United Nations — The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) today voiced its protest over the presence of Ethiopian military companies inside the proposed buffer zone with Eritrea and urged redeployment of the units.

The Mission said in a statement that UNMEE's Force Commander protested to the head of the Ethio-Eritrean Peacekeeping Coordination Bureau in Addis Ababa and asked that the military units be withdrawn immediately to the previously agreed line of redeployment on the southern boundary of the future Temporary Security Zone (TSZ).

According to UNMEE, the Ethiopian military authorities said they would not withdraw their forces from the Central Sector of the future zone, but acknowledged that the area had not been included in the redeployment plans previously presented to UNMEE.

"UNMEE regrets this setback to the ongoing process of establishing the TSZ," the statement said. "The Mission is stepping up its patrols of this area and will closely monitor the situation."

On 22 February, the Ethiopian Government had informed UNMEE that it had moved all its troops to the southern boundary of the prospective TSZ.

However, during a monitoring patrol on 15 March, Ethiopian soldiers were sighted in three separate company-sized positions approximately 6 kilometres inside the prospective TSZ, southeast of Senafe. The next day, further patrols observed the Ethiopian positions.

UNMEE presented this information to Ethiopian military authorities in Addis Ababa on 17 March 2001 and asked for the immediate withdrawal of forces from the area. Ethiopian military authorities agreed to investigate the matter.

As a result, on 20 March, Ethiopian military officers and UNMEE military observers made a joint assessment of the area in question to investigate the presence and exact location of Ethiopian troops. On the basis of that reconnaissance, it was confirmed that Ethiopian soldiers were indeed in the area in question.