( dpa ) - Ecuador has filed a complaint against Colombia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, over the years-long spraying of herbicides on their common border, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador said Monday.
Salvador stressed, however, that the move has nothing to do with recent diplomatic tensions between the two countries over a cross- border raid by Colombian forces that killed Raul Reyes - the second- in-command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - and more than 20 others, including one Ecuadorian citizen.
It is a coincidence that the complaint was filed now, she said.
Diplomatic ties between Ecuador and Colombia were cut off following the March 1 raid and have not been restored.
Salvador said seven years of aerial spraying aimed at illegal coca crops - the raw material from which cocaine is made - have affected human health and the environment on the Ecuadorian side of the border, even though Colombia says the action is harmless.