Milena Velba Three Gallery

Militarized Diplomacy: foreign policy ERITREA between continuity and discontinuity (Part II)

Asmara: identity, independence and conflicts of a state "developed"

Eritrean identity emerged mainly as opposed to reality just before the Ethiopian imperial fascist invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. According to historians, it was the product of three main factors. First, growth of an ideology of discrimination directed against the Ethiopian people subject during the Italian colonization, compared to the Eritrean people considered to be under the protective umbrella of the "civilizing". Second, the economic boom that was recorded in Italian Eritrea immediately before the invasion of Ethiopia. And third, the role of Eritrean troops Fascist invasion of Ethiopia (it is estimated that about 50,000 units of the Italian army were then made by Ascari). These three features contributed to the birth of a first "boundary" between the Italian colony and Addis Ababa, contributing considerably to the formation of Eritrea and the myth of the country as the most developed area of \u200b\u200bthe empire, a conviction rooted in this part even in the rhetoric of the liberation war.

After the Italian defeat in World War II, Eritrea was temporarily placed under British trusteeship, before the UN decided to federate to Ethiopia in 1952. Its complete annexation by Haile Selassie as the fourteenth province of the empire in 1962 unleashed the first armed resistance in the area. The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) began guerrilla actions in 1961, but in 1970 a small faction of the group is separated from the original line, then taking the name - in 1975 - the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). The tension tra l’ELF e l’EPLF si concluse solo nel 1982, quando l’ELF fu sconfitto dall’EPLF, che rimase così l’unico movimento di contrapposizione al regime di Menghistu, che nel frattempo aveva destituito tramite un colpo di stato militare l’imperatore Haile Selassie. L’Eritrean People’s Liberation Front riuscì, infine – anche grazie all’aiuto indiretto di altri gruppi di opposizione alla giunta militare etiopica, come il Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) e l’Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – a liberare la città di Asmara, e così l’Eritrea, il 24 maggio 1991. Dopo la caduta del Dergue nel giugno del 1991, la coalizione che aveva contribuito alla sua sconfitta, l’Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), prese il potere in Etiopia, dichiarando un periodo di transizione di due anni prima di indire un referendum sull’indipendenza eritrea. Nell’aprile del 1993 gli eritrei si espressero in favore dell’indipendenza, e così nel maggio dello stesso anno l’EPLF dichiarò il paese come uno Stato indipendente, il quale nasceva dai medesimi confini ereditati dall’ex colonia italiana. La configurazione dell’Eritrea nello scacchiere internazionale e regionale ha evidenziato come i suoi confini siano stati discussi e modellati nel tempo da forze prettamente “esterne”. Il paese pertanto può essere descritto come una classica "Borderland", a territorial entity always placed in open conflict with its important neighbors such as the state of Ethiopia, the Sudan and the Arab overlooking the Red Sea.

The ideological basis for the political development of post-Eritrean war of liberation were then transcribed in the National Charter for Eritrea, adopted by the Third Congress dell'EPLF / PFDJ in February 1994.

It was during this congress, the Front decided to change its name to People Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with the intent to emphasize the conclusion of the liberation war and the transition from one wing of the administration militare ad una civile.

Una delle prime misure prese dal PFDJ per rafforzare il senso di appartenenza nazionale fu proprio quella di imbastire una leva militare obbligatoria per tutti gli uomini e donne che avessero raggiunto almeno un’età di diciotto anni. Unendo così in un unico esercito giovani Kunama, Afar, Beni Amer e Tigrini, il nuovo governo cercava di accrescere e cementificare lo stesso spirito nazionalista sperimentato durante gli anni di lotta di liberazione.

Quando l’Eritrea raggiunse l’indipendenza formale nel 1993, il proprio confine con l’Etiopia era ancora fissato da una serie di trattati coloniali italo-etiopici (segnati nel 1900, 1902 e 1908). Nonostante questo, the border was never fully demarcated, causing many problems to the usufruct of land and disputes in a number of administrative villages. On May 6, 1998, a small group of Eritrean soldiers entered the disputed area near the village of Badme, which still was under Ethiopian administration since 1962. The small and limited in comparison to the fire that ensued caused the escalation of the tension the more extensive, which led to the outbreak of a genuine cross-border war. Following the bombing on the Ethiopian city of Massawa, Asmara and Assab, the country accepted a peace document drawn up by the then Organization of African Unity (OAU). So, in August 1999 both parties to the conflict agreed in principle to the mediation of the OAU, which led - after a massive Ethiopian offensive in May 2000 - Algiers Agreement, signed June 18, 2000. The agreement provided for the establishment of a buffer zone along the Eritrean-Ethiopian border about 25 miles wide and called Temporary Security Zone (TSZ). The entire security strip was located entirely in Eritrean territory and led to the origin some 4,000 UN peacekeepers, members of the UNMEE (United Nations Mission for Eritrea and Ethiopia).

The Algiers Treaty was finally ratified by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and President Eritrea Isaias Afwerki in December 2000. In addition, approval of the plan of peace inaugurated two committees, which would have to first register and regulate the claims of the two contenders (EECMA - Eritrea and Ethiopia Claim Commission) and the other to ensure the implementation of the demarcation of the border ( EEBC - Eritrea and Ethiopia Boundary Commission). The Boundary Commission, according to its founding treaty, had the task of providing a demarcation on the basis of several colonial treaties (treaties between Italy and Ethiopia in 1900, 1902 and 1908). The court therefore had no powers to impose such decisions on the matter ex aequo et bono. In particular, its membri erano privi della facoltà di esprimere giudizi basati su principi di equità ma, al contrario, le proprie funzioni dovevano esclusivamente attenersi ai testi dei trattati istituiti in epoca coloniale. La decisione della commissione si concretizzò quindi nel marzo del 2003, sancendo – di fatto – il diritto di appartenenza eritrea sul villaggio di Badme. Il rifiuto etiopico della decisione dell’EEBC determinò, però, uno stallo nelle trattative sul confine, di cui ancora oggi non se ne riesce a vedere una soluzione.

La nuova escalation di tensione legata al contenzioso sul confine è stata inoltre accompagnata – tra il maggio 2005 ed il luglio del 2006 – dall’espulsione dei European peacekeepers, American and Russian Eritrea and a significant reduction in the quota UNMEE, which now has about 2,500 men (of which 230 observers), as defined by Resolution 1681 of 31 May 2006. Despite numerous reminders of the UN Security Council to the spirit of Algiers - also accompanied by real threats of sanctions - both parties still refuse to sit at the negotiating table again, sacrificing diplomatic action in favor of a new - but not unprecedented - "relocation" of the conflict. This trend was also witnessed the entry of the two countries in the intricate crises in Somalia, which saw the alignment of at least two distinct fronts, who now believe that opposing the one hand the Transitional Federal Institutions based in Baidoa and Mogadishu - politically and militarily supported and protected by the Zenawi government - the Alliance and other for the Liberation of Somalia (ALS), born in September 2007 in Asmara under the protective umbrella of the government Afwerki.
The Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia (ALS) is a movement of opposition to the Transitional Federal Government was born in September 2007 in Asmara. It includes some 400 delegates, including the former chairman of the Shura Islamic Courts Union Hassan Dahir Aweys, the former Chairman of the Executive Board of the Courts Sharif Sheikh Ahmad, the former president of the transitional parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and the former deputy prime minister of the Transitional Federal Government Hussein Mohamed Farah Aidid.

Currently, Eritrea is ruled by a one-party system (People Front for Democracy and Justice - PFDJ), where there is no political opposition and where the field of information is held firmly in the hands of the executive through the Ministry of Information. The economy and its productive forces have been fully nationalized. The country therefore - also in accordance with the view of many analysts - is in many ways a classic example of "developmental state". In fact, its current system of governance has two main features: an ideological and a more structural. The structural component is the fact that political power bases its legitimacy primarily in its ability to promote and support development from within, minimizing the flow of international aid (which also explains the difficulty of non-governmental organizations to work and promote projects development in the country). On the ideological level, however, the ruling elite must be able at any time to impose "ideological hegemony" on society. In other words, the year that marked the work of the Asmara government seem to be largely the result of a process of state-building managed distinctly "top down" political elite in power. It also does nothing but present significantly in contrast with the spirit of the years of liberation struggle and then experienced the kind of accountability, the fact of inclusion and grassroots participation, particularly among the rural population of the plateau.