Eritrea’s anticipated membership in the club of terrorist states
By Woldu Mikael (Santa Clara, Calif)
October 2, 2007 — The implications of branding Eritrea as a terror sponsoring state are immense. Already, the US warning in mid August to put Eritrea on the blacklist is having a significant impact on the country’s relations with its neighbors and on Eritrea’s political life.
Ethiopia was quick to take advantage. It has threatened to unilaterally revoke its peace treaty with Eritrea accusing the Asmara government, among other things, of supporting and organizing terrorist activities in the Horn Africa. Addis Ababa appears to have succeeded in changing the debate about border demarcation into an argument of how to first deal with a “terror sponsoring, rogue Eritrean State”. Ethiopia’s plans are twofold: one, to try to demarcate its common border with Eritrea on its own terms. Second: to install a friendly government in Asmara.
Ethiopia’s threat last week to abrogate its treaty with Eritrea followed a US talk of regime change in Asmara. The US has been outraged by what it considers Eritrea’s blatant violation of international anti-terrorism laws and norms. In Early September, the Asmara Government invited and hosted the militant Somali Islamic Court leader, Hassan Daher Awes, known to the US and the UN as a leading Al Queda representative in the Horn region. This followed UN reports that Eritrea was funding and arming Islamic Court militants in their bloody war against the internationally recognized interim Somali Government in Mogadishu.
Asmara’s relations with Washington are at their lowest ebb. Eritrea may be frustrated by the lack of progress on its border dispute with Ethiopia, but experts believe that its insolent confrontation with the US over larger Horn of Africa issues is misguided and in the end will badly hurt Eritrea’s national interests.
REACTION OF ERITREAN OPPOSITION GROUPS
While acknowledging US concern over the behavior of the Marxist inspired Asmara government, most of the exiled Eritrean opposition parties have dissociated themselves from the US plan to blacklist and impose sanctions on their country. They fear that sanctions would harm the Eritrean people more than they would hurt the ruling PFDJ (People’s Front for Democracy and Justice) party.
One of the leading Eritrean political organizations, the Eritrean Democratic Party (EDP), went on record urging the US Administration “not to pursue the proposed inclusion of Eritrea in the list of state sponsors of terrorism.” Instead, EDP called on the US to assist the Eritrean people in ousting the PFDJ administration and replacing it with a democratically elected government.
In its September newsletter, another prominent organization, the Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC) welcomes the US plan to label Eritrea as terror sponsoring state and accuses Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki as a terrorist leader.
In the meantime, the two most influential, independent Eritrean websites, US based Awate.com and Asmarino.com are at the opposite ends on the question of US plan to name Eritrea a state sponsor of terrorism. Awate.com, highly respected for its eloquent and relentless exposure of the Asmara government’s violations of human rights, tried to set the tone of the Eritrean diaspora debate by posting a lengthy editorial headlined: “Eritrea does not sponsor terrorism…but its ruling regime does”. It describes the US move a “catastrophic event” for the ordinary Eritrean citizen.
Although Awate realizes that the US target is the Asmara government and not the people as a whole, it still continues to oppose the US plan. It holds that a terrorist label would tarnish the Eritrean image and that the people should be able to remove the authoritarian leadership in Asmara without external help.
On the other hand, Asmarino.com and most of its bloggers embraced the proposed US action as a sure means of ending the Eritrean political and economic crisis. Many Asmarino Essayists and feature writers agree that the opposition faces a formidable foe in Asmara and that change won’t come easily or cheaply. The website has launched a massive online petition campaign directed at the US State Department stressing an urgent need for democratic change.
Awate.com has criticized Asmarino.com and some of its bloggers for holding simplistic views on the effectiveness of sanctions and for not presenting serious ideas on what happens if and when the government falls.
ERITREAN GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO US THREAT
While the media debate goes on, the Eritrean government and its supporters have intensified their anti-American rhetoric. Eritrea’s Information Minister, Mr. Ali Abdu declared that his country would never kneel down to US pressure. He said the only time when Eritreans kneel was “When they pray and when they shoot,” adding that Eritrea did not live on American handouts.
A Western observer wondered whether such bravado directed at the world’s sole super power was famous Eritrean last words or a signal for more trouble for the US in the region.
Responding to US plans to put Eritrea in the club of terrorist states (Made up of Iran, Syria, N. Korea, Sudan and Cuba), President Isaias described America’s global policy as misguided and dangerous and called for an end to what he termed “US acts of adventurism”. In a televised interview on August 20, the Eritrean strongman ironically urged Eritrean Americans to lobby US Senators in defense of his anti-US stance.
Against the backdrop of widespread human rights abuses and lack of rule of law at home as well as the widely reported armed interference in the internal affairs of neighboring states, Isaias’s supporters in the US are faced with the daunting task of defending the indefensible. The pro-Isaias campaign is spearheaded by the Organization of Eritrean Americans whose members led an anti-US policy gathering in Seattle, Washington, over the weekend. More meetings are expected in other US cities.
The organization has also been petitioning US Senators and Administration Officials paradoxically in support of Isaias’s anti-American stance and his anti-democratic domestic policies. The actions of these Eritrean Americans not only condone the gruesome human rights violations in that Red Sea country but also seem to be undermining vital US anti-terrorism efforts.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Eritrea is at a cross roads and change is imminent. Whether or not Eritrea is named a terrorist state, a US sponsored international military and economic embargo against the Isaias Government appears most likely. Such a measure would place insurmountable pressure on the Eritrean strongman whose military involvement over the years has reportedly contributed to the tragic bloodletting in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ruanda.
US Assistant Secretary of State, Jendaye Frazer has indicated that nothing short of change of government in Asmara would bring peace to the Horn region. Her message is not only directed at the Eritrean government but also at the Eritrean political and civic opposition to step up the process of democratic change. Whether the opposition has what it takes to mobilize the people and lead them in a new direction is yet to be seen.
The author is an Eritrean American. Ha can be reached at [email protected] or 408.829.3622)