|
President Isaias Afwerkis latest trips to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Libya aim to secure financial help as well as to abort the diplomatic initiatives launched lately by the Eritrean opposition groups. On 29 June, the president traveled to Dubai, one of the seven states that make up the UAE, to meet with General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the nations defense minister and the crown prince of Dubai. Dubai is home to the Jebel Ali port, which has been a duty-free trade zone since 1985 and now hosts, thanks to its liberal trade policies, over a thousand companies from seventy countries. To accommodate its growth, Dubai has entered into management agreements with the ports in Beirut and Djibouti, whereby Jebel Ali port administrators have, since 2000, managed the two ports. Consequently, according to the US Department of States Bureau of African Affairs, the Port of Djibouti has increased its efficiency and is positioned to be a major port and transshipment port for the Red Sea. President Isaias Afwerki, who wants to transform the Eritrean port of Massawa into a duty-free trade zone, seeks the help of Dubais crown prince. However, the presidents relationship with the Gulf States, excluding Qatar, is strained mostly because he delights in heaping insults at them at every opportunity. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have refused his request for an official invitation. The president seems to enjoy the company and the respect of Libyas Muammar Kaddaffi who has also managed to alienate himself and his nation from the Arab world. Following his visit to Dubai, President Isaias Afwerki traveled to Libya to discuss bilateral relationship between the two nations and the future of the African Union, a subject dear to Colonel kaddaffis heart. The most articulate Eritrean opposition spokesperson to the Arab world is not Eritrea; it is Sudans Foreign Minister, Mr. Mustapha Ismail, who has been frustrating Mr. Isaias Afwerkis efforts. In addition to lobbying African and Arab nations and heads of missions to meet with representatives of the Eritrean opposition, the Sudanese minister is pressing hard for their unification as well as greater autonomy from the Ethiopian government, which apparently wants to retain them under its influence. Meanwhile, the Eritrean opposition is still trying to overcome its reputation for petty quarrels and disunity. As reported in the June 16 issue of Gedab News, the German branch of the Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council (ELF-RC) had met and declared that it had frozen its membership with ELF-RC and was, henceforth, an independent civil society governed by German laws whose immediate goal is to organize the annual Kassel Festival. In response, the Executive Committee of ELF-RC issued a statement disowning the former members of the German branch and announced that it would organize its own festival. With respect to its relationship with the Eritrean National Alliance and conditions for its return, while its chairman has communicated in writing of his organizations intent to join the ENA, a three-member committee (headed by Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed Ali and including Mr. Ahmed Nasser and Mr. Mengisteab Asmerom) meeting in Sudan has expressed their organizations return to the ENA conditional on the modification of sub articles dealing with the rights of nationalities and exercise of religion--of the Fundamental Principles of the ENAs National Charter, which was adopted on October 2002 in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. The General Secretariat of the ENA will hold an extraordinary session to discuss these and other issues. |
