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Coffee, cake, and rebels - Eritrea hosts dissidents |
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Written by Peter Martell (AFP)
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Monday, 14 May 2007 |
ASMARA -- They sip cappuccinos and gesture in debates, their papers and satellite telephones strewn on tables of hotels in Asmara, a refuge for the Horn of Africa's dissidents and self-imposed opposition leaders.
For a diverse group of people, from Ethiopian opposition groups and deserting soldiers to Somali politicians and Sudanese rebel leaders, the Eritrean capital is a popular stopping point.
"We are the free opposition," said Sharif Saleh Mohammed Ali, a spokesman for 42 former lawmakers who fled Somalia when Ethiopian-backed government troops ousted an Islamist movement at the start of the year.
"We are now engaged in finding alternative solutions for Somalia," said Ali, who met here with top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Surrounded by colleagues wearing sharp suits and embroidered pillbox hats, Ali sits on the same couches in the state-run Embasoira Hotel that previously hosted Eastern Sudanese rebels.
Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea have suffered long-drawn internal and external conflicts that have destabilized the region for years.
Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year war, but their joint border remains under dispute.
Their rivalry has worsened since Addis Ababa deployed troops last year to back Somalia's weak government against the Islamists it accuses Asmara of supporting.
"It is classic Cold War policy of the enemy of my enemy is my friend," said an Asmara-based Western analyst who declined to be named.
"It's several giant games of complicated chess in which most of us are observers, guessing several moves behind."
Eritrea says it aims to foster peace in regional politics, despite claims by Addis Ababa that its neighboring foe is backing rebels on its territory.
The tiny country also boasts of mediating successful peace talks between the Sudanese government and the country's Eastern Rebels.
It has also offered to mediate between Khartoum and rebel factions in the country's war-torn western region of Darfur.
"Eritrea is a small and new country, but regional cooperation is an element of our policy," Yemane Gebremeskel, the director of Eritrean president's office said.
"At the end of the day, unless our neighborhod is safe, then our peace and security will also be affected."
But Ethiopia does not share that logic.
Last month, it accused Asmara of supporting an attack by the Ogaden National Liberation Front rebel group on a Chinese-run oil site in Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region, in which 77 people were killed.
Ethiopia also accused Eritrea of involvement in the March kidnapping of five European tourists and their Ethiopian guides by the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front rebel group in northern Ethiopia.
The claims grew louder when the rebels released the European captives in Asmara.
Eritrea responded by saying it only supported opposition groups "engaged in a peaceful political stand."
"We vehemently believe that the internal problems in Ethiopia are the people of Ethiopia's affair, but we certainly support a peaceful democratic movement," said Ali Abdu, Eritrea's information minister.
The chief of the Afar rebels, Musa Ibrahim Hamaddu, said Eritrea had only acted as a mediator to secure the release of the Europeans.
"Our source of support for our struggle comes from our people alone," Hamaddu said after the Europeans were freed March 13.
Asmara has also rejected claims of involvement in terrorism from Addis Ababa, which last month appealed to the UN Security Council to act against its arch-foe.
Eritrea said Ethiopia, which hosted an Eritrean opposition conference in February, used the claims to "fabricate a pretext for its insatiable appetite for war." |
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