Afar rebels call for unity of Eritrean opposition groups
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
May 24, 2015 (ADDIS ABABA) – An Eritrean opposition group on Saturday called on other exiled opposition organization for a more unified military action to depose the regime og president Isaias Afewerki.
RSADO chairman, Ibrahim Haroun, told Sudan Tribune that although the country secured independence in a hard owned struggle, the government however never guaranteed democratic rights of the Eritrean people.
Haroun said the regime instead ignored the long war of liberation aimed to produce a unified Eritrea and favoured to establish a one-party state by destroying all other opposition parties forcing them to exile.
The opposition leader accused the Eritrean leader Afeworki of dividing unity of the nation and nationalities of the people in order to secure grip on power.
The Eritrean president had been in power since 1991, when the country gained independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of freedom for struggle.
However, the Red Sea nation-under Isaias-rule had never conducted election since independence nor did it implemented the constitution ratified in 1997.
Last year, during the 23thd Independence Day anniversary the Eritrean president pledged to draft a new constitution however that has never happened.
The rebel leader, Haroun says the game being played by the president is enough and it is about all opposition forces as well as the Eritrean Army to join a planned wider military strike to topple the regime and build a new democratic Eritrea.
Haroun called on regional actors and on the international community to support the Afar rebel movement and put pressure on the regime to stop human right violations including ethnic cleansing against Afar minorities.
Considered militarily stronger than the other exiled Eritrean opposition groups, RSADO vows to intensify attacks against the Eritrean regime.
Meanwhile some 4,000 Eritrean refugees residing at camps in Ethiopia’s Afar regional state town’s of Asayta and Berahle Camps on Saturday rallied in protest to the ongoing oppression in Eritrean against Eritreans.
They called on the international community to intervene to stop the human right violations in the Red Sea nation.
(ST)