The UN Security Council has agreed to a demand from Eritrea to withdraw all Americans, Canadians and Europeans from the UN peacekeeping mission that monitors the tense border with Ethiopia.
But the council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made clear on Wednesday that the decision to redeploy about 180 Western military observers and civilian staff to the Ethiopian capital was just a first step. Both promised a speedy review of the entire UN peacekeeping operation -- and one option is almost certain to be to end it and send the nearly 3,300 civilian and military staff home.
The UN established the mission after a two-and-a-half-year border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors. A December 2000 peace agreement provided for an independent commission to rule on the position of the disputed 1,000km border, while UN troops patrolled a 24km buffer zone between the two countries.
But Ethiopia has refused to implement the international commission's April 2002 ruling, which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.
In response, Eritrea has accused the international community of shirking its responsibility to ensure the demarcation ruling is obeyed. Since October, it has banned UN helicopter flights and vehicle movements at night on its side of the buffer zone.
On Dec. 6, Eritrea gave the force 10 days to pull out peacekeepers from North America and Europe, including Russia. It gave no reason, but the move came amid mounting concern that both sides were massing troops near the buffer zone as a prelude to a new war.
The Security Council said Eritrea's lack of cooperation prevented the UN from "implementing its mandate satisfactorily" and warned that continuing restrictions "will have implications" for the mission's future.
The council said in a statement adopted by consensus and read at a formal meeting that it plans to review promptly "all options" for the mission's deployment in the context of its original purpose and ability to act.
It said a UN military presence would remain in Eritrea during the period it is reviewing future plans for the UN mission.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also said the recent Eritrean decisions "have made it impossible for the UN mission to implement its mandate ... [and] to work effectively."
The secretary-general "will go back to the Security Council next week to present a broad range of options on the way forward," he said.
Several UN diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because no action has been taken, said one option will be to close down the mission.
The Security Council strongly condemned Eritrea's "unacceptable actions and restrictions" and said it approved the decision to temporarily relocate military and civilian staff "solely in the interests of ... safety and security."
"The council is not caving in," US Ambassador John Bolton said, explaining that the Western peacekeepers affected by the Eritrean order were unarmed military observers and staff.
"They are not a fighting force and it would be irresponsible not to take their safety into account," he said.
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