US aid group pulls out of Eritrea citing political repression

NAIROBI, March 23 (AFP) — A prominent US aid organization, Grassroots International, said Wednesday it would stop funding projects in Eritrea, citing political repression and worsening human rights conditions there.

A displaced Eritrean woman and her son are seen 16 February 2005 in Dressa, Eritrea, near the Sudanese border. (AFP) .

In a blisteringly critical statement received here, the Boston-based group said it could no longer continue working in Eritrea “in good faith”, given what it said were severely deteriorating conditions in the one-party state.

“After much internal debate, Grassroots International has decided that the program, one of GRIs oldest, is simply untenable because of the current political context in Eritrea,” it said.

It cited repeated postponements of elections, arrests and exiling of journalists, the jailing of political and religious dissidents and the “uncontested control” of the sole political party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), over society in the Horn of Africa nation.

GRI, which works to advance political, economic and social rights and support development alternatives, began its Eritrea program in 1983 when the country was still engaged in the fight for independence from Ethiopia.

It said the PFDJ was reneging on pre-liberation promises of openness and political pluralism and social transformation for which the country and outsiders had high hopes when de facto independence was achieved in 1991 and formalized two years later.

“Sadly, the economic, social and political situation in Eritrea has deteriorated and the bright optimism about the movement and what it could achieve has faded,” it said.

“Given the continuing human rights abuses and the anti-democratic policies of the Eritrean government … GRI can no longer in good faith continue our current partnerships,” it said.

The statement added that the decision to halt the Eritrea program had been taken reluctantly but that continuing to work there would implicate GRI “in covering up (the government’s) anti-democratic character.”

It said it would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Eritrea and expressed hope that conditions in the country would improve.

Western nations, notably the United States, have regularly criticized Eritrea for a lack of democracy and poor human rights record, charges the government rejects.