Eritrea ready to withdraw from all border areas

Director of the Middle East department at the Eritrean Foreign Ministry, Hamid Hamad, said his country has approved the proposals of the Organization of African Unity to settle the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In an interview with the Sawt al-Arab radio on Wednesday, Hamad denied any change on the battlefield between his country and Ethiopia. He stressed that Eritrea seeks to establish peace and reconciliation with Ethiopia but with no conditions.

In a statement to ArabicNews.com yesterday, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that "Eritrea is ready to implement redeployment in "all other contested areas along the common border within the framework of demilitarization of the entire common border" and accepts the supervision of the demilitarization process by a Group of Military Observers as provided for in article 5 (a) and (b) of the Framework Agreement."

Meanwhile, the office of the spokesman for the Ethiopian government said on Wednesday that establishing peace in the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia is connected to the withdrawal of the Eritrean forces from all occupied Ethiopian territories. AFP said that a statement by the Ethiopian government asked the international community to call for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Eritrean troops from Ethiopian territories.

The statement, of which the AFP received a copy, said that since the eruption of the conflict at the beginning of May 1998, the army of Eritrea continue to occupy Ethiopian territories in the areas of Zala Anbisa Ega, Badabouri and Egala. The spokesman added that Eritrea tries to give a wrong explanation to the agreement provided by the Organization of African Unity to establish peace.

The statement explained that the Ethiopian government is fully committed to honoring the principle of not interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.