1 December 2007

In a briefing on Secretary Rice's upcoming travel to Ethiopia yesterday, Friday 30, 2007, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer responded to questions pertaining to Eritrea too. Following is an excerpt of the briefing:

QUESTION: Can I just ask one more very briefly on the Boundary Commission thing? Former Ambassador Bolton has written in his book that you in February of 2006 told him that you wanted to reopen the Boundary Commission's 2002 decision and to give the area or parts of the area around (inaudible), to award that which had been already granted to Eritrea to Ethiopia. Is that correct?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRAZER: No. Thank you for asking the question. I actually haven't read the book, so I am surprised that I even feature in it. But I can assure you unequivocally that I've never advocated for reopening the boundary decision, the EEBC decision on the -- you know, the land, the delimitation line. In fact, we've been very clear that we accept the delimitation line. The issue was how do you move from delimitation to demarcation. And I've always advocated that that has to involve dialogue between the countries because, clearly, territory that was Eritrea's has been given to Ethiopia, territory that's Ethiopian has been given to Eritrea. That's what drawing straight lines typically does. And so not to reopen the decision, but rather to have a dialogue about the demarcation, including options of open borders so that the people on the borders can move back and forth. And that really is, I think, just a matter of how do you implement the decision, not reopening or questioning decisions. So I could say without -- unequivocally that I've never advocated for changing the delimitation decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

QUESTION: Can I ask you about a subject that you didn't mention, which I think is very likely to come up, and that's Ethiopia-Eritrea. As you know, today the Boundary Commission's mandate expired with no demarcation on the ground and tensions high despite what Meles and others seem to be saying, things are just as fragile as they were when perhaps when the war ended. How much is that going to be a part of the agenda? And also, how much of just plain Eritrean -- the Eritrea issue on its own, the state sponsor designation, how much is that going to play into her (inaudible)?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRAZER: I would imagine that, obviously, in her consultations with Prime Minister Meles and Foreign Minister Seyoum, one of their biggest challenges is dealing with the Boundary Commission, so I would imagine that that would be a topic of discussion bilaterally between the Secretary and the leaders of Ethiopia.

As far as Eritrea's role in the region, it would probably be more of a discussion on the Somalia -- during the Somalia ministerial. And it'll be a key one because we do need to deal with how to bring legitimate opposition into dialogue with the Transitional Federal Government, and when we say legitimate opposition, that's the need to try to isolate those who continue to call for attacks, for instance, against the peacekeeping forces, those who will continue to use violence as a tactic of dissent and a tactic of destabilization. And obviously, Eritrea has played a role in training, financing and providing some safe haven for groups that are more extremist, but also groups that are what I would say legitimate opposition groups, "the full parliamentarians." Some of them also sit in Eritrea. And so yes, Eritrea certainly will feature prominently on the agenda in the Somalia ministerial.

Source: Eritrea Daily

Special Briefing
Office of the Spokesman
Washington , DC
November 30, 2007

Full text of the briefing