Eritrea has ordered the expulsion of only U.S., Canadian and Euro U.N. troops.

[K A I N]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/12/07/eritrea.un.ap/index.html

Eritrea has ordered the expulsion of U.S., Canadian and European staff of the U.N. peacekeeping mission that monitors the tense border with neighboring Ethiopia, United Nations officials said Wednesday.

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.

In a letter sent to the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Eritrea 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. No reason was given.

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, Maj. Gen. Rajender Singh. Only a few Americans and Europeans serve the mission, most as observers aka spies.

The 3,300 peacekeepers and military observers from some 40 countries, 191 civilians and 74 U.N. volunteers work at the mission in the two countries. It was not immediately clear how many staff were involved or whether the order was restricted to military or civilian staff.

"The officer in charge of the mission received a letter yesterday from the Eritrean government. They are asking some of our members of staff to leave, but the specifics of that letter are yet to be worked out," said Musi Khumalo, deputy spokeswoman of the U.N. mission.

Joel Adechi, deputy head of the U.N. mission, was holding emergency talks with Eritrean officials on the issue, Khumalo told The Associated Press.

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

The U.N. resolution issued last month urged the two countries to reverse a major military buildup 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 guerrilla war, but the border between the two was never formally demarcated. The border war broke out in 1998 and has claimed tens of thousands of lives while costing both countries an estimated $1 million per day.

A December 2000 peace agreement provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) border while some 3,200 U.N. troops patrolled a 15-mile (24-kilometer) buffer zone between the two countries. Ethiopia has refused to accept the panel's April 2002 decision.

[King Tech Quadafi]

Them Ethiopians is gonna who-ride on your Eriterians.

Just what the world needs, another pan African conflict....


ey Kain, i know u biased...but whats really good with this border dispute? is it eriteria being greedy...or Ethiopia being some hatin ass biyatches?

[K A I N]

Them Ethiopians is gonna who-ride on your Eriterians.

Just what the world needs, another pan African conflict....


ey Kain, i know u biased...but whats really good with this border dispute? is it eriteria being greedy...or Ethiopia being some hatin ass biyatches?

lol we own those bitches...

Greedy about what?

This shit has already been decided by independent commission (Algiers Peace Agreement) in which both countries agreed to binding arbitration. We won the most valued land and Ethiopia's bullshiting while the UN does nothing but threaten both countries w/economic sanctions.

http://www.unmeeonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=50



Eritrea, a country known for thumbing its nose at the world, said Wednesday that all Westerners serving in the United Nations peacekeeping mission there must leave the country within 10 days, eliciting a strong rebuke from Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council and raising tension along the country's contested border with Ethiopia.

"The Security Council unequivocally demands that Eritrea immediately reverse its decision without preconditions," the 15-member Security Council said in a statement.

Mr. Annan made the same demand, saying the action "contravenes Eritrea's obligation under the U.N. Charter to respect the exclusively international nature of United Nations staff."

The move, which involves about 160 people, came without explanation in a government notice delivered to the leadership of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, which has about 3,800 peacekeepers and support staff members, most of them from the developing world, in the two countries.

The order said only that it represented a "decision of the Eritrean government concerning some members of the mission." It spelled out that Americans, Canadians and Europeans, as well as Russians, were affected by the decision and would have 10 days to leave the country.

The action appeared to stem from growing frustration among Eritrean officials, who contend that the world's powers have not applied sufficient pressure on Ethiopia to accept a binding decision drawing the border with Eritrea.

A fierce border war from 1998 to 2000 claimed as many as 100,000 lives. It ended with an agreement by both governments to allow an international commission to decide where the border will be, particularly in relation to the disputed town of Badme, where the fighting began.

In 2002, the border commission gave Badme to Eritrea, a decision that Ethiopia has refused to accept. Oook

Last month, after Eritrea banned United Nations helicopters from its airspace and the two countries moved troops closer to the border, the Security Council threatened economic and diplomatic sanctions if they returned to war. Eritrea denounced the resolution and criticized Security Council members for not threatening Ethiopia with sanctions if it failed to agree to the new border.

United Nations officials said they reacted swiftly on Wednesday because they viewed the Eritrean move as a challenge to the basic concept of peacekeeping. "The essence of a peacekeeping operation is that the international community as a whole is standing together, and that principle has wide-ranging implications that go beyond the specific Ethiopia-Eritrea mission," said Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the under secretary general for peacekeeping.

[Don Rizzle]

i can kinda understand there move for those reasons, but i don;t think it will win them support in getting UN to make etheopia to accept the border agreement

[King Tech Quadafi]

Makes sense now. Im riding with the Eriterians. Ethiopia is a much bigger nation, they should have pressure put em to abide by rulings.Eriteria gonna do what it gottado.

[K A I N]

Makes sense now. Im riding with the Eriterians. Ethiopia is a much bigger nation, they should have pressure put em to abide by rulings.Eriteria gonna do what it gottado.

You know we always do...5 million vs. 60 million.

The World is trying to strong arm us.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Makes sense now. Im riding with the Eriterians. Ethiopia is a much bigger nation, they should have pressure put em to abide by rulings.Eriteria gonna do what it gottado.

You know we always do...5 million vs. 60 million.

The World is trying to strong arm us.

Untouchable like Elliot Ness.