Interview with UN Special Envoy-designate Lloyd Axworthy

Former Canadian Foreign Minister Dr Lloyd Axworthy has been designated UN special envoy to help resolve the stalemate affecting the Ethiopian and Eritrean peace process. Here, speaking from his home in British Columbia on 3 January, he tells IRIN that his role will be to help create an atmosphere conducive to overcoming the current deadlock. QUESTION: Have you been appointed special envoy? ANSWER: It hasn’t been officially announced. The secretary-general [Kofi Annan] spoke to me about it to determine whether I would be prepared to take it on, and I said I would. He then had to go through the appropriate channels to get the two parties, the governments, to agree, as well to sound out the other constituencies inside the UN system, which he has been doing. I believe in the letters that he sent to the two governments he announced the special envoy. I know the Eritreans have reacted against the idea to mediate, but this is more to start a kind of a dialogue, to represent the concerns of the international community and those that the UN expresses. So it is one of those appointments that has been designated, but as yet has not been officially announced. Q: Have you any idea when it will be officially announced? A: Well I think it depends a little bit on what kind of discussions will ensue because of the letters. My latest talks with the secretary-general’s office were just shortly after Christmas when they said the letters had just gone off and they would take a look at the replies. The secretary-general tabled his report at the Security Council expressing his concerns, and I think we are going to talk in the coming week to determine what the next steps are. Q: Eritrea has responded strongly, saying they don’t want to open new mechanisms in the peace process. Is that a rejection of your candidature? A: It isn’t necessarily that way, because there was no intention that we would be starting a new mechanism; we are trying to facilitate. Clearly, the United Nations has an interest in resolving the matter with the Security Council, and I think it is important that the United Nations be represented and be part of the discussions, but there is no sense that there is going to be a shift or a major operation, or that we are going to get rid of the Algiers Accord agreements, but you still need to have at least a receptive audience to have a dialogue, and I think that is what needs to be worked out. There is not that kind of environment right now. I haven’t been part of those discussions, because I haven’t been formally designated, although I have been asked if I would serve if the circumstances were right. I would still hope that could be worked out, because there is a constructive role that could be asked. Q: Why has Kofi Annan asked you to take this role? A: Well, I suppose because he felt it was important to have a representative that would be prepared to start this kind of a dialogue, these conversations, and report back what he sees, the conditions there that might help move away from the stalemate. I think he is clearly concerned that under the present arrangement there hasn’t been a lot of exchange, and the rhetoric is getting more intense, and this could break out into further animosities. So I think this is logical, and the UN secretary-general will want to play his role. Q: Do you think there is a real risk of a return to conflict? A: I couldn’t judge on that, I haven’t been to the area. I was a foreign minister to Canada during the time the first conflict took place and I just saw the environment, the impact on people. I guess everyone hopes that will not happen. Everybody has a stake in this, but one never knows. I have been around international affairs long enough to know that sometimes these things can escalate if they are given the chance to. We have to find some kind of venue where the concerns can be raised and hopefully be resolved. The boundary commission [set up with the agreement of both countries to resolve the border dispute] has done, in effect, its work in coming down with a decision and then moving towards demarcation, and I am not sure it still has the capacity to provide that kind of representation that the secretary-general would like to have. Q: In what sense does it not have the capacity to provide that kind of representation? A: I think this is very much a process of political conversation and discussions where things go on, as opposed to a more technical question that we have to resolve. Q: How do you resolve a situation where Eritrea has said we don’t need dialogue until the border decision has been implemented? A: I guess the key question there is how do you get to that stage where it can be implemented. This is not something that is simply axiomatic; it is something that has to be worked at. Clearly both governments have a stake in this issue. The boundary commission’s decision needs to be developed. I am not making any suggestions at this point, because I haven’t been engaged. I think there is a different kind of process that may be helpful. We are not replacing the fact that there is a commission; it made a decision for demarcation, the military committee is there to help administer. The international community has put a lot of effort into this. I think the secretary-general wants to have a representative, a perspective in place, and to see what else can be done and get progress. Q: Is the will there from the international community, given crises around the world? A: I think so. There have been a lot of expressions of concern, and the African Union has been engaged with it, the governments have been engaged, the European Union has been engaged, and clearly the Security Council – it is on their agenda. And with the Security Council that is a pretty clear signal that the international community have an interest. I think we are all mindful of what happened in 1998-2000 [the period of the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea] and nobody wants to see any possibility of a return to that kind of situation. Q: What can you bring to the job over and above what the head of the UN peacekeeping force is currently doing? A: I suppose that as foreign minister for Canada for several years, I have a broader experience in these kinds of disputes, I think - approach things maybe from a Canadian perspective, that there is always room for accommodation. Q: Is international community, the African Union, the guarantors of the peace process doing enough in regard to the peace process? A: I would like to probably defer an answer to that until I am actually in place and get a chance to talk. But the fact that the secretary-general has appointed a special envoy is a pretty good sign about taking it seriously. Q: And when do you think you are likely to get here [to the region]? A: Well, I would hope if we could get an agreement on the mandate I would hope to be in the region by the third or fourth week of January, but that’s all depending on [what] the state of the negotiations is, and right now I will have a better sense of that at the beginning of the coming week talking to the people in the secretary-general’s office. Q: And have the statements from Eritrea thrown a spanner in the works? A: It makes it part of the interesting diplomatic discussions. I can’t answer that fully, because I haven’t been party to those discussions. I will have to get a better briefing on that.