Eritrea-Ethiopia Peace Plan Drafted

Eritrea accepted an Organization of African Unity plan to end the bloody border conflict with neighboring Ethiopia, and the OAU gave a deadline of noon today for Ethiopia to reply. The plan calls for a halt in fighting and a redeployment of each country’s troops to positions held before fighting broke out May 6, 1998, and for U.N. peacekeeping forces to guarantee the border while U.N. mediators demarcate the lines separating the two countries, diplomats involved in the talks said. The U.N. forces would be stationed within a 15.5-mile-wide strip on the Eritrean side of the disputed border, a concession to Ethiopia.