SRSG LEGWAILA EXPRESSES OPTIMISM FOR ETHIOPIA-ERITREA PEACE PROCESS
Since the beginning of the year, SRSG Legwaila Joseph Legwaila has been engaged in extensive ‘shuttle diplomacy’ between the cities of Asmara and Addis Ababa, where he continues to hold briefings with the key stakeholders and players in the peace process. In a recent trip to Ethiopia, the SRSG held a press exchange with Addis Ababa based journalists. He also spoke to UNMEE News on a wide range of issues including the prevailing situation of the peace process, and his plans for retirement: The following are excerpts from the interview.
SRSG Legwaila with UNMEE peacekeepers during a recent visit to the Mereb River bridge.
"Reconciliation in my view is a long term process. It is not a process we can complete before the mission ends" says the SRSG.
Q. Your Excellency, the peace process is at a critical phase now with demarcation set to begin in the summer months that precede the rainy season in this part of the world. Yet, the Ethiopians are unhappy with the Boundary Commission’s recent Observations, to what extent are you concerned that we will not be able to get over this impasse?
SRSG: Well, of course, every time there is an impasse— what you call an impasse—we are concerned because we want the peace process to proceed with as few impasses as possible but as I have repeatedly said we have had problems in the past in the peace process, many problems, which we have been able to resolve, and that is the reason why we are where we are today.
Q: Sir, you recently went to New York for the extension of the UNMEE mandate. What was the mood there among Security Council members and other diplomats about the status of the peace process?
SRSG: There was a general mood of concern that maybe the peace process was slowing down and as we have seen in resolution 1466 the parties were urged by the Security Council to continue to cooperate with the Boundary Commission and to continue to meet their obligations under the Algiers Agreements. And we hope they will do so.
Q: What role do you think regional bodies like the African Union and other guarantors can play in moving the process forward?
SRSG: Well, the role they can play is the role they have played since the Mission was established, two and half years ago and that is the role of encouraging the parties to stay the course of peace, to implement the agreements they signed in 2000 and that role has to be played now, at this critical stage where we are seeing the beginning of the last phase in the peace process which is the demarcation of the border. And therefore I have been here in Addis for a little more than a week now just to encourage our partners, the guarantors of the peace process, the AU under whose auspices the mission has been established to become even more active in encouraging the parties to stay the course.
Q: Some analysts have been wondering whether it is possible to embark on demarcation without reconciliation. What is your comment on this issue?
SRSG: Reconciliation in my view is a long- term process. It is not a process we can complete before the mission ends. It is a process, which will far outlive the presence of UNMEE here. In other words, the international community will have to continue to encourage the two parties to reconcile long after the mission will have ended its work here. And therefore, I think it will be wrong to tie the demarcation of the border inextricably to the process of reconciliation. The demarcation of the border is a necessary immediate step that must be taken by the parties in order at least to normalize the border and then normalization of relations can follow together with the reconciliation between the two countries.