ASMARA, 16 January 2004 — A ruling by an independent commission on the path of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia, over which the neighbors fought a two-year war, was final and binding, Britain’s minister for Africa Chris Mullin has said here.
“We are making it clear to both parties that the border commission decision is final, legal and binding,” Mullin said late Wednesday in the Eritrean capital, the first leg of a visit aimed at defusing fresh tensions between the Horn of Africa neighbors over their border.
“Our message is the same to both capitals, that the boundary commission decision should be implemented,” he said.
Tens of thousands of people died during the two-year border war, which was resolved in December 2000, when a peace pact was signed in Algiers.
Under that pact, an independent border commission was set up to rule on the exact path of the border, and Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed that they would accept whatever the commission’s final decision was.
But five months after the commission made its ruling in April 2002, Ethiopia rejected it, particularly because it gave the border town of Badme to Eritrea.
