VOA标准英语2008年-UN Peacekeepers Set to Leave Ethiopia-Eritrea B

United Nations peacekeepers prepared to leave the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, with the mission's mandate¹ set to expire at midnight. As Derek Kilner reports from VOA's East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the governments of both Eritrea and Ethiopia played down the threat of renewed conflict in the wake of the mission's departure, and blamed one another for the continued failure to resolve the border dispute.

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to end the peacekeeping mission, known as UNMEE, which has monitored a buffer² zone along the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea for the past eight years.

On Thursday, Bereket Simon, an advisor³ to Ethiopia's prime minister, said Ethiopia would continue to search for a solution to the dispute, but put the blame for the mission's departure squarely on the government of Eritrea.

"The mission was not able to function because of the obstacles created by the Eritrean government. The Eritrean government has trespassed⁴ the agreement and entered into the Temporary Security Zone. It has created all sorts of obstacles. Freedom of movement was curtailed⁵ by the Eritrean government so UNMEE was not in a position to do the rounds to observe the situation, so it was impossible for them to continue," he said.

Earlier this year, the Eritrean government cut off fuel supplies for U.N. peacekeepers, causing the bulk of the mission's presence in the Eritrean side to leave the country. The U.N. had explored the possibility of a scaled-down force to replace UNMEE, but a statement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that option had been rejected by both sides.

Eritrean presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel on Tuesday reiterated⁶ his government's position that there has already been a legal ruling on the border and that the UN mission, having failed to enforce the decision, serves no purpose.

"Whether peacekeepers are there or not, it has no impact. Nothing has changed. At the end of the day, UNMEE's presence was simply nominal⁷ to create the conditions for the implementation⁸ of the agreement. But that has not taken place for the last eight years simply because the Security Council has failed to act on the decision of the commission. And that's because the Americans have been blocking implementation of the decision," he said.

Following the 2000 Algiers Agreement that ended the two-year border war between the two countries, a boundary commission gave much of the disputed territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea. But Eritrea's increasingly antagonistic⁹ posture¹⁰ has lost the country much of its international sympathy.

Both governments have minimized the possibility that the U.N.'s departure will invite a return to conflict. But many observers are less optimistic, warning that that the removal of peacekeepers removes one of the few remaining buffers¹¹ between the thousands of troops amassed¹² by each side along the border.

 

 

1 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

2 buffer   

n.起缓冲作用的人(或物)，缓冲器；vt.缓冲

参考例句：

• A little money can be a useful buffer in time of need.在急需时，很少一点钱就能解燃眉之急。
• Romantic love will buffer you against life's hardships.浪漫的爱会减轻生活的艰辛。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 trespassed   

（trespass的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Here is the ringleader of the gang that trespassed on your grounds. 这就是侵犯你土地的那伙人的头子。
• He trespassed against the traffic regulations. 他违反了交通规则。

5 curtailed   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。
• Their public health programme had to be severely curtailed. 他们的公共卫生计划不得不大大收缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

7 nominal   

adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的

参考例句：

• The king was only the nominal head of the state. 国王只是这个国家名义上的元首。
• The charge of the box lunch was nominal.午餐盒饭收费很少。

8 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

9 antagonistic   

adj.敌对的

参考例句：

• He is always antagonistic towards new ideas.他对新思想总是持反对态度。
• They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way.他们只是神经质地，带着完全敌对情绪地骚动了一下。

10 posture   

n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势

参考例句：

• The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
• He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣，摆出一副打架的架势。

11 buffers   

起缓冲作用的人（或物）( buffer的名词复数 )； 缓冲器； 减震器； 愚蠢老头

参考例句：

• To allocate and schedule the use of buffers. 分配和计划缓冲器的使用。
• Number of times the stream has paused due to insufficient stream buffers. 由于流缓冲区不足导致流程暂停的次数。

12 amassed   

v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
• They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》