Reuters
27-JUL-98
ADDIS ABABA, July 27 (Reuters)- The Organisation of African Unity said on Monday it would present its report this week on a fact-finding mission into a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The report is expected to comment on where the borders lay and who administered the territory before the dispute began.
It will be presented at a two-day OAU meeting starting on Saturday in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou chaired by President Blaise Campaore, the OAU said.
Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Hassan Gouled Aptidon of Djibouti and OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim are expected to attend.
The OAU said in a statement it had visited both capitals and held talks with President Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia in an attempt to find out more about the disputed territory of Badme and Sheraro.
OAU ambassadors from Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Djibouti also studied documents relating to the border and talked to historians.
The OAU mission was a follow-up to an OAU initiative in June led by the presidents of Djibouti, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and Rwanda.
That mission, whose effort was based on proposals by the United States and Rwanda, stalled after Eritrea rejected a clause that called on it to withdraw to territory it held before May 6. Rwanda later pulled out of the initiative.
Hundreds died between May 6 and June 11 when the border dispute between the former allies flared into a ground and air war. There have been no reports of fighting since then.
Djibouti President Aptidon held talks on Monday with Meles at Addis Ababa's Bole International Airport. Aptidon was on his way to Kenya.
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Aptidon joined Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi in calling for an end to hostilities, the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) said.
Moi said that a joint meeting of the OAU and the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) would be convened to attempt to resolve the conflict, KBC added.