Eritrean Afar rebels vow to scale up military action
By Tesfa-alem Tekle
May 18, 2009 (SEMERA,AFAR REGION) – The opposition Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) on Monday threatened that it will launch Massive military actions and all other necessary measures against President Isaias Afwerki -led Eritrean government.
“The atrocious tyranny rule, more than ever has intensified all kinds of atrocities against the Innocent Afar people,” RSADO chairman Ibrahim Haroun told Sudan Tribune.
“Unsurprisingly, on daily bases our organization is receiving ever increasing reports of killed and disappeared innocent Afars” Ibrahim said adding “the policy now stretched by the regime is clear, ethnic cleansing upon the Afars, and this is intolerable.”
A number of politicians agree that Eritrean minorities, the Afars and the Kunamas are considered by the Eritrean government as threats to the existence of its one party system.
Since Eritrea and Ethiopia went into a bloody border war both trade accusations of supporting their respective rebel and opposition groups.
Addis Ababa describes Ogaden and Oromo rebels as anti peace agents supported by Eritrea, while Asmara presents the Afar, the Kunama and other members of the opposition as trouble makers employed by Addis Ababa in its proxy war against Eritrea.
The Red sea Afar Democratic Organization strongly believes that the existence of Eritrea depends on the existence of each ethnic group
“The Eritrean government has no constitution, no opposition party, and never allows election; it has completely ignored the rights of nations and nationalities.”
“Military action is the only option to such tyrannical aggressor and we are more than ever prepared to launch military measures to overthrow the regime for once and for all so a democratic rule is emplaced,” he added.
The rebel group has called on all Eritrean resistance groups and people to create a unified military front to the struggle to topple the regime.
The Afar people in Eritrea make up 15 % of the total population. Figures indicate that there are over 8 million Afar nationals in the horn of Africa states, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti. Almost all Afar people have a very simple and nomadic life.
Afar rebel group from Eritrea (RSADO) is fighting for the rights and self determination for its people
Eritrean Afar rebels accuse the Eritrean government of brutal killings, tortures and mass arrests. Currently Thousands of Eritrean Afars are being sheltered in Ethiopia refugee camps.
According to sources collected from the movement Hundreds of Afarsare killed in recent years
Hundreds are missing for decade; prisoners are held in atrocious conditions – damp underground cells, overcrowded and sweltering shipping containers, secret security sections of official police stations or prisons.
Last week alone 20 Eritrean Afars were reported to have been murdered near the Eritrean-Yemeni border.
In recent years the rebel group has scaled up war against Eritrea. In mid-November, 2008 the group claimed killing over 250 government troops in an attack carried out fifty km deep in Eritrean territory, in a town called Afambo at a military training center.
(ST)