By KUNA
United Nations : The Security Council late Friday “strongly condemned” Eritrea’s lack of cooperation with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), and demanded that it end all its restrictions on the mission as it relocates to Ethiopia and vowed to consider “further appropriate” steps for the safety and protection of its personnel.
“The Security Council strongly condemns the lack of cooperation from the Government of Eritrea which not only gravely contravenes UN Security Council resolutions … but also fails to comply with Eritrea’s general obligation to assist forces that have been stationed with its consent,” council President Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama said in a statement he read in an open meeting.
The council holds Eritrea responsible for the safety and security of the mission and its personnel, he added.
Eritrea has been obstructing the temporary relocation of the mission’s personnel and equipment across the border to Ethiopia. The mission was forced to relocate because of Eritrea’s restrictions on fuel and food supplies to its personnel.
He said the council “notes with great concern” that, by maintaining restrictions on UNMEE despite the council’s numerous demands, and, by refusing to reinstate fuel deliveries to UNMEE, Eritrea has “created a situation” in which a temporary relocation of personnel and equipment from Eritrea has been rendered “inevitable.” The council expressed its determination to closely monitor the situation and to consider “further appropriate steps” for the safety and protection of the mission and its personnel.
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno, who briefed the council in a closed meeting, characterized the situation as “untenable.” He told reporters after addressing the council, “We are in a situation where it’s getting harder and harder to stay and it’s getting harder and harder to leave. We’re running out of fuel, we’re running out of food.” Guehenno stressed that it is “unacceptable” that blue helmets, who are deployed to provide assistance, become victims.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also “deeply concerned” by Eritrea’s obstruction of the relocation of the personnel and equipment of the mission from Eritrea to the Ethiopian side.
His press office said on Friday that earlier this week, not more than six vehicles have been allowed by the Eritrean authorities to cross into Ethiopia.
It added that a number of UNMEE vehicles were stopped by the Eritrean Defence Forces and prevented from crossing the border. On Thursday UNMEE personnel were threatened and the equipment seized.
The Eritrean commercial company that provides rations to UNMEE has also informed the mission that it will no longer be able to fulfill its contractual obligations.
These restrictions are the latest in a list of punitive measures Eritrea is taking to protest the council’s silence as Ethiopia continues to occupy the border town of Badme which an independent commission had ruled for Eritrea in 2002.
Last year Eritrea began by grounding the mission’s helicopters then by throwing out of the country all western peacekeepers.