Eritrean opposition EDA denies reconciliation talks with Asmara

Nov 23, 2005 (ASMARA) — The opposition Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) chairman, Hussein Kalifa, denied the report that his organization was approached by Sudanese officials to open dialogue with the Eritrean government, the Eritrean Meskeren.net reported.

Head of EDA Information Department, Menghisteab Asmerom, asked by meskerem to comment on the report, stated, “Nothing to that effect has happened with our organization and we do not know either whether other organisations were approached or not. We are just reading it like you and others on the web.”

Meskeren said, EDA last meeting reiterated the principle of dialogue with Asmara. Also, Eritrean authorities sent last October the chairman of organizational affairs in the ruling party, Abdallah Jabir, to Khartoum to discuss the mediation with Sudanese officials .

Observers believe that there is high probability that the opposition, through Sudanese officials or Eritrean elders in Sudan, would engage dialogue on the basis of the EDA political decision to negotiate. It seems that EDA leadership now fell confident and in full control to take the EDA along the dialogue path, the Eritrean source said.

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 a Sudanese opposition party who had recently visited Asmara; and proposed to Afewerki an “Eritrean-Eritrean talk”.

(Meskerem)