Eritrea: Political Opposition Intensifies
Woldu Mikael
December 23, 2007
As reports speak of mass influx of Eritrean refugees crossing the border into Ethiopia, Eritrean opposition groups have intensified their fight to end dictatorship, terrorism and famine in that impoverished Red Sea country.
Informed sources say up to 600 men women and children are risking their lives to cross the border into Ethiopia each month.
The Eritrean security forces are authorized to shoot and kill anyone trying to flee. Unspecified number of students and ex-draftees have so far been killed while crossing the Ethiopian and Sudanese borders.
As the tragedies unfold, a number of Eritrean opposition parties have been having their conference in the key northern Ethiopian city of Axum, close to the border with Eritrea.
A conference spokesman, Mr. Tewolde Gebre-Selassie has urged Eritrean opposition forces to unite and hasten the ouster of the authoritarian regime in Asmara.
Mr. Tewolde, who heads up the Eritrean People´s Democratic Front, says the brutal Isayas Afeworki regime has not only led the country into a political and economic turmoil but has also turned it into a "virtual prison."
There are hundreds of thousands of Eritrean nationals in Sudan and Ethiopia, who are unwilling to return to their country because of human rights abuses described by many international rights groups as the worst in the world.
Tens of thousands of political and religious dissenters have reportedly been tortured and imprisoned without charge or trial.
In addition to non-governmental agencies, President Afeworki´s government has come under heavy criticisms from the European Union, and the African Union.
The US has already placed Eritrea on its list of "Country´s of Particular Concern" imposing military sanctions on that rogue African state.
The Bush Administration is also planning to designate Afeworki´s Eritrea a terror sponsoring state for the president´s open and covert actions in exporting terrorism into neighboring countries.
Sources: Agencies
Woldu Mikael is a Freelance Writer
Informed sources say up to 600 men women and children are risking their lives to cross the border into Ethiopia each month.
The Eritrean security forces are authorized to shoot and kill anyone trying to flee. Unspecified number of students and ex-draftees have so far been killed while crossing the Ethiopian and Sudanese borders.
As the tragedies unfold, a number of Eritrean opposition parties have been having their conference in the key northern Ethiopian city of Axum, close to the border with Eritrea.
A conference spokesman, Mr. Tewolde Gebre-Selassie has urged Eritrean opposition forces to unite and hasten the ouster of the authoritarian regime in Asmara.
Mr. Tewolde, who heads up the Eritrean People´s Democratic Front, says the brutal Isayas Afeworki regime has not only led the country into a political and economic turmoil but has also turned it into a "virtual prison."
There are hundreds of thousands of Eritrean nationals in Sudan and Ethiopia, who are unwilling to return to their country because of human rights abuses described by many international rights groups as the worst in the world.
Tens of thousands of political and religious dissenters have reportedly been tortured and imprisoned without charge or trial.
In addition to non-governmental agencies, President Afeworki´s government has come under heavy criticisms from the European Union, and the African Union.
The US has already placed Eritrea on its list of "Country´s of Particular Concern" imposing military sanctions on that rogue African state.
The Bush Administration is also planning to designate Afeworki´s Eritrea a terror sponsoring state for the president´s open and covert actions in exporting terrorism into neighboring countries.
Sources: Agencies
Woldu Mikael is a Freelance Writer