Eritrea: UN peacekeepers face land restrictions

United Nations peacekeepers monitoring the Eritrean-Ethiopian border, already subject to a flight ban by Eritrea, now face restrictions on their land movements there as well, a UN spokesman said today.

The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which has been monitoring the Temporary Security Zone between the two countries, reported an increase in restrictions to the freedom of movement of its patrols at the local level during the past two weeks, especially after dusk.

"In some areas patrols have indeed been warned 'to confine their land vehicle movements to the main roads' in the 25-kilometre (16-mile) wide demilitarized buffer zone," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the daily noon briefing in New York.

"The issue has been taken up at the Sector level and with the Eritrean Commissioner for Coordination with the Peacekeeping Mission. In both instances, officials have denied issuing any official orders to this effect. These restrictions, however, continue," he added.

In a letter last week calling on Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki him to lift the helicopter ban, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it severely inhibited the UN mission in carrying out its five-year-old mandate to monitor the cessation of hostilities and the deployment of forces on both sides, which fought a two-year border war from 1998-2000.