Mediators Express Concern Over Flare Up In Border Conflict

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PANA) - mediators seeking to end the 22-month border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea have reportedly appealed on the belligerents to their best to avert another round of full-scale fighting.
Without giving details, government spokesperson Selome Tadesse told reporters in Addis Ababa Friday that an envoy of the current OAU chairman, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the former US national security adviser, Anthony Lake, had conferred with the Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

But other informed sources said that during their separate talks with Meles Thursday, Lake and the president's envoy, Ahmed Ouyahia, had "made their concerns known" on the need for the disputing parties to show restraint.

Asmara and Addis Ababa have blamed each other for starting the Bure front skirmishes Wednesday.

No incident has been reported Friday at either the Bure front or the two other fronts -- Badme and Zalambeessa.

Selome said Meles' talks with the mediators "centred in particular on the clarifications Ethiopia had sought on the technical arrangements for implementing the OAU framework agreement and modalities for ending the border conflict."

She refrained from going into the substance of the talks, only saying "there is a genuine intent on the Ethiopian side to give peace a chance."

She affirmed, however, that "falling short of the reinstitution" of the Ethiopian civil administration in the territories Eritrean forces have been occupying since 6 May, 1998 "is unacceptable."

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