UN awaits news on staffer detained by Eritrea

NAIROBI, Sep 26 (Reuters) The United Nations said today it had not been allowed to see a Congolese staff member who was arrested by Eritrea last week accused of smuggling people to neighbouring Ethiopia.

''To date, UNMEE has not been granted access to the staff member or received formal communication with specific information,'' the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE) said in a statement.

In its latest row with the world body, Eritrea last week said it had caught the U.N. peacekeeper, Redis Sinenbo, as he tried to cross into Ethiopia with eight Eritreans.

Eritrea said last month it had arrested several other UN staff on the same accusation, and earlier in September it expelled five UN security personnel on spying charges.

Long suspicious that the international community favours its bigger neighbour Ethiopia, Eritrea is particularly furious with the United Nations for failing to enforce the ruling of an independent border commission at the end of the 1998-2000 war.

The commission awarded the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has refused to hand it over.

The United Nations runs a peacekeeping mission monitoring Eritrea and Ethiopia's 1,000 km border amid continued tensions following the war that killed some 70,000 people. It also has various aid operations in Eritrea.

Last year, Asmara expelled Western UN peacekeepers and slapped a ban on the mission's helicopter flights.

Eritrea says the United States is using its leverage in the United Nations to influence the border issue. Ethiopia is the main US ally for counter-terrorism operations in the region.

''The fact is Ethiopia has neither the power nor the political skill to defy international law for a single day, let alone four years,'' Eritrea Health Minister Saleh Meky told the UN General Assembly this week, according to a UN transcript.

''If it has done so for the past four years, it is simply because its unlawful conduct has been, and continues to be, encouraged and supported by certain members in the UN Security Council.'' Reuters AB VV1849