17 Jul 2003 13:31:44 GMT
reuters alertnet.org
ADDIS ABABA, July 17 (Reuters) - The remains of 164 Ethiopian soldiers killed in a two-year border war with Eritrea will be sent home next week, officials said on Thursday.
The 1998-2000 war between the Horn of Africa neighbours killed about 70,000 people. It ended with a peace agreement in 2000, but tensions remain high and demarcation of a new border has been delayed by wrangling over where it should be.
The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia said the bodies would be repatriated on July 25 so they could be buried properly.
"Both the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean government are fully supportive of the repatriation because it is the decent and humanitarian thing to do," Major-General Robert Gordon told a news conference.
He said the International Committee of the Red Cross was involved in the repatriation process.