Word: eritreans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...requisite niceties aside, it was not the friendliest audience that Issaias Afewerki faced as he addressed his partners in Ethiopia's new power elite last week. Many of the others oppose his plan for Eritrean independence, preferring to keep the coastal province firmly within Ethiopia. Issaias had a message for them. "Forget history," he told the conference in Addis Ababa. "Men make history, and we have made an independent Eritrea...
...moment, his fellow leaders were willing to go along. Under a charter adopted by the 81 delegates representing 24 different groups, the Eritreans, as well as any of Ethiopia's dozens of other nationalities, will have the right to self-determination and even secession. The delegates agreed that in two years Eritreans would vote on whether to break away from Ethiopia. Those who oppose the province's departure are plainly hoping that by then ^ independence will have lost its allure. Within that time, they anticipate, the Eritrean leadership will have failed to create a workable state...
...Eritrean leaders, however, have no interest in Ethiopia's governance but simply want to break away from the country. Established as an Italian colony in 1890, Eritrea expected nationhood after World War II but was instead federated with Ethiopia in 1952 at the recommendation of the United Nations. In 1962 the Eritrean parliament voted for full unification amid reports of bribery and intimidation of its members by the government of Emperor Haile Selassie...
...weeks before Mengistu fled, when the Americans were trying to persuade him that the country would not unravel if he stepped down, the Eritreans said they were willing to postpone their independence vote, perhaps for several years. But once victory was secured, they wasted no time asserting their secessionist agenda. In a press conference last week, Issaias Afewerki, leader of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, stated baldly, "Eritrea is not part of Ethiopia." He added that his group would administer the province until a vote on Eritrea's status is held, a plebiscite the front is convinced will endorse...
...Many non-Eritreans oppose the province's independence for economic as well as nationalistic reasons. Without Eritrea, with its long Red Sea coast, Ethiopia would be landlocked. International food aid, essential in combating famine when the rains fail, enters the country primarily through the Eritrean ports of Massawa and Assab. The Eritreans have pledged that they will permit goods to flow freely through their territory, but many Ethiopians wonder whether they can trust such promises from a group that has fought Addis Ababa for three decades...