E-007/2000
January 18, 2000

 

OAS Special Representative to Update Permanent Council
On Honduras, Nicaragua Situation

 

Ambassador Luigi Einaudi, appointed as a Special Representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) to help ease tensions between Honduras and Nicaragua will present an interim report tomorrow to the Permanent Council of the OAS.

Einaudi has met on several occasions with Foreign Minister Roberto Flores of Honduras and Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Eduardo Montealegre to discuss details of a recent agreement, reached in Miami, on the separation of military forces and other confidence-building measures.

Einaudi will inform the 34 member countries of the developments during a meeting of the Permanent Council at the Organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. at 10:45 a.m.

Tensions arose between the two countries late last year as the result of the ratification, by the Honduran Congress, of a maritime delimitation treaty between Honduras and Colombia. Nicaragua, which claims some of the maritime areas in question, has taken the boundary issue to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Ambassador Einaudi, a retired U.S. diplomat, has said his role is to help the two countries develop mechanisms to prevent unintended clashes while the parties wait for a decision from the International Court.

In Miami, Nicaragua and Honduras agreed, among other things, to define and establish a military exclusion zone in the Caribbean Sea and to immediately freeze, along and near the land border, the presence of military personnel and border posts at the levels that existed on September 1, 1999.

 

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