While the subject of the statement deals with the Eritrean Tewahdo (Orthodox) Church, the regime’s statement is indicative of how it deals with all dissent. The tone and content is full of derision, intolerance and disrespect.  It misrepresents the views of its opponents; it accuses the dissidenters of being foreign agents and of sowing seeds of disharmony; it lumps the party, the government, the country and the people into one entity and equates nationalism with support for the government and betrayal with opposing it; and, finally, it calls for the blackmail, marginalization and ostracization...

The Proclamation speaks of non-existing institutions like the "ministry of local government" and "board" that is supposed to have oversight over the proclamation. But ever since the arrest of Mahmoud Sheriffo, the ministry of local government has been dissolved and its functions divided up among the military command zones and their "desks."