Reuters
07-JUL-98
DAR ES SALAAM, July 7 (Reuters) - Rwanda says it will continue to pursue a solution to a conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, despite the rejection of a plan it helped to draw up, but outside the framework of the Organisation of African Unity.
Rwanda's Foreign Affairs Minister Anastase Gasana told Reuters that Rwanda had pulled out of the OAU mediation committee after Eritrea rejected a U.S.-Rwanda peace plan adopted by the OAU.
``Initial reconciliatory recommendations were made jointly by Rwanda and the U.S. and these were rejected by Eritrea,'' Gasana said late on Monday.
``Since the OAU was going to pursue a resolution based along the same lines, (when) one of the key players rejected the recommendations we felt it necessary to pull out,'' Gasana added.
He was speaking in the Tanzanian capital during a visit by Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu.
Rwanda gave no reason last week when it pulled out of an OAU mediation committee trying to resolve the dispute.
Hundreds have died since a border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea degenerated into a bloody conflict, although there have been no reports of significant fighting since June 11.
Rwanda's decision left a question mark over the future of the U.S.-Rwanda plan which was adopted by the OAU in a decision later implicitly endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
``We want to continue to help because both countries are our friends -- but outside the OAU framework,'' Gasana said.
``We hope for a peaceful solution. We would like each of those countries to take their own responsibility for peace because the relationship is between the two countries.''
A team of four African ambassadors and an OAU representative visited Ethiopia and Eritrea last week as part of the OAU initiative.
That trip followed an earlier OAU mission led by four African leaders including Bizimungu which failed to make a breakthrough.
The mediation effort stumbled when Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki rejected a clause in the four-point plan which called on Eritrean forces to withdraw from contested territories to positions held before May 6, when the conflict began. Ethiopia has accepted the OAU plan.