{"id":3947,"date":"2015-08-29T03:54:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2015-08-29T03:55:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-29T03:55:09","slug":"veteran-eritrean-freedom-fighters-launch-underground-opposition-by-monica-mark-guardian-august-28-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2015\/08\/29\/veteran-eritrean-freedom-fighters-launch-underground-opposition-by-monica-mark-guardian-august-28-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Eritrean freedom fighters launch underground opposition By Monica Mark, Guardian August 28, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the spring of 1976, two young Eritrean men walked into the glass-fronted United Nations building in downtown Geneva to make a desperate plea.<\/p>\n

It was years into Eritrea\u2019s struggle to break away from neighbouring Ethiopia<\/a>, and occupying troops had recently shuttered schools across the country. With no outside help forthcoming, Habte Tesfamariam and Yusuf Berhanu, both fresh-faced university graduates, saw the UN refugee agency as a last resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe explained to them the terrible situation concerning children in Eritrea and asked if they could help us to build a school in the liberated areas. They refused, saying thatEritrea<\/a> wasn\u2019t recognised by the UN,\u201d said Tesfamariam, who was at the time a member of the independence fighters known as the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF).<\/p>\n

When the two men persisted, officials eventually agreed to help set up a school in neighbouring Sudan, where thousands of refugees were camped at the time.<\/p>\n

Habte Tesfamariam (right) in the field, in 1978. Photograph: Osman Salih Sabe<\/p>\n

Their efforts encapsulate the fierce self-reliance \u2013 and sense of betrayal toward the international community \u2013 that held Eritrea together during its 30-year struggle for independence, and is arguably still strongly present today.<\/p>\n

Around 6,000 students passed through the school they helped set up in Kassala, in eastern Sudan, many of whom went on to study abroad. \u201cAfter the liberation of Eritrea, I was expecting them to return back and develop the country,\u201d said Tesfamariam.<\/p>\n

Instead, independence triggered a slow bleeding of the population. For a generation of opposition activists like Tesfamariam, who turned 70 this year, it marked the beginning of a period of exile from which few have returned.<\/p>\n

The pressure of three decades of war prompted the ELF to splinter and from it emerged the Eritrean People\u2019s Liberation Front, whose tanks finally rolled to victory in the capital, Asmara, in 1991, after three decades of conflict. At their head was Isaias Afwerki, a charismatic, sandal-wearing soldier who idolised Marx, and who quickly turned on the other organisations that had fought for independence alongside him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were demonstrating, having strikes, everything we could do in the face of a very punishing Ethiopian response. We thought that after independence there would be real democracy, but today it is absolutely impossible to return to Eritrea as an opposition member. If you do, they will pick you up upon arrival and you will disappear,\u201d said Tesfamariam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the worst kind of dictatorship \u2013 it\u2019s run as if it\u2019s bandit country.\u201d<\/p>\n

For almost a quarter of a century, Eritrea has remained under the iron grip of Afwerki, its population of 6 million getting by with no constitution, no independent judiciary or media, and no opposition parties. Isolated and paranoid, Afwerki has declared the population is \u201cnot ready\u201d for multi-party democracy.<\/p>\n

Charm offensive<\/h2>\n

State repression<\/a> coupled with very few jobs and indefinite national service made this tiny nation the third biggest source of migrants arriving on Europe\u2019s shores last year<\/a>. The UN believes up to 5,000 flee<\/a> monthly, although some warn numbers may be inflated by others pretending to be Eritrean to boost their chances of gaining asylum.<\/p>\n

Now though, the Horn of Africa nation appears to have launched a charm offensive as efforts to stem the flow of those fleeing coincide with Europe\u2019s own struggle<\/a> with the biggest refugee crisis since<\/a> the second world war.<\/p>\n

Senior Eritrean officials say those who flee the country are economic migrants<\/a>, not refugees, but have nevertheless talked about scaling back indefinite national service, mentioned by many refugees as a main reason for fleeing the country.<\/p>\n

A report by the Danish government this year<\/a> claimed that, for the first time, draft evaders are unlikely to face punishment on returning home, providing they sign a \u201cletter of apology\u201d. The report was a response to apparent overtures by Afwerki\u2019s regime to lure back its much depleted generation<\/a> of young people, needed to help rebuild its war-shattered economy.<\/p>\n