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Understanding Eritrea UNDERSTANDING ERITREA MARTIN PLAUT Understanding Eritrea Inside Africa’s Most Repressive State A A Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Copyright © Martin Plaut 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available Martin Plaut. Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa’s Most Repressive State. ISBN: 9780190669591 Printed in India on acid-free paper In memory of Dominique Jacquin-Berdal, whose early death deprived us all of a great scholar and keen observer of the Horn of Africa CONTENTS Abbreviations ix 1. Introduction 1 2. A Difficult History 5 3. The Thorny Relationship with Ethiopia 25 4. Quarrelling with Neighbours 51 5. Foreign Friends 69 6. From Freedom to Dictatorship 103 7. Eritrea’s Economy: Smoke and Mirrors 133 8. The Flight from Eritrea 149 9. Exile: Life for the Diaspora 169 10. Oppositi on 197 11. The Outlook for Eritrea 209 Appendix 1: Leadership of Government, Military and Party 217 Appendix 2: US Ambassador Ronald K. Mcmullen’s Assessment of Isaias Afewerki, Via Wikileaks 221 Appendix 3: Algiers Agreement that Ended the 1998–2000 Border War Between Ethiopia And Eritrea 225 Appendix 4: Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) (2005) 235 Bibliography 237 Index 241 vii ABBREVIATIONS Derg The movement that seized power in Ethiopia in 1974. The term means ‘committee’ and was short- hand for the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army ELF Eritrean Liberation Front EPLF Eritrean People’s Liberation Front EU European Union TPLF Tigray People’s Liberation Front OLF Oromo Liberation Front PFDJ People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (the name of the EPLF after 1994) UN United Nations UNHCR United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNMEE United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea ix © S.Ballard (2016) N S U D A N S A U D I A R A B I A 075 km Red Sea Nafka Jazan E R I T R E A Dahlak Archipelago Keren Kassala Agordat Massawa Y E M E N ASMARA Barentu Dekemhare Teseney Mendefera Adil Keyh Al Hudaydah Tserona Badme Ti’o Himora Aksum Adigrat Mek’ele Mocha Assab Gondor E T H I O P I A Claim by Ethiopia but Claim by Eritrea but awarded to Eritrea awarded to Ethiopia DJIBOUTI 1 INTRODUCTION The capital of Eritrea, Asmara, situated on a high plateau, is one of the most pleasant cities in Africa. Its quiet streets, its cool, welcoming bars and its friendly people make it a joy to visit. The Italians who colonised it left an indelible mark on the vibrant culture. Delicious traditional food is served alongside Italian cuisine. The streets are lined with some of the best-preserved Modernist architecture: a legacy of the Fascist era and Italy’s determination to make Eritrea a fine gateway to an empire that included Ethiopia. A railway links the city with the port of Massawa, bending and twisting down a steep escarpment— descending more than two kilometres to the plain below. The beaches and islands that dot the coast are pristine and could easily compete with the Sinai for the tourist trade. Life for ordinary Eritreans is tough. Farmers plough the unforgiving soil, hoping that last year’s rains will be repeated. Most of the population work in subsistence agriculture, but there is also time for celebration. Over the weekend the roads surrounding Asmara are alive with cyclists. The country’s team is one of the best on the continent and cycling is a passion. The 1 Understanding ERITREA lanes of the villages and cities echo to the sound of music. Barren, rugged mountain ranges fade into the distance. Flashes of bril- liant reds and iridescent blues and greens mark the flight of birds through the green-grey bush. There is great diversity among the country’s ethnic groups. Yet given the country’s undoubted natural beauty and rich cultural heri- tage, why do as many as 5,000 Eritreans flee across its borders every month? What explains their determination to leave at almost any price—risking the dangers of crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean to escape the land they love? Eritrea is not at war. Unlike Syria or Yemen it is not racked by civil conflict. Its cities and countryside are peaceful. The country is poor, but then so are many other African states, yet they are not haemorrhaging people. The answer lies in politics. This nation of 3.5–6.5 million people (no one knows for certain: the only complete census was taken in 1931) is held in servitude. There is just one legal politi- cal party and even this holds no regular congresses: the last took place in 1994. The president, Isaias Afwerki, is an autocrat who brooks no opposition. Opinions that diverge from the official line are simply not tolerated. The last independent journalists and editors were rounded up in 2001, their papers closed. The Constitution, written and approved by the Constituent Assembly (or parliament) has never been brought into force. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea con- cluded in 2015 that the Eritrean government engages in ‘sys- temic, widespread and gross human rights violations’ carried out in a ‘context of a total lack of rule of law.’ Fear hangs over the Eritrean people; both inside the country and among the diaspora. This is the product of the ruthless repression that the regime has meted out. There is, as the Norwegian academic, Kjetil Tronvoll, put it, an Eritrean ‘Gulag archipelago’: political prisons, deten- tion centres and labour camps which stretch across the country like a chain of islands. Some are formal prisons, others converted 2 INTRODUCTION stores and some even makeshift facilities, often shipping contain- ers. Here prisoners languish for years at a time. Brutal treatment is routinely administered and there is no recourse to any form of legal action. None of these detainees ever sees a court, let alone a defence lawyer. Yet even this would not have driven people across the border and into the loneliness and despair of exile. To understand why they flee in such numbers one has to grasp just what it is young people face. They are conscripted into the military with no guar- antee that it will ever end. National Service, as it is called, is indefinite. Some have served for decades, yet have no prospect of release. Pay is derisory, conditions are grindingly tough and there is routine abuse from officers. Women are in danger of sexual abuse and frequently used as servants. This phenomenon is rooted in Eritrea’s extraordinary history. Its people fought for their freedom from Ethiopia for thirty years, achieving independence in 1991 and international recogni- tion as a sovereign state two years later. For much of this period the nation has been led by Isaias Afwerki, known universally as Isaias (Eritreans and Ethiopians are known by their first names, and frequently by a nickname given to them early in their lives). His forceful personality and intolerance of opposition were argu- ably critical to winning the war against Ethiopia, but when inde- pendence came, it was another story. At first relations between a post-independent Eritrea and the new Ethiopian government were good. Gradually, however, they soured, then erupted into full-scale warfare. In 1998–2000 these neighbours, who shared so much in common, fought one of the bloodiest conflicts in Africa since the Second World War. Although ostensibly over a minor border village, there were far deeper roots to the war. These go back to the history of the region and the history of political parties that still dominate both countries. For this reason I have spent what readers might con- 3 Understanding ERITREA sider an inordinate time explaining the complex relationship between guerrilla movements that were rarely mentioned in the wider world before they seized power in both countries in 1991. I have attempted to lay out how this came about. Much is still veiled and obscure. This is hardly surprising when Eritrea refuses to allow foreign news organisation to have correspondents based in the country. Nor are the UN agencies given much greater free- dom: their operations inside Eritrea are severely curtailed. Few sources of accurate, open information are therefore available. And Eritreans (as well as Ethiopians) are culturally disposed to being closed and secretive. Winston Churchill once said of the Soviet Union that it was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. I hope in this book to clarify some of Eritrea’s riddles.
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