On Eritrea-Italy diplomatic crisis
By Alberto Negri, Italian newspaper Il Sole-24 Ore
Mar 18, 2006 — Three years after Eritrean independence, the old locomotive whistle sounded again. In May 1996, station master Gherezghiler Cardelli, then over 80 years old, proud in his old Italian railway uniform, waved off the train service between Asmara and Massaua inaugurated in 1912 – a 120km run, and a 2,400 meter climb.
A century ago that was a major feat of engineering. Eritrea seemed like the only former colony to still claim special relations with Italy, and President Isayas Afewerki invited Italian firms to work in his country.
What is happening now? The second-in-command at the Italian embassy was deported last week, six of our NGOs have been thrown our, carabinieri have been forced to hand over the blue helmets, and the last remaining Italian assets have been seized. The Farnesina [Italian Foreign Ministry] is, perhaps wisely, trying to moderate responses and, having in turn deported an Eritrean diplomat, is saying that Asmara must not be isolated.
Suddenly humanitarian organizations are less willing to talk about it. This, so as not to jeopardize a possible return and the activities of those remaining in Eritrea. Following the Libyan incident, people are remaining cautiously silent.
What news is there from the Horn of Africa, where in 1998 Eritrea and Ethiopia massacred each other, killing 70,000 people? That war, described as “nonsensical,” did in fact have its own “good reasons”: an ancient border dispute had become the pretext for a political and economic conflict – Asmara’s introduction of its own currency, the nafca, the closure to Ethiopians of the port of Assab, Addis Ababa’s only outlet to the sea. President Afeworki and his rival and cousin, Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, were struggling to assert two opposing nationalist movements and their own leadership, having jointly combated the “Red Negus,” Mariam Mengistu. Afeworki, occupying disputed territories, was trying successfully to consolidate his aspiration to become life president. He was about to pay for this lethal mistake by total defeat.
The Algiers peace agreement of 2000 ended the hostilities, but not the dispute: the international community, having sent out some 1,000 blue helmets to man the 1,100 km border, decided that Ethiopia must return the city of Badme and certain other territories, but so far Addis Ababa has done nothing about it. Eritrea is furious and frustrated In a few days’ time the final negotiations will begin in London, though their outcome remains uncertain.
Afewerki’s criticisms are not confined to Italy, which he accuses of having failed resolutely to support Eritrea’s position against Ethiopia. The president has even expelled USAID, the US cooperation agency answerable to the State Department, has “blacklisted” some 30 international NGOs, banned UN helicopters from his airspace, limited blue helmets’ movements, and expelled UN officials. What is he afraid of? Not so much a resumption of the war with a neighbour 10 times as large, as external interference with the crackdown that he has been implementing for some time – the forcible recruitment of thousands of students, sent out to dig trenches on the front, the restriction of churches’ and organizations’ activities, and measures to suppress all protest and freedom of expression. Civil society has become Afewerki’s real enemy. Somebody must sound the whistle, at least as loud as the one on the old locomotive, to warn Eritrea’s autocrat. The Horn of Africa does not need any more tragedies.