In late February, a month before ACP-EU was having its �parliamentary� session, Zimbabwe�s Robert Mugabe (host of Mengistu Hailemariam), fearing loss in the scheduled elections, was shopping around for a �dignified exit.�  According to a South African newspaper, The Star, Nigeria had parked a plane in Zimbabwe to whisk him off to Nigeria.  According to another paper, The Times of London, Mugabe asked his opponent in the scheduled elections, Mr. Tsvangirai, to negotiate his (Mugabe�s) exile to Nigeria.    In response, Nigerian President Olusegun Obesanjo said that no asylum would be granted Mugabe because Nigeria �does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.�   Mugabe then did what Isaias pioneered: he accused his competitor-rival, Mr. Tsvangirai, of plotting to kill him, then charged him with treason.  Zimbabwe had an election on March 9 �10^th, with predictable results.  Election won, enemy of the state eliminated, chapter closed.

The PFDJ�s slide into full-fledged authoritarianism was baptized on March 21, at the African Carribean Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) �parliamentary� session in South Africa.  In response to the EU�s damning resolution against the Government of Eritrea the previous month, PFDJ�s representative, Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiorgis, started reciting an old standby of every Third World tyrant: �do not interfere in our internal affairs.�  You could just imagine a smile on the ghost of Haile Selassie I and the bloodthirsty face of Mengistu Hailemariam who had perfected that line, for 30 years, at the halls of the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity every time the issue of Eritrea was brought up.   Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiorgis had more in his Pan-African bag of tricks that found resonance in his audience including the European Union�s (specifically Italy�s) alleged habit of:

�        �Constant moralizing about what ought to be done in Eritrea�

�        �Persistent interference in Eritrea's domestic affairs�

�        Making �an attempt to interfere in affairs of state.�

�        Trying to �bring Eritrea to its knees.�

�        Treating democracy and human rights as �objects of imposition or willful interference by third parties.�

�        Engaging in undue interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.

�        Believing that they �have a right to interfere in our internal affairs and dictate terms.�

In a line reminiscent of one used by Aklilu Habteweld, Ethiopia�s UN representative to the United Nations in the 1940s, Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiorgis accused Italy of showing enmity because it perceives Eritrea�s expulsion of its ambassador as �an affront to Italian national pride.�  He concluded his address by explaining that Eritrea is trying to �resist external interference in its affairs of state. I am confident that we can count on your support.�

When he said that he is counting on �your support� who is he addressing?   He is addressing representatives of Zimbabwe (Mugabe�s agent), and Zambia.  And Uganda, Togo, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sierra Leone,  Rwanda, Nigeria,  Mozambique, Mali,  Liberia, Haiti.  In short, Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiergis was addressing the Who�s Who of Dysfunctional States.    It is a perfect audience if you want reception to explain away lack of elections, respect for human rights, closure of the press, expulsion of foreigners to heads of states who are just, dammitt, tired of all the moralizing and all the interference from nations who refuse to just hand out the cash and shut the hell up.   

The Double Standard

When Austria�s �Freedom Party� nominated Jorg Haider, as its candidate and the man, with all his Hitler-praising views, ended up winning and forming a coalition government in February 2000, the European Union imposed a sanction on Austria.   The Austrians howled that Europe was �interfering in our internal affairs.�   They said that they are �unbowed�; Haidler offered apologies, and a month after his election, a mock resignation, but the Europeans, who had paid millions of lives to rid their continent of fascism and Nazism, wouldn�t relent.   Austria was ostracized and sanctions imposed until it would purge itself of its leader.

But the Europeans have a lower standard for the Third World�and who can blame them, really?  The ACP-EU is made up of 70 representatives from the European Union and 70 representatives from the African Carribean and Pacific States.     All the EU representatives are elected; only a minority of the ACP representatives are elected parliamentarians.   And that is fine by the EU.  The ACP-EU �parliament� is a farce: how can you have a parliament if many of the members of this �parliament� are un-elected?    When Andeberhan Weldegiergis says that the Eritrean National Assembly ��currently comprises 60 members of the PFDJ Central Council and 75 members elected by the general population at home and the Eritrean communities in the Diaspora,� the EU parliamentarian, thanks to his embassy in Eritrea, knows that:

�        The �60 members of the PFDJ Central Council� who are members of the NA used to be 75; they are 60 because 12 have been arrested (The G-11 plus Papayo) and three have been exiled for challenging the authority of the all-powerful President of the Republic;

�        The �75 members elected by the general population at home and the Eritrean communities in the Diaspora� are all PFDJ candidates;

�        The National Assembly hardly if ever meets and that when it does it merely rubber stamps the orders of the Chairman of the Assembly who also happens to be the President of the Republic.

He or she knows that the arrested were arrested because they were �interfering� in the �internal affairs� of the President�to whom, the whole nation is his �internal affair.�  But he looks around at the �parliament� he is in; notices that virtually everyone from the ACP nations is un-elected and shrugs and says, �Oh, well, that is Africa-Carribean-Pacific for you.�   As for the �parliamentarians� of the ACP, they listen to what Andeberhan says and think, �today they come after Eritrea; tomorrow after me.  Better stick around with my peers.�

The supporters of the Government of Eritrea are celebrating Eritrea�s induction into the Oppressors Club as profound  �achievement.�  They are celebrating that the government of Eritrea dodged the bullet of the �ACP-EU Resolution on East Africa.�   But if you look at the ACP-EU resolution on East Africa and what the �parliament� standards for condemnation are, the supporters of the Eritrean Government are celebrating that the government of Eritrea has not done anything as bad as bombing of a WFP food distribution center, looting food, abducting children and killing civilians (South Sudan); or engaging in illicit trade and proliferation of arms (Somalia).  

This is worth celebrating?   How low has this government dragged our standards for celebration?  Our standards for celebration are amazingly low and our standards for outrages are incredibly high.    All our outrages are reserved for others: the EU, the USA, Ethiopia�.   

The are so many ironies here but, of course, they are missed on Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiorgis and his fans.   The clearest one being: when he felt he and the government of Eritrea was wrongly accused by the EU, he was given a platform to make his case.  Why won�t he and his government extend this courtesy and common decency to the people it is holding hostage.   Supporters of the Eritrean Government in Diaspora protested the decision of the EU; why can�t Eritreans in Eritrea be given the right to protest against the Government of Eritrea?   Is Mr. Andeberhan Weldegiorgis proud of using the same arguments that the Derg and Janhoi used for years�the bogus �interference in our internal affairs�?