Word: eritrea
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...from 35 different parties. Last July it adopted a charter ensuring each ethnic nationality the right to self- determination. Step One -- 12 regional elections to be held by the end of the year -- will pave the way for local autonomy or even secession. Already, the Red Sea province of Eritrea has set up its own provisional government and will hold a United Nations-sponsored referendum on independence in two years...
...many of them fighters promenading hand in hand with loved ones they have not seen in many years. The Italian-style cafes are busy late into the night. "Before, we lived like prisoners here," says Yohannes Ande, owner of a small convenience store. "You couldn't say the word Eritrea. You couldn't walk on the sidewalks because of the sandbag bunkers the army put up on almost every corner. It was a dark time. Now it's going to be good...
...Eritrea's relations with the outside world are equally unsteady. The province is almost completely closed off; no commercial flights arrive or leave. The only telephone, telex and radio communications possible are those that are routed through the front. The group blames the cutoffs on technical problems, but as time passes and no improvements are made, fewer Ethiopians believe that. Instead, the isolation appears to be part of a deliberate effort to assert Eritrea's independence...
...course, Eritrea's new relationship with Addis Ababa and the rest of the world may need some time to mature. Despite the tensions between their two camps, Issaias still speaks by phone every day to his old friend Meles Zenawi, leader of the rebel group that took control of Addis Ababa and now head of Ethiopia's provisional government. If a new multiparty transitional government -- which was agreed upon last week -- approves, ties between Eritrea and the rest of the country will be defined under an accord that calls for a mutual defense agreement and joint consultative committees on issues...
After three decades of civil war, Ethiopians are not eager to take up arms again, but many consider it an option for the future. "We don't need more war just now, but perhaps in five years we will go get Eritrea back," says a woman in Addis Ababa who has already lost one son in the civil war. That ordinary people are talking about sending their children off to war so soon after the killing has stopped is a measure of how precarious the situation remains...