Eritrea to hold talks with opposition parties – report
Nov 23, 2005 (ASMARA) — The Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki has finally accepted to hold negotiations with some particular Eritrean opposition organizations following the initiative which was projected to him by the chairman of a prominent Sudanese opposing party to the Government of National Unity in Khartoum.
According to a report published by Eritrean opposition website eritreana.com on 19 November, the Eritrean president has accepted the initiative of the chairman of the Sudanese party who had recently visited Asmara; and proposed to Afewerki an “Eritrean-Eritrean talk”.
According to the source, the Sudanese party’s leader had advised the Eritrean president to conduct talks with some particular influential organizations to contain the Eritrean opposition activities in Sudan and Ethiopia ; and the Eritrean president has accepted the initiative in “principle”.
The proposed negotiation, according to the source, will take place in three phases:
– The first phase will be “conduct of an exploration contacts” to discover the readiness of the selected Eritrean opposition parties to accept the projected idea of “negotiation” by the Sudanese mediator.
– The second phase will be entertaining, and exchanging of conditions and clauses of each party-the government and the selected Eritrean parties – in preparations for direct talks.
– The third phase will be the beginning of direct talks between the government and the selected Eritrean opposition parties to strike an agreement in the presence of international observers.
The source noted that two countries have been specified to host the negotiation: one in north Africa and an other in the Gulf region.
The Eritrean government, according to the source, has already determined the terms for the talk among, which condemnation of the Ethiopian government and some powers that work in cooperation with it, in a press release.
The source underlined that the Sudanese mediator has already specified particular opposition parties to implement the first phase of the initiative. However, the Eritrean opposition parties have rejected according to the source, the contacts of the Sudanese mediator who has linked it to miraculous terms. One of the terms, the source added, is “conduct of talks” with the government in an individual basis which contradicts with the principle of the opposition.
(eritreana/ST)