ERITREAN WOMAN FLIES TO ETHIOPIA AND ASKS FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM

January 24, 2003 – (Addis Tribune - Addis Ababa) The UN have launched an investigation after an Eritrean woman at the peacekeeping mission in Asmara used a UN helicopter to fly to Ethiopia and ask for political asylum to be granted to her. Rosa Abraham, who is in her 20s and worked for the UN's peacekeeping Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), asked for political asylum at the weekend, diplomatic sources said.

According to senior diplomats, she was flown into Adigrat in Ethiopia aboard an UNMEE peacekeeping helicopter before claiming asylum the following day. Rosa, an Eritrean national, was due to attend a meeting for UNMEE in Senafe, Eritrea but the venue was changed to Ethiopia at the last minute.

She boarded the helicopter in Asmara on January 18th before the pilot unwittingly flew her into Ethiopia. According to a source, her UN transport permit - known as a Movement of Personnel (MOP) form - was changed and then signed off allowing her to cross into Ethiopia.

But they added that the MOP form should not have been changed and that when the venue was switched to Adigrat an Ethiopian or international staff member should have attended. Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody two-and-a-half year border war which claimed tens of thousands of lives. Currently some 4,200 UN peacekeepers and civilians monitor the fragile peace.

Tensions between both countries still remain high despite the conflict having ended some two years ago. Ethiopia closed its border to UNMEE in April after journalists were flown into Ethiopia from Eritrea without visas.

At present only low-level aircraft like helicopters can fly between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Both countries have refused to allow a high-altitude air link between their capitals despite it being a precondition of the peace agreement signed in December 2000.

Rosa, who has an Ethiopian partner, had worked for UNMEE's public information department in the Eritrean capital Asmara for at least a year. UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte, who heads the public information department, said she was unable to comment. "I can't comment on that right now as there is an investigation going on," she said. "I can't comment on this at all until the investigation is complete." Sainte was unable to say when the investigation will be completed or who was conducting it.

In the last six months there have been a growing number of Eritreans claiming asylum in Ethiopia. Since May more than four thousand Eritreans have crossed the 25-kilometre buffer zone that separates both countries and sought asylum. Many have left claiming they do not want to be forced to do military service in the country under Eritrean law.

In recent weeks two UNMEE staff were arrested by the Eritrean authorities who claimed they had not carried out or completed their
national service.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200301240369.html