Eritrean exile says govt readying for fresh war

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Eritrea’s president is mobilising his army for a fresh war with neighbour Ethiopia in the hope of galvanising support for his autocratic government, an exiled opposition leader said on Friday.

Osman Abubakr of the outlawed Eritrean National Alliance said President Isayas Afewerki was increasingly unpopular in the tiny Horn of Africa state and wanted to create a diversion in order to hold on to power.

“Isayas has lost support at home,” Abubakr told Reuters during a visit to London. “He wants to distract the army, he wants to create a common enemy in Eritrea, otherwise he is afraid there will be a coup.”

He said every young man in Eritrea was being called up for military service. This could not be independently confirmed.

Eritrea’s government dismisses the ENA and other opposition groups as stooges of neighbouring states bent on destabilising the country, saying they have no supporters inside Eritrea.

But Abubakr said Isayas had crushed all dissent in Africa’s youngest state by banning independent media and jailing those who spoke out against the government.

“Now in Eritrea there is no freedom of expression, no freedom of press, no human rights, no opposition, no justice. It is a terrorist regime which is terrorising its people,” he said.

Western governments, including the United States, have also strongly criticised Eritrea’s human rights record.

Eritrea won effective independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after a 30-year guerrilla struggle. Between 1998 and 2000, the neighbours fought a fierce two-year war over their disputed border which is now patrolled by U.N. peacekeepers.

Isayas has clashed with all of Eritrea’s neighbours since he led the country’s fight for independence. Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen accuse him of trying to topple their governments.

The ENA, an umbrella group of opposition parties, is based in Ethiopia, but Abubakr said the opposition did not receive financial support from any of Eritrea’s disgruntled neighbours.

“Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen are supporting us politically and diplomatically and with intelligence, but we are not puppets of those countries,” he said, speaking in Arabic through a translator.

“We have great support from Eritreans abroad, and many of them in the country who are too afraid to speak.”

He said Isayas was feeling the heat from a virtual blockade of Eritrea by its neighbours and recurrent droughts which have undermined the peasant economy in the country of roughly 4 million people.

Abubakr said Isayas’ government was trying to fight back by supporting rebels in neighbouring countries, including Sudanese rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

“He is giving them arms, ammunition and financial and military support. His goal is to overthrow (Sudanese president) Bashir.”