President Isaias’ version of Eritrea: Prosperous and Normal!
This week President Isaias Afeworki of Eritrea convened one of his rare cabinet meetings, taking the opportunity to lecture his lieutenants at length on a range of issues both domestic and regional. His “extensive briefing” was full of superlatives regarding what he claims to be Eritrea’s continuing all-round success in various areas. Hearing President Isaias relate it, one is forced to ask if this is indeed the same country the rest of the world knows. There was nothing of the grim picture from which Eritrean nationals flee in their hundreds almost daily. The rosy picture the President offered even included significant progress in the areas of media and justice, the very areas in which Eritrea is believed to have fared the worst. The General Assembly of the East African Journalists’ Association, which closed a three day meeting last weekend, noted specifically that some thirty Eritrean journalists had remained jailed, since September 2001, making Eritrea the greatest jailer of journalists in Africa. The Eritrea Government holds these journalists incommunicado, without charge or trial, defying repeated calls and appeals for their release.
According to the President, however, there is literally no area in which Eritrea has failed to register huge successes. Indeed, as so often, he goes on to warn Eritreans to remain vigilant against “external forces” and “enemy quarters” who are frustrated from failing in their agenda and will stop at nothing to prevent “Eritrea’s progress from getting added momentum”. On regional issues, President Isaias blamed what he called unilateral strategic errors and the resulting “external interference” for the “delicate” situation obtaining in the region. Eritrea, however, he claimed would continue to offer “as always” its policy of “constructive engagement” in the region, in line with “its correct and clear stance of promoting the common interests and aspirations of the peoples of the whole region.” This is a surprising claim coming from a government and its leader whose track record has consistently been anything but constructive.
Indeed, conspicuously missing in any of his marathon briefings has been any indication that his government might be willing to try and resolve its differences with the international community without resorting to his usual technique of offering to give way to a minimal degree when forced into a corner. Nor did the President offer any kind of acknowledgement that he might have made any mistake. Neither the agreement with Djibouti nor the overtures that the leadership has tried to make to some elements in the UN were mentioned.
In fact, President Isaias appears poised to defy the international community even more obviously than before. Once again, for Eritrea, it is the international community, not Eritrea, which is in the wrong. Eritrea therefore expects the international community to get its act together and accept Eritrea’s views. It is Eritrea which has a monopoly over what constitutes the right path towards peace in Somalia. It is the government in Asmara that everyone else must follow if they are serious about bringing about lasting solutions to most of the conflicts in the region and in particular in Somalia. Eritrea, President Isaias claims unabashedly, holds the key to every problem that is bedeviling the region.
In one way, of course, President Isaias may well be right. It is after all Eritrea which has single-handedly made enemies of almost all its neighbours. It is Eritrea which has armed and trained dozens of insurgent groups and terrorist elements throughout most countries in the region. It is Eritrea which continues to arm and equip the likes of Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, in defiance of persistent calls by the international community to stop such destabilizing activities. Eritrea could indeed contribute a great deal to resolving many of the conflicts in the region if it genuinely wished to do so, not using it as a mere gimmick to try to get itself off the hook of sanctions, but in a manner consistent with the rules governing normal state-to-state relations.
This would also mean that Eritrea and its leaders would have to change their ways, and learn, however difficult the process might be, to follow the norms of international behaviour. But if its recent indications of continued support to Al-Shabaab are any guide, the regime in Asmara can only be described as incorrigible. Even after all their promises to senior UN officials to encourage “the moderate” elements of extremist organizations into peaceful paths, the leaders of Eritrea still continue to extend all kinds of support to Al-Shabaab and similar extremist and terrorist organizations. That is why the international community should take care not to fall for the rhetoric of President Isaias or his government’s tricks. That is also why the international community should also start to take the necessary concrete steps to back up its words with deeds, with the full implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1907.