President Isaias Meets with returend Peace Corps Volunteers

President Isias Afwerki today met a team of returned Peace Corps volunteers who are on a peace mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia.

President isaias thanked the members of the team for undertaking the peace mission at this crucial moment and expressed the hope that this informal initiative from people with sentimental attachment to both countries will have significant contribution to the peace endeavours underway.

In regad to Eritrea's readiness for peace, President Isaias underlined to the team that:
* Eritrea's position from outset was for the renunciation of the use of force to solvea a border dispute. In this spirit, Eritrea has consistently called for the cessation of hostilities in the different forums and is willing to observe an immidiate cease-fire as stipulated by the resolutions of the UN Security Coucil, the OAU and the international community at large. Eritrea has in fact gone beyond this when it publicly stated in January of this year that "it will not fire the first bullet" although it reserves the legimate right of self-defence when and if attacked;

* Eritrea has accepted the OAU Framework and remains ready to impliment all its provisions in good faith;
* Ethiopia's obstruction of peace either through the introduction of new preconditions or arguments of "the restoration of status quo ante that exissted before May 6, 1998" are not tenable. The status quo constitutes, and cannnot be other than, the respect of colonial treaties and associated boundaries. As such, the status quo ante refers to the reality that existed before any violation of the colonial boundaries. This is in fact duly addressed in the OAU Framework as operative paragraph 7 has provisions for investigating all the events and violations that led to the current crisis;
* The issue of administration cannot, likewise, be a bone of contention as administration cannot, in the legal sense, be divorced from sovereignty. In any case, the Framework Agreement has provisions for all these issues and ambiguities were clarified through the written statement of the OAU High-Level Delegation to Eritrea on January 26, 1999;
* Eritrea is prepared to redeploy from the entire boundary in accordance with the provisions of the Framework Agreement;
* Eritrea is prepared to cooperate in any way it can to promote the peace process. In this spirit, Eritrea welcomes direct talks at any level.

The Peace Corps team members expressed their faith in the potential of both countries and the Horn of Africa region as a whole. In this regard, they stressed that peace was a pre-requisite for development and increased investment. The members of the team stressed that they will do their utmost to give an impetus to the peace process.

The team is composed of Judge William Cabny, Mr. Mike McCaskey, Mr. John Garamendi, Mr. Charles Dambach and Mr. Melvin Foote. The team will leave Asmara tomorrow for Addis Ababa.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara 11 June 1999