EU embraces Eritrea in search for Horn peace
May 4, 2007 (BRUSSELS) — The European Commission embraced Eritrea’s controversial government on Friday in the search for a comprehensive solution to a range of conflicts across the Horn of Africa, from Darfur to Somalia.
European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel gave a warm welcome to President Isaias Afwerki despite allegations of human rights violations, praising his diplomacy over Sudan and his decision to ban the excision of young girls.
“I was very, very honoured to receive him in the Commission,” the Belgian commissioner gushed at a joint news conference.
“This is a main event, an important event, an international signal for the EU and for Eritrea. I have very high expectations in this new kind of relations between the Commission and Eritrea.”
Afwerki dismissed accusations by Addis Ababa that his country was behind a rebel attack on an oilfield in southeastern Ethiopia last month in which 74 people were killed and seven Chinese workers were seized.
“It’s become a habit, it’s become an addiction to blame anything on Asmara so don’t be surprised,” he said, adding that the sheer distance between Eritrea and the remote Ogaden area of Ethiopia where the attack occurred made any link impossible.
Afwerki swatted questions about restrictions on media freedom, saying the situation in Eritrea was better than in South Africa and demanding to know why the Swedish government wanted to give citizenship to a journalist of Egyptian origin imprisoned without charge in Eritrea since 2001.
Michel made no public mention of human rights, media freedom or growing tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia, saying he hoped a regular political dialogue with Asmara would help improve the mood for solving all problems in the region.
“Everybody knows Eritrea is a key partner and a key actor in the Horn,” he said, citing efforts to bring peace to Somalia, where Asmara has backed an Islamist movement ousted from power in Mogadishu by Ethiopian military intervention in February.
The Ethiopian ambassador in Brussels, Berhane Gebre-Christos, at a news briefing coinciding with the president’s visit, accused Eritrea of playing a destructive role in the region.
“It has become a pariah state as far as its role is concerned in Somalia,” he said.
“It’s been supporting the Union of Islamic Courts, especially the top leadership who are extremist terrorists,” he said referring to the Mogadishu-based Islamist movement.
Gebre-Christos said the European Union should call on Afwerki to abandon “terrorism”. “What he is doing is terrorism,” he said. “The European Union should tell him unambiguously that he has to cease from terrorist acts.”
Eritrea vehemently denies supporting Somalia’s Islamists.
(Reuters)