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ERITREA: 2 LOCAL UN STAFF DETAINED BY ERITREAN AUTHORITIES February 25, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) AS Eritrea-Ethiopia’s border maintains its tense state, Eritrean authorities are still detaining two locally recruited staff from the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), after releasing 25 others a UN official said Thursday.
Deputy Spokesperson of UNMEE said in weekly briefing that the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) between Ethiopia and Eritrea "remains tense," and Eritrea's ban on the Mission's helicopter flights was still in place.
"During the last week, a total number of 27 locally recruited UNMEE staff was arrested by the Eritrean authorities for varying durations. As of today, two national staff members have not reported for duty," said Musi Khumalo from the Eritrean capital Asmara.
Ethiopia and Eritrea went into a bloody border war between 1998 and 2000 and the TSZ now separates the two countries. Mean while, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a recent report to the Security Council, offered a number of options for coping with the current stalemate, ranging from redeployment to total withdrawal of UNMEE.
Eritrea continues to criticise the UN for not forcing Ethiopia to accept the border delineated in 2002, awarding Badme - the town that triggered the border conflict - to Eritrea. In addition to the ban on over flights by its helicopters, UNMEE patrols also face restrictions on their movements.