JULIETTE HOLLIER-LAROUSSE, Nairobi | Thursday
THE Eritrean government has finally taken tough action against its loudest critics by jailing seven former top officials who have expressed dissent since May and by suspending private media.
“It’s a spectacular clamp-down,” said a western source in Asmara, noting that the action was taken while the world was busy with the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attacks on the United States.
The country’s first democratic legislative elections are due in December.
Seven former ministers and generals who have been calling for democratic reforms were arrested on Tuesday morning.
Eritrean officials were unavailable for comment on the detentions on Wednesday.
In May, 15 top officials who had taken part in Eritrea’s long war of independence from Ethiopia and who were key members of the ruling Popular Front for Democracy and Justice, published an open letter on the Internet that accused President Issaias Afeworki of acting in an “illegal and unconstitutional manner”.
According to an Eritrean diplomat in Nairobi, the suspension of private newspapers is “a temporary measure” that comes after several months of warnings.
“The government wants to be sure that the independent press understands its responsibilities and works within the framework of the press code,” said the source.
The gag would be lifted if the code was respected, he said, without explaining what infringements might have been made.
Traditionally a tight-knit culture, Eritrea first witnessed murmurs of discontent on the Internet at the end of its two-year border war with Ethiopia, in December 2000. The web sites in question were run by Eritreans living abroad.
Particular bones of contention included certain decisions made by Issaias during the war, which, according to official figures, claimed the lives of 19 000 Eritrean soldiers. During the last stages of the conflict, large swathes of southern Eritrea were under Ethiopian occupation.
For some months there has been talk of pluralist democracy for the first time in Eritrea, something enshrined in the constitution but not yet visible in real life.
Addressing the nation during celebrations for the 10th anniversary of independence, the president pledged to speed up progress towards multi-partyism, but gave no precise details or dates.
He also vowed to continue the fight against corruption, a threat seen by some as a veiled warning against his opponents.
This political crisis, coupled with economic woes and the expected demobilisation of thousands of troops, has been exacerbated by unrest among university students, who have refused to take part in compulsory work programmes in lieu of the draft.
Last month two students died in hospital of heat stroke after being sent in one of those work programmes in the northern desert, where temperatures can reach 50 degrees centigrade in the summer. – AFP