Eritrea's pull-back begins

UN peacekeepers will patrol the newly-vacated zone

By Alex Last in Asmara

A key part of the ceasefire agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia has been implemented on schedule, with Eritrean troops beginning their redeployment to create a buffer zone.

On Saturday morning around 800 Eritrean troops left their positions in the mountains and canyons around the southern Eritrean town of Senafe.

The scene is being repeated all along the frontline, as hundreds of thousands of soldiers are redeploying in accordance with the ceasefire agreement signed in June 2000.

One of the key provisions of the agreement is the creation of a 25- kilometre (15-mile) deep temporary security zone between the two huge armies.

The Ethiopian army started to re-deploy five days ago from occupied territory to positions held before the war.

The redeployment process will take about two weeks. The last to pull back on both sides will be those in the front line trenches.

There is relief in Senafe that the Ethiopians have gone

At the frontline on the mountains near Senafe, Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers lounged around on top of their sandbag trenches which are just a few hundred metres apart.

The soldiers said they often shout greetings to each other.

Such relaxed friendliness would have been almost unthinkable than a year ago, when Eritrea and Ethiopia finally fought each other to a bitter standstill.

But the real beneficiaries of the creation of the buffer zone and the withdrawal of the Ethiopian army will be the hundreds of thousands of Eritrean civilians displaced by the war, who are now waiting in camps, desperate to get home and begin to rebuild their lives in peace.