The Eritrean regime is as famous for its appalling democratic and human rights abuses as it is for its sardonic provocations. While these infringements are a topic for an extensive discussion at an EU-US led conference in Brussels next week (November 9 - 10), Eritrea has refused to participate claiming it is the “most stable and peaceful” among its African neighbors. The gathering is organized by Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA) and an Eritrean Reference Group
The Eritrean leadership was not expected to embrace an international gathering devoted to exposing and denouncing its roguish and violent policies. This impoverished state maintains over 350-thousand strong-army ready to provoke or attack any neighboring country for the flimsiest possible reason without the permission of the people. The regime is also believed to be training, arming, harboring and financing foreign opposition groups, insurgents and terrorists with the aim of destabilizing and stirring up bloodshed in neighboring countries.
Equally alarming is the persecution and purging of the entire Eritrean population by the authorities. The regime has imprisoned tens of thousands of political dissidents, members of various evangelical churches and alleged draft dodgers. Prisoners are kept in the most inhuman and degrading conditions in undisclosed places throughout the country including most dreadful underground jails devoid of sanitation or health facilities. Some are detained in metal containers in smoldering heat, or in freezing temperatures which paralyze inmates or lead to slow, agonizing death.As food shortage sweeps the nation, prisoners are the first to see their rations dwindle or disappear altogether. An Asmarino.com source last week reported that hundreds of prisoners had simply perished because of hunger at the notorious Wi’a concentration camp near the Red Sea coastal city of Massawa.
The people are gripped with fear of starvation or fear of getting punished by the authorities for any quirky reasons. Instead of challenging the system, hundreds, mostly young, are fleeing the country on a weekly basis even though they are aware patrolling troops are authorized to shoot and kill them as they try to cross the border. In an essay, ”Domestic Terrorism,” Yosief Ghebrehiwet, forecasts the regime is bound to end up without enough soldiers if the exodus continues unabated at the present rate.
Against this backdrop the EEPA is bringing together the best European, American, Eritrean and other African minds with considerable political, diplomatic and scholarly expertise, commitment and passion for the future of Eritrea and the Horn Region. The central aim of the upcoming Brussels forum is to promote democracy and human rights in Eritrea, and to find ways of ending the Eritrean government’s interference in the internal affairs of other Horn of African countries.
‘If democracy reigns in Eritrea, there is hope for others in the Horn’, appears to be the belief of the Brussels conference planners. It is long overdue for EU and US policy makers to begin working closely with Eritrean opposition forces in what the EEPA says was needed in “building alternative approaches toward democracy in Eritrea.” Although this proposition is yet to be elaborated and articulated at the Brussels meeting, it is clear that American and EU officials want Diaspora Eritreans to play a much greater role in shifting Eritrea and the Horn. Whether the Eritrean opposition leaders are ready to match the challenge and grasp the opportunity remains to be seen.
To their credit, the EEPA conference planners have invited some of the best and brightest to represent the best values and interests of the Eritrean Diaspora. Among the many Eritrean panelists are Professor Bereket Habte Selassie, former chair of the Constitutional Commission of Eritrea; Woldeyesus Ammar, Chairman of the Joint Leadership Committee of three merging major Eritrean political parties; Elsa Chyrum, Human Rights Advocate; and Abdulrahman Sayed, Researcher on Federalism and founding and Executive member of Citizens for Democratic Rights in Eritrea (CDRIE). The Somalis and Ethiopians are also sending representatives. The delegates need the best support and encouragement from all sides even from those who may feel left out because the EU did not invite them as delegates.
The list of European and US participants is very impressive. They include Koos Richelle, Director General of Europe Aid, the European Commission; Karl Wycoff, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Horn, US State Department; and Kjell Mondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway.
Evidently, this gathering is not suitable for the Eritrean regime so long as it continues to equate injustice and tyranny with peace and stability. In the meantime, many EU and US politicians have made it clear on whose side they ought to be in building a just and democratic Eritrea at peace with itself and its neighbors. It is high time for the EU and UD administrations to provide full moral and material support and encouragement to the Eritrean civic and political opposition forces.
The idea of dialogue and engagement has not helped in democratizing Eritrea. EU and US officials need to come up with fresh ideas that really work. Too much is at stake. The hunger and bloodshed crippling the Horn must come to an end.
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