Word: eritreans
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...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...
That may be wishful thinking. Ever since 1890, when Italy officially colonized the province, Eritreans have considered themselves more advanced than Ethiopians. Eritrean rebels began fighting for independence in 1961 and since then have done an impressive job of providing health care, education and other services to rural areas under their control. Ethiopia's dilemma, however, is acute: without Eritrea, the nation of 53 million has no access...
Much can happen in two years. In pursuing its separatist aims, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which Issaias heads, must not antagonize the newly installed government in Addis Ababa, which replaced Mengistu Haile Mariam, the dictator who was deposed in May. Nor can the front afford to alienate the international community on which it depends for famine relief and economic...
...itself from a rebel army to a civilian government that can resuscitate a region devastated by 30 years of war, a land where fields are barren and industries are still. Otherwise the leadership risks a split in the unity that has brought the independence movement this far. As an Eritrean civil servant put it, "We have our independence. That's good. Now, where are the jobs...
Already civilian workers are grumbling about Issaias' decision to keep his 95,000-strong army intact to work in the fields and factories and on reconstruction projects. "Great," says an Eritrean bureaucrat. "The volunteer army goes in, and the salaried civilians...