesses to the Agreement.

Minister Seyoum pointed out that notwithstanding these guarantees, and the UN’s commitment to the Agreement by the establishment of UNMEE, the Security Council had repeatedly failed to take any action, and it was this that had led to the present humiliating and ignominious position of UNMEE, emboldening Eritrea to stop fuel and food supplies and effectively expel the Mission from the Temporary Security Zone while preventing it from seeking temporary shelter on the Ethiopian side of the border.

Eritrea, the Minister underlined, had consistently and flagrantly violated the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities from its inception. It failed to sign the Status of Forces Agreement with UNMEE and had steadily and persistently increased its infiltration of troops and heavy weaponry into the TSZ. It had subsequently introduced restrictions on UNMEE helicopter flights, expelled members of UNMEE on the basis of their nationality, and imposed additional restrictions on UNMEE operations, most recently refusing to supply fuel and now food.

Minister Seyoum said that Ethiopia now believed it had become necessary for the Security Council to take action to discharge its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations and under the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities. Ethiopia now expected the Security Council to move quickly to enforce Eritrean compliance with the demands of the Security Council, to restore the full and complete integrity of the Temporary Security Zone and of UNMEE, and to ensure the safety of all UNMEE personnel.

The following day, Ambassador Araya Desta, the Eritrean Permanent Representative to the United Nations, effectively issued an ultimatum to the United Nations with regard to the situation of UNMEE personnel in Eritrea. In a letter to the President of the Security Council, the Ambassador said: “Eritrea cannot be blamed for lack of co-operation if its views and concerns are disregarded…Eritrea wishes to underline that coordination and cooperation is necessary on vital issues to ensure the orderly and dignified handling of the situation.” The letter complained that the decision to regroup UNMEE troops in Asmara had been done unilaterally by the United Nations and that the Eritrean government had not been informed in advance. It demanded “full and complete information on the future plans of the Mission” before Eritrea would respond. The letter alleged that the UN had been concentrating on what it called “peripheral issues”, and. accused the press offices of the United Nation, and of other international media of “leveling unfounded accusations about UNMEE’s situation. The letter described the refusal to supply fuel to the Mission as a purely technical issue, but otherwise made no reference to any of the increasing restrictions Eritrea has imposed on the operations of UNMEE over the last two or three years, including the ban on helicopter flights. It entirely ignored the issue of food supplies to UNMEE, and the refusal of the Eritrean authorities to allow UNMEE personnel to cross the border into Ethiopia in the last few days, and the reports of equipment being impounded at the border.

It is clear from Eritrea’s latest communication to the President of the Security Council and the latest actions of the Eritrean Government that one member state, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, and in open defiance of the Security Council, is intending to hold UN Peacekeepers hostage. What is now at stake is not just the fate of these Peacekeepers but the very future of UN Peacekeeping and the authority of the Security Council itself. A failure to act by the Security Council threatens to undermine the whole concept of international peace-keeping and the confidence of all the counties which regularly contribute troops to the peacekeeping forces. The present situation can be seen as having arisen specifically from the Security Council’s previous failures to confront the measures taken by Eritrea against UNMEE, in violation of the Algiers Agreements, and in despite numerous Security Council Resolutions. The Council was expected to take action under Chapter VII of the Charter, pursuant to Article 14 of the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities. The two parties themselves mandated the Council to do so as one of the guarantees of the Agreement. The Council’s failure to discharge its responsibility has had direct implications for the present situation. It is in these circumstances that Ethiopia now believes there is no alternative to immediate and punitive sanctions against Eritrea, to protect the personnel of UNMEE, and to ensure that the Security Council discharges its proper responsibilities under the UN Charter, and under the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities.

This was underlined by the Minister of State Foreign Affairs, Tekeda Alemu, when he met the resident Ambassadors of the Security Council permanent and non-permanent members on Wednesday. The State Minister emphasized that the timidity of the Security Council had contributed to the humiliation that UNMEE was now suffering

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia

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