Ethiopian Opposition Groups Protest Against Border Delimitation Decision

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 22, 2002

Ethiopian Opposition Groups Protest Against Border Delimitation Decision

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Six Ethiopian opposition groups abroad have sent a letter to UN Secretary General Kafi Annan to continue expressing their protest against the decision which is scheduled to be declared on April 13 by the Boundary Demarcation Commission in the Hague.

The groups said in the letter that the Ethiopian people and various political organizations do not accept any border demarcation or change that infringes the rights of sovereignty of Ethiopia.

The local media identified the six political groups as the All- Ethiopian Socialist Movement, the Ethiopian Democratic Party Renewal, the Ethiopian People Federal Revolutionary Party, the Tigray National Democratic Alliance and the South Ethiopia Peoples Democratic Union.

Earlier, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was reported as saying that the Ethiopian government will accept the decision on the border demarcation regardless of whether it went in or against the interests of Ethiopia.

Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a peace agreement in December 2000 following a more than two years border conflicts which had caused thousands of lives of both countries.

According to the agreement, the two countries agreed to let an international neutral body, the Boundary Commission based in the Hague, settle their territorial dispute which was the main core for the war between the two countries.

The commission first will draw a line on a map, and dispatch personals to go through landmine area to mark the border on the ground, which is regarded as dangerous task for the border delimitation.

UN special envoy Legwaila Joseph Legwaila said this week that the border delimitation would be fully completed by the middle of 2003, and expressed his optimistic over the lasting peace between the borders of the two countries following the declaration of border demarcation.

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