INTRODUCTION  

The Afar people make up over 7 million out of the present more than 70 million population of the states in the Horn of Africa: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The Afar nation has a single common mother tongue and basic common culture. The Afar language, Qafar Af, belongs to the eastern Kushitic group of languages. The Afar language is very closely related to Saho, with more than 80 percent of the words in common and distantly related to Oromo and Somali. Like Af Somali and Afan Oromo, the Afar language is written in Roman (Latin Alphabet). The Afar Alphabet, known commonly as Qafar Feera, is created by Dimis and Redo, two Afar intellectual nationalists who published the fruit of their first work in the early seventies. 

In the 19th century, prior to what is known as the "scramble for Africa" which led to the incursion and occupation by European colonial powers (Italy, France, England) of the Afar triangle, the Afar nation was united and had its own well functioning political, social and legal structure. Trade and various kinds of skills such as wood and metal works, weaving, pottery and tannery flourished. Pastoralism, fishery and salt production were well developed. The Afar nation has an extraordinarily rich heritage of proverbs, stories, songs and riddles. They have very comprehensive plant and animal names.

The Afar customary law and various customs pertaining to marriage, paternity, dress etc� have elaborate descriptions and all those things have enriched Qafar Af. The political set up of the Afar land was organized under semi-independent Sultanates (most known amongst them are Sultanates of Awsa, Biru, Gobaad, Rahayto, Tagorri) that were a constituent of a federal Afar state in this part of the world known as the Horn of Africa. 

At the advent of colonialism in the beginning of the last century, the Afar coastal regions (Part of present Eritrea now) witnessed several battles, where the Afar People showed unyielding resistance against the advancing foreign forces. To the Afars, the presence of foreign occupation on the coastal regions was regarded as strategically harmful to the sovereignty of the whole Afar Nation.

However, the European army equipped with high military technological weapons succeeded to occupy the coastal area from Dahlack to Zeila, despite the large and persistent resistance from indigenous Afar fighters. The colonialists methodically eroded the above-mentioned federation as they did everywhere in the rest of the African continent. The end result of that occupation has become that the Afar people have against their will been segmented into the present States of Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.  

The part of the Afar triangle that had been incorporated in the Italian colony, Eritrea (Red Sea) was baptized Dankalia and was amalgamated with the other two regions of the Abyssinian highland and the North Eastern lowlands. The name Dankalia originates from the name of an Afar clan Dankali leaving in the historic cost town of Baylul (one of the oldest ports of pre-colonial Afarland beside Massawa and Zeila) located 60 km north of Assab. The businessmen from this clan were crossing the Red Sea to Arabia to trade in gold, ivory, myrrh and frankincense with the businessmen from Arabia and Persia. They were using their clan name instead of their ethnic name when they presented themselves to outsiders. That is why even today, in the Arabian Peninsula, the Afars are most known by the name Danakil, the plural of Dankali. 

The Eritrean Afars have strong sentiments about the unity of the historical Afar Nation and people; and have the right to their history, that should be known to all Eritreans. However, they distinguish between sentiments and objective realities on the ground of today. Dankalia, today is an integral part of Eritrea and the Afars have no intention to change international boundaries or to create unrest in the region. In the contrary they aspire to be a bridge and agents of peace between the three states they are leaving in.This does not mean in any way they accept marginalization and lose their identity.  

Dankalia's immense strategic importance, and in a sense its history, emanates from its unique maritime position and in recent times its close proximity to the petroleum producing areas of the Middle East. The Afar people of Dankalia being part of Eritrea and having undeniably contributed to the independence are firmly aware of the catastrophic situation the country is going through.

The undemocratic regime in Asmara, which is the architect of ten years of economic mismanagement, corruption, political repression and widespread human rights abuses, is the sole problem of Eritrea . PFDJ autocrats since their ascend to power in 1991, with help of EPRDF of Ethiopia, are systematically suppressing Afar culture, looting Afar resources, i.e. salt production, fishery and dividing Afar people into two regions without their will in the name of false Eritrean unity. All those things are fostering instability, war and famine. 

Taking into consideration the unbearable repression our people are suffering of, being aware of that there can be no lasting peace and sustainable development without freedom to exercise political, economic, social and cultural rights, the Afar Liberation Democratic Movement in Eritrea (ALDME), charted out this programme to organize the Afar people of Eritrea and to struggle and fight for their political and human emancipation.

I. POLITICAL OBJECTIVES OF THE AFAR LIBERATION DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ERITREA (ALDME) 

1. ALDME struggles to eliminate national domination, restore the national rights of the Afar people and reunite them inside one Dankalia. ALDME struggles also for Regional federal arrangement in Eritrea, there the human and democratic rights of the Afar people are respected.  

2. ALDME recognizes the right of self-determination up to and including secession for all nationalities and regions in Eritrea. ALDME believes that casting ballots on boxes alone does not solve the dilemma of justice. We believe the only solution that promotes justice and democracy is the federal system and decentralization of power. 

3. ALDME struggle for the realization of the right of the Afar people and other oppressed nations to Self-determination up to secession. In the event that this is not the case the Afar People will opt for secession and thereby realize their rights. 

4. ALDME will extricate the people from the yoke of one-party rule and struggle for constitutional democracy, freedom of expression and equality, social justice including the right of movement, assembly, press and organization. 

5. ALDME works for decentralization of power through federal arrangement from the current highly centralized undemocratic structure. 

6. ALDME will develop Afar literature, art and language. Qafar Af will be the official language of Dankalia.

II. ECONOMIC PROGRAMME OF THE AFAR LIBERATION DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ERITREA (ALDME) 

1. ALDME will see to it that land and all other natural resources of the Afar region are exploited to the interest of the Afar people. 

2. The Afar people of Dankalia are pastoralists for the most part. Therefore ALDME will work to enhance the voluntary transformation and productivity of the nomadic and semi-nomadic Afar society, and will respect the way of life, culture and economic mode of pastoralist production on irrigated and natural pastures and launch rangeland development programmes in Dankalia in order to alleviate the problems posed by desertification. ALDME will provide the pastoralists mobile veterinary services, education and health care congruent to the pastoralist way of life. 

3. ALDME will make available to the fishermen modern fishing technology to enable the Afar people to better exploit the natural resources of the western Red Sea. Further, ALDME will exert unreserved efforts for the expansion of agriculture, trade and industry. 

4. ALDME will work for environmental sustainability and expansion of balanced sustainable economic development in various fields of human endeavor. 

5. ALDME will encourage private and public capital investment and cooperative ventures. 

6. ALDME will take initiative for the development of social security services in Dankalia.

III FOREIGN POLICY OF THE AFAR LIBERATION DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT IN ERITREA (ALDME) 

1 To maintain foreign relations on the basis of equality, respect for mutual interests and peaceful cooperation. 

2.  To respect international charters and treaties. 

3. To promote peace and stability between peoples in the Horn of Africa and act for regional integration based on free movement of peoples and materials, peace and democracy. 

AFFARA GARRAYTO, 12TH SEPTEMBER 2002