Is Mr. Issayas Afeworki of Eritrea a dictator? I don’t think that this question is relevant to a member of the European Commission. Mr. Louis Michel knows very well how Mr. Issayas rules the country and how he destabilizes the region too.

Mr. Issayas has come to power all the way by killing and liquidating his opponents. From the very beginning, as guerrilla leader of the EPLF (Eritrea People’s Liberation Front), he liquidated the democratic elements who opposed his leadership. Every time a group or an individual opposes Mr. Issayas’s policy, the reaction is either liquidation or imprisonment. When Mr. Issayas became a leader of the new state, he even arrested eleven members of his own cabinet, because of their political opinion. These people are still suffering behind prison bars. Some of them are said to be dead due to bad prison conditions. According to Amnesty International, about 40,000 people are suffering in prison camps without any legal process in the country. Eritrea is known to be one of the top human rights abuser countries There is no freedom of speech, press, assembly and belief. There has not been any election and no constitution. This regime has been in power for 16 years without the will of the people. Eritreans are leaving their country in every direction by any means. Many of them, especially youngsters are dying in the desert of Libya and crossing the Mediterranean Sea seeking asylum in Europe. About a half million Eritreans are living in the Sudan and about the same number are living in Ethiopia. There is no western country which does not have Eritrean refugees.

Dear Mr. Louis Michel, is the leader of a regime whom you invited for “a partner of peace” ? This leader, instead of trying to improve the living conditions of the poor people, is totally engaged in making trouble internally and externally. One who cannot create peace internally, cannot and will not make peace regionally.

Our neighbouring countries have also shared the evil policy of this regime. Mr. Issayas created conflict with Yemen, by occupying the Hinesh Islands in the Red Sea. Both countries lost citizens in this war. At the end the islands were given to Yemen by an international arbitraration. Djibouti was also confronted. But fortunately there were no causalities. Sudan got its share too. It is really strange, when Mr. Issayas was a guerrilla leader, he meddled in the internal affairs of Sudan. Supporting the regime in Khartoum his army helped crash the South Sudan’s Liberation Army (SLA). Many young Eritrea fighters were lost in this aimless confrontation. Later in 1994, when Mr. Issayas quarrelled with the Sudanese government, again he began to support the South Sudan Liberation movement led by John Garang. This was not enough for Mr. Issayas. He created the Beja Front in eastern part of the Sudan. These two fronts were fully supported by Mr. Issayas to topple the regime in Khartoum. Unfortunately for Khartoum , Darfur was another problem in the west. The Eritrean regime, violating the sovereignty of the country, invaded Sudan in the cover of these fronts several times. Finally, he became a mediator between the fronts and the government. It is plain mockery, Sudan has become a political playground of Mr. Issayas. He is trying to interfere in the problem of Darfur too.

This is the Issayas who is supposed to be “a partner of seeking for a comprehensive solution in the Horn of Africa”, according to Mr. Michel

Finally, Ethiopia must get its share too. One has to understand that, hadn’t the two fronts, EPLF and TPLF, fought the communist regime of Ethiopia, joining their forces , it would have taken longer time if not impossible to win the war against the Derg. The TPLF (Tigrai People’s Liberation Front) as a front and the EPRDF later as a government recognized the Eritrean cause. After the independence of Eritrea the two governments were working together in the field of economic development. However, the aggressive nature of the Eritrean regime was realized, when Mr. Issayas ordered his generals to occupy the small town of Badme. The cause of war was not actually the border , but anyhow the war began and about 80,000 innocent people were lost from both sides. There is no question, if Badme belongs to Eritrea, the regime had to claim it legally. Since then the PFDJ regime in Asmara is doing everything possible to destabilize Ethiopia. It is organizing destabilizing forces in all directions of the country. While our people are suffering from poverty, the regime is allocating the limited resources for this evil purpose. None can deny that the regime in Asmara is waging a proxy war in Somalia where Eritrea does not have a common border with. Mr. Issayas is spending a lot of money and many young Eritreans are dying to support the Union of Islamic Court (UIC). I believe that he is defeated in this proxy war, but he will definitely try in the other fronts till he meets his objective (disintegrating Ethiopia).

This is the regime chosen by the European Union for a partnership of in the Horn?

The bottom line is, while we are struggling to make ourselves free from the yoke of this repressive regime, the European Union is lubricating this old oppressive machine to stay in power.

Who is then to be blamed of not solving the Eritrean problem? We can not deny that we Eritreans should solve our own problem and we realize that this regime should have been toppled many years ago. Yes, it is true that the Eritrean opposition is weak and just because it is weak, we need help from the world community in general and from our neighbours in particular. Though the case of Zimbabwe is not worse than the case of Eritrea, the international media is echoing about the people of Zimbabwe while the Eritrean people are forgotten. As to the Sudan, it has become a political playground of Mr. Issayas. There is no even security for an Eritrean opposition to operate in Sudan. So the main country which can help the Eritrean people is Ethiopia., though this support is not effective.The various Eritrean political organizations and parties simply sitting in Addis Ababa cannot and will not help the Eritrean people. They have to form a strong common front to remove the despotic regime in Asmara. And the Ethiopian government should put pressure on them to come under one umbrella, operating under one leadership, one military command, one common economic and diplomatic activities.

Peace and stability to the Horn of Africa.

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