2008-05-06 18:46:00 -
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The tiny port nation of Djibouti, a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, warned the U.N. Security Council that its northern neighbor Eritrea has launched a major military buildup on their border overlooking critical Red Sea shipping lanes.
In a letter to the council president circulated Tuesday, Djibouti's Foreign
Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf accused Eritrea of carrying out «an undisguised and naked provocation against my country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He urged the Security Council «to deploy urgently all necessary measures toward preventing yet another conflict, under any guise, in a region long ravaged by mayhem, bloodshed and destruction.
More than 1,200 U.S troops are stationed in Djibouti, which hosts the base for an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. France also has a base in Djibouti, its former colony.
Youssouf said he was bringing the Eritrean buildup to the council's attention with «utmost urgency» because «for no ostensible reason or justification and, to our utter bewilderment, we have been witnessing a progressive growth of Eritrean troops at our common border since February 2008.
The buildup included «preparation of fortification and battlements, equipment flow, and well-armed Eritrean soldiers on our side of the promontory of the Ras Doumeira mountain range overlooking the busy Red Sea shipping lanes,» he said.
«With maximum restraint on our part, resisting all temptations, and refraining from any forceful reaction, we embarked instead on quiet diplomacy, essentially encompassing direct bilateral contacts at every level, including at the highest,» Youssouf said.
But he said these efforts and the intercession of a key Gulf leader as well as raising the buildup with the African Union's Peace and Security Council and Arab League «have failed to elicit any credible response.
Youssouf recalled that in 1996 Eritrea floated «a false map ... that incorporated the same northern border area into its territory, thus unilaterally redrawing the established border.
«Concurrently, there was also an incursion by Eritrean troops into Djibouti territory,» he said.
Eritrea has been feuding over its border with Ethiopia since it gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.
