ASMARA (Reuters) – Eritrea’s state-run media is running a sustained campaign charging the United States with masterminding the U.N. sanctions imposed on it and says Washington wants to control the whole Horn of Africa region.
The U.N. Security Council accuses Asmara of providing funds and weapons to Islamist insurgents in Somalia where violence has killed 21,000 since the beginning of 2007, and last December the council slapped sanctions on Eritrea.
The resolution supported by 13 of the 15 council members was designed to target the nation’s leadership, imposing an arms embargo as well as asset freezes and travel bans on individuals and firms to be designated by an existing sanctions committee.
While Asmara allows no independent local media, the state-run newspaper, the Eritrea Profile, is in no doubt who is responsible. In every edition printed this year the Profile has singled out the United States as the architect of the sanctions.
“In the final analysis, the conspiracy was essentially masterminded by U.S. intelligence agencies, especially the CIA,” the Profile quoted President Isaias Afwerki as saying.
Al-Amin Mohammed Seid, the Secretary of the ruling party, said acts of conspiracy by the United States sought to obstruct Eritrea’s development and exercise “absolute control over the Red Sea and Horn region”, the Profile reported.
Last Saturday the Profile ran “An open Message to the Sanctions Designers”, saying: “The U.S. administration has been attempting to extend its tentacles over the world … (it) has effectively turned the Security Council into its mouthpiece.”
The U.S. embassy in Asmara declined to comment.
Reporters Without Borders says Eritrea has been the worst violator of press freedoms in the world since 2007, ranking it below North Korea for three years in a row.
DEMONSTRATIONS
The reporting has led to a rise in anti-U.S. anger in Eritrea, a western diplomat told Reuters, adding that older Eritreans had not forgotten their long struggle for independence when the U.S. bankrolled arch-rival and occupier Ethiopia.
“The U.S. is a place many young Eritreans dream of visiting, but what you hear from the older generation is often in step with the Profile, they blame America,” the diplomat said.
Other analysts say there is more to blaming the United States than memories of “the Struggle”.
“To whip up conspiracy theories and conjure the image of CIA sinister ploys allows (the President) to continue the nationalistic drive at a time when the world has publically arrayed itself against him,” a senior diplomat accredited to Eritrea told Reuters.
“Remember, the sanctions were specifically designed not to negatively affect the people of Eritrea,” the diplomat said.
Eritrean government officials have called on the U.N. to supply any hard evidence supporting their accusations and offer Asmara an independent platform on which to respond. They say that without this the sanctions are illegitimate and illegal.
Asmara also accuses the international community of a double standard, pointing out that Somalia is rife with U.S. munitions that arrive by the planeload.
Demonstrations abroad against the sanctions are due later in the month, including in Washington where U.S.-based Eritreans and supporters will gather in protest.
“There is a great irony to these protests,” a young Eritrean, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters. “They are using the freedoms of America to protest on behalf of Eritrea, which is great, but do these people know if you hold a protest in Eritrea you can go to jail?” (Editing by David Clarke and Giles Elgood)
