UN 'peace-building' gives birth to new nation.

• Position: Eritrea - United Nations developments

Eritrea was born in a referendum held from 23 to 25 April, with the UN Observer Mission to Verify the Referendum in Eritrea (UNOVER) ensuring the impartiality of the process and helping to make the transition to independence smooth and peaceful.

"This was an example of a new generation of UN operations, combining peace, development and democracy", Samir Sanbar, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Eritrea, told the UN Chronicle.

The outcome of the referendum was hardly ambiguous: more than 90 per cent of those who registered had voted; 99 per cent of them said "yes" to the creation of an independent State. On 27 April, the Special Representative announced: "On the whole, the referendum process in Eritrea can be said to have been free and fair at every stage".

Investment in peace

Mr. Sanbar sees the UNOVER mission as an example of the new concept of post-conflict peace-building, developed by UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. "In practice it involves creating an investment in peace; to arrange things in such a way that countries in conflict find peace better and more profitable", he said.

The role of UNOVER was not only to observe the vote, he said, but to help in a peaceful transformation by installing a sense of free choice and participation in voters and helping, through that process, to establish good relations between Eritrea and its neighbouring States.

UNOVER, he said, was not a case of peace-keepers with blue helmets going in to separate hostile parties, but helping a new nation find the path to development and democracy in a region that has had more than its fair share of wars and calamities in the last few decades.

Verify referendum

UNOVER was established by the General Assembly on 16...