Redeeming the failed promise of Eritrea
By Dan Connell, 11/10/2003
A DECADE AGO, Eritrea was a bright spot on an otherwise dismal African horizon. Despite the accumulated impact of 30 years of war with neighboring Ethiopia, from which it won its independence, the continent's newest nation was a model of interethnic and interreligious unity, corruption-free administration, and debt-free development. Today, with the Asmara government refusing to implement the Constitution, postponing national elections, arresting critics, shutting down the independent press, and banning rival parties, the country's trajectory follows a familiar path toward highly coercive one-man rule. Eritea needs a thorough shake-up.
Yet the small but strategically located Red Sea state is now trying to woo the Bush administration into ignoring its repressive measures by offering unconditional support for the "war on terrorism." President Bush should resist this temptation.
Eritrea's turn came after the renewal of conflict with Ethiopia in 1998-2000, as tens of thousands were killed in a border war that many thought avoidable. Much of the new country's infrastructure was damaged when Ethiopia overran Eritrea's defenses, and the country was substantially set back in its otherwise remarkable reconstruction efforts.
As a result, President Isaias Afwerki came under withering criticism from military and political leaders in his own government for bringing the country to this point and for refusing to implement a Constitution ratified three years earlier.
Tensions with Ethiopia then became a rationale for suppressing dissent and postponing democracy while aggressively pursuing external support to shore up the shaky situation at home.
Shortly after 9/11, Afwerki arrested 11 top leaders, including several who had founded the movement that won the country's independence, and closed the private press. More arrests followed, and public dissent ceased.
The regime then mounted a public relations campaign to convince the US to establish a base at the Red Sea port of Assab, and it signed up for the "coalition of the willing" to invade Iraq. Today it is offering live-fire training facilities and bases for future ground offensives in the volatile region.
How could a proud nation that fought successive US and Soviet-backed Ethiopian governments for its independence with almost no outside help turn into a beggar? The answer has mainly to do with the way its single-minded leader has insulated himself from former allies and friends, lost popular support, and appropriated control over the nation's future to himself.
Afwerki was a brilliant strategist through most of the protracted fight for Eritrea's independence. But he is a failure as a nation-builder. He insists on unquestioning fealty to the nation -- and mistakes that for loyalty to himself. He has corrupted the movement he helped found and become a danger to the nation he claims to revere. It is time for him to move on.
But for Eritrea to recover from the trauma of these last years, more needs to happen. The structures of intimidation and the culture of secrecy that dominate its political life need to be dismantled. People need a chance to breathe free air, to take the measure of themselves and each other, to understand what happened and how, and to dream again.
Meanwhile, steps can be taken to move the process forward under the direction of a newly empowered National Assembly:
The Constitution should be implemented immediately, and all of Eritrea's laws brought into line with it.
An amnesty should be declared, and all political prisoners released.
The complex (and secret) interlocking economic relations between the government and the ruling party should be untangled and made transparent.
The party should release its stranglehold over the country's social movements -- organizations of women, workers, and youth -- and allow other nongovernmental organizations to form.
New political parties should be allowed to seek support around platforms broadcast to all Eritreans over genuinely free public and private media.
The country's first national elections should be carried out according to the Constitution and under the supervision of an autonomous commission.
The best thing Washington can do to promote both democracy and regional stability is to force Ethiopia to accept the results of international arbitration on the border dispute, stripping the Afwerki regime of its rationale for repression.
But the Bush administration should not abort the reform process in Eritrea by propping up this repressive regime as a Cold War-style political payoff for joining the "war on terrorism." To do so would make a mockery of claims that this "war" has anything to do with promoting democracy in the region.
Dan Connell, who teaches journalism and African politics at Simmons College, is author of "Taking on the Superpowers: Collected Articles on the Eritrean Revolution."
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
