In May 1998, the UN Security Council, refusing to condemn Eritrea’s invasion of Ethiopia, adopted a policy which Ethiopia felt amounted to appeasement. Subsequently, this approach continued in various forms. The Security Council made little effort to respond with any vigor to the continuous Eritrean efforts to undermine the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities over the last four years.
 

The Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities, of June 2000, is a bilateral treaty between Ethiopia and Eritrea. It provides for a ceasefire to end the war Eritrea began in May 1998, it defines the Temporary Security Zone to separate the two armies and the duties of the peacekeeping mission set up to monitor the zone. The Agreement guarantees the freedom of movement and supplies for the peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which is mandated to ensure the integrity of the zone. In this regard, the Agreement also allows for Chapter VII action by the Security Council should either party violate their commitments under the Agreement. It should be recalled that it is only the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities which provides for such sanction.
 

Eritrea introduced the first restrictions on UNMEE in March 2004. It steadily escalated these restrictions until UNMEE was forced to withdraw earlier this year. Simultaneously, Eritrea increasingly infiltrated the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). It has now taken over the whole of the TSZ.
 

Eritrea has humiliated UNMEE, a UN Security Council peacekeeping mission. It has defied numerous demands itemized in a whole series of Security Council resolutions. It has violated international law and a bilateral treaty for the integrity of which the Security Council has responsibility.
 

The Secretary-General himself has documented these violations by Eritrea at length, including in his latest report to the Security Council this week. Nevertheless, this same report appears to totally avoid underlining the gravity and the dangers of the violations committed by Eritrea. Nor does it emphasize the importance of the threats to the integrity of the Algiers Agreement and the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Ethiopia now calls upon the Security Council and the Secretary-General to prevent Eritrea getting away with its defiance yet again, and to act against its egregious violations which, under normal circumstances, would have legitimately called for activation of Chapter VII sanctions. The minimum expected of the Security Council now must be the strongest condemnations of Eritrea for these violations, and insistence on immediate Eritrean reversal of all recent transgressions. As the Security Council well knows, the viability of the Algiers Agreement lies in the full restoration of the integrity of the Temporary Security Zone, and all functions of UNMEE.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
11 April 2008, Addis Ababa