From: Eri News (er_news@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Jan 15 2009 - 11:57:01 EST
Press Statement: UNSC Resolution 1862(2009) defies the rule of law
By Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Jan 15, 2009, 14:17
Under strong pressure from self-interested powers, the UN Security Council yesterday (14 January 2009) adopted an ill-considered, unbalanced and unnecessary resolution against Eritrea.
Any balanced examination of the situation would lead to the conclusion that this measure cannot have been motivated by any genuine considerations of the rule of law. The UN Security Council has been vacillating for weeks now about addressing an international humanitarian crisis of grave proportions to the bewilderment of the international community. In the Horn of Africa specifically, the UN Security Council has and continues to tolerate Ethiopia's occupation of the town of Badme and other sovereign Eritrean territories for almost seven years since the final and binding Award of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC). Furthermore, UN Security Council Resolution 1430 of August 2002 expressly instructed Ethiopia to implement without precondition the EEBC's Order to dismantle its illegal settlements in Dembe Mengul (western Eritrea) "within 30 days". It remains ignored by Ethiopia with impunity.
Instead of addressing these real breaches of international law, the UN Security Council has seen it appropriate to pass a resolution (sponsored jointly by the US and France who have military bases in Djibouti) against Eritrea on a manufactured "border dispute" with Djibouti.
As underlined on numerous occasions, Eritrea has not occupied any land that belongs to Djibouti. It obviously cannot accept a resolution that demands the “withdrawal of its forces" from its own territory.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara
15 January 2009
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