2018-02-04  Adulis quoted the newspaper Nation

Hassan Salman: Afwerki puts Eritrea in a war with everyone and leads it to the unknown

"The Eritrean people paid a high price for Afwerki's adventures and his tyrannical dictatorship," said Dr. Hassan Salman, an Eritrean political analyst. "Afwerki put Eritrea in a state of hostility with all his neighbors and continued his adventures through the IAEA war and the game of the parties in the Horn of Africa and the Nile Basin countries. In an interview with the «Electronic Nation», Salman said that the crisis of the Renaissance school exposed Afwerki's efforts and plans to dissolve the Islamic identity of our people, marginalize the Arabic language and impose a popular style on the people, pointing out that these efforts will not pass unnoticed but will face fierce resistance from the Eritrean people and the Islamic movement despite police violence And repression by the authoritarian regime. He stressed the pivotal role of the Eritrean Islamic movement, despite the war of eradication launched by Afwerki for decades, stressing that the Islamic Movement is a key player in the Eritrean resistance, but will be the head of the war in the attempts to overthrow the dictatorship. Salman was confident that Egyptian-Sudanese relations would not reach the stage of the explosion, but that their arrival at the stage of normalization is still ruled out because of the growing gap between Cairo and Khartoum, pointing out that the language of interests is the one who pushed Sudan to bias the Ethiopian side and sought to benefit from the construction of Al-Nahda Dam to support development efforts in the region. He warned the Eritrean academic about the danger of the Agency war and the strategy of tension between Sudan and Ethiopia on the one hand and the Emirates, Egypt and Eritrea on the other. He stressed that the peoples of the region are the first victims of these adventures, which will not be able to subject Khartoum and Addis Ababa to the axis of the counterrevolution

■ Eritrea is one of the countries of extreme isolation governed by the Afroqui system of the centrist centennial. Does it explain to us the nature of the situation in Eritrea? 

■ Since the accession of the Eritrean regime to power in 1991, it has not sought to build relations based on mutual respect and patronage of interests among the peoples and neighboring countries. Rather, it has been to deal with crises and to engage in conflicts with all neighboring countries (Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti) This led to a real isolation in most periods and resulted in a great and comprehensive suffering for the Eritrean people because the regime made the Eritrean state a state of war for all and thus hindered the process of development and adopted the policy of popular mobilization and militarization of society through what he called the national service which is a system of forced labor and violation of human rights NH is not based on the law for a specified time. 

■ What are the implications of this authoritarian approach to the Eritrean homeland and citizen?

This resulted in serious psychological repercussions in the society of seeking salvation and going into the unknown through the collective and individual escape that emptied Eritrea of ​​its youth and made them vulnerable to human trafficking and crimes. It also made them vulnerable to land and sea risks to search for life in ways that lead to death. The state of permanent tension with the neighboring countries has been disrupted by the process of building the state and the political system on scientific and legal grounds. This has led the state to be oppressed, oppressed, imprisoned, and detained for undetermined and far-off periods. Eritrea has been imprisoned for its citizens, a police state with no distinction. Nor judicial and judicial institutions, but rather a concentration of power in the hands of tyrant Afwerki and his generals in the army and the security services. 

■ Many consider Eritrea to be Arab states outside the Arab League and with a Muslim majority, but the Christian minority controls the scene?

■ The question of the control of the Christian component on the joints of the Eritrean state is due to many historical and political factors, including the stage of the Eritrean revolution and the emergence of many national streams and factions which espoused ideas and political ideologies. These factions included the Popular Front for the Liberation of Eritrea, the current ruling power. The non-Muslim component and fought all other factions with various pretexts and pretexts and allied with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Takra, the ruling in Ethiopia and emerged the case of sectarian hegemony in Eritrea clearly and clearly in the organs of the state after liberation, What are the system began in the liquidation of all votes in violation of the power head of the revolution partners and the march of those who deceived slogans left of Muslims to finally end up the dominant character is the system of sectarian situation and the predominance of the Christian element of the State organs. 

■ Why did the Muslim majority surrender and accept this strange situation?

Of course, the situation is unacceptable and satisfactory and did not surrender to Muslims at all stages, but the resistance to the regime is continuing from Muslims and other free and rejecting the logic of sectarian hegemony and dictatorship and advocates of freedoms and rights and the state of citizenship. 

■ But this resistance did not achieve anything on the ground and Eritrea remained the country of the individual ruler without institutions? 

■ The absence of effective institutions is due to several factors, including the nature of the dictatorial regime, which strives to weaken the structure of the state and its institutions, to establish power in the hands of the tyrant and to disrupt the constitution and to freeze the effectiveness of the party and institutions even if they exist. For example there is a cabinet of ministers, Or transfer them to people who trust them and this made the figures of ministers absent or Bahth as in the Minister of Foreign Affairs 

■ How to live a system of governance in this way?

The head of the system is the president and represents the legislature as the parliament is disabled. He is the head of the army because there is no defense minister after a number of ministers of defense are sent to prison or to other sites. He is the head of the party, which is mobilized on demand and therefore the regime is the state. Because of the fact that the country is in a state of war and insecurity and therefore no voice over the voice of the gun, as usual many tyrants and based on the continuation of that situation on the systematic repression and police mentality that turned Eritrea into a failed state repelling its people and destroying its future. 

■ There are serious concerns about the erosion of the identity of the Eritrean Muslim people as the Afwerki regime tightens its grip on power after the end of the Ethiopian occupation?

The occupation has continued on Eritrea for long periods, the last of which was the Ethiopian occupation, which lasted for more than three decades, and the occupation by its nature aimed at the occupied people in its identity, culture and resources, and the resistance to preserve all this. Therefore, religious education and Arabic language was one of the manifestations of Arab and Islamic identity and culture. The Eritrean Muslim people established Arab Islamic institutes and schools in various Eritrean cities and cities. Among these schools was the Islamic Diaa School, which was founded in 1969 during the Ethiopian occupation and continued with the support of the family and its meaning Arab and Islamic and has not been exposed or closed during the occupation. 

■ The crisis of the Islamic Diaa School sparked a debate about the reality of Arab and Islamic educational institutions in Eritrea and the reality of the Arabic language in Eritrea?

■ When Eritrea became independent, the government demanded that the private schools be introduced into the government's scientific and literary curricula without prejudice to the pre-established curriculum of Islamic education, and all the civil institutions responded to this and continued despite the restrictions on funding. Consequently, religious education has been severely weakened. Towards the total hegemony and impose its vision of radical secularism, which in fact serves the sectarian approach of the system through the dissemination of the culture of the other non-Muslim party to the Muslims, where the government demanded that the school of Diaa not to teach education materials Islam And banning girls' dress, known as Islamic dress, and imposing a mixed study within the school, making the holiday on Saturday and Sunday and banning the holiday on Friday. 

■ The school administration rejected these demands and the crisis broke out.

The school administration and its council found that these demands clash with the religious specificities of the Muslims and therefore rejected these demands. Sheikh Musa Mohammed Noor, the chairman of the school, invited the parents of the students and informed them about the situation. The public opinion was that the demands were rejected. The government arrested Shaykh Musa Muhammad Nur, a elderly sheikh of 90 years of age. The parents of the students saw that the Sheikh's arrest was affecting them all. As a result, the demonstrations in Asmara on 31 October 2017 came out peacefully demanding the release of their sheikh and the arbitrary demands of their school. 

■ Surely the regime used its oppressive tools in the face of these demonstrations?

The authorities began to fire indiscriminately, raided houses and besieged the areas from which demonstrations were launched in the capital Asmara. Thousands of detainees are still in prison. In general, the regime is working hard to narrow the Arabic language State institutions and education on the pretext of flimsy as he strives to fight the manifestations of Islam. 

■ The Diaa school file opens the door to questions about the Islamic movement and its current status?

The Islamic movement in its organizational form does not exist within Eritrea, but there is a popular lawsuit and education that has nothing to do with political and organizational aspects. However, the regime did not tolerate this presence, but worked hard to tighten it as I mentioned and worked to arrest the preachers and scholars since the beginning of independence and appearance The Islamic movement is of an organizational and political nature. It is outside of Eritrea and has an intensive and strong activity, thank God. It is a fundamental part of the national resistance in general and part of its structures and institutions. 

■ What is the extent to which the overwhelming majority of Muslims accept the role of these movements in the salvation of Afwerki?

These movements are popular because they have not tolerated the general rights and freedoms of our people since the beginning. They have remained in constant resistance for long periods of time with the regime. This has earned them credibility and acceptance among many. It is present and active in the struggle, struggle and resistance. Like other Islamic movements, they face the challenges faced by these movements in our Arab region, and therefore it is difficult to talk about allies in the Arab region from governments. Nor is it like any other public movement and responsiveness to their theses outside the Arab region even if its speech is not shocking. Not dimensional backgrounds and attitudes of what is known about Islam resistor remains present, but more importantly , in all this , it is difficult to draw a stable future away from the Islamic movement in the region. 

■ From Eritrea, we move to the Horn of Africa and what is happening during the last period of the struggle of the great powers and the war of bases?

The region of the Horn of Africa in general, whether in Somalia, Djibouti or Eritrea, is witnessing a great increase in foreign military bases and even a kind of competition in that race. This race undoubtedly poses a risk to the security of the region and its stability. Eritrea has witnessed over the years a Zionist entity and a similar presence in Iran. A strange contradiction and then abandoned Iran and Eritrea turned to the Arab alliance and the rental of the port of Asab of the United Arab Emirates and turned the Eritrean territory of the arena of gathering and training and the launch of Yemen and accompanied naturally enter the mazes have nothing to do with the interests of the Eritrean people and its rise and stability B Perhaps it has made Eritrea the scene of a regional conflict and we are witnessing it recently from an escalation towards Sudan. 

■ But Sudan responded to the Egyptian-Emirati meeting by closing its borders with Eritrea?

These developments will not serve the people of the region and the Eritrean people will remain besieged from Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan. Thus, the suffering will be beyond the capacity of the people who suffer from the hardship of living for years. Throughout the regime, the regime has been playing all the time on contradictions in the region and at times has created a lifeline for its economic and political crises, but the danger is that some of these adventures may be a tragic end not only for the regime but for the Eritrean state itself. 

■ If the camp of counter-revolutions is unable to move against Sudan, do you see it capable of curbing the ambitions of Addis Ababa?

■ All military and security movements in Eritrea do not require direct recourse to armed action against Ethiopia. However, at least these movements cause some concern and confusion for the Ethiopian side and contribute to the support and movement of Eritrean groups from Eritrean territory. To the Egyptian demands in the dialogue related to the dialogue of dam and other files. 

If observers rule out a war between Cairo and Khartoum, is there a possibility of normalization of relations? 

It is difficult to talk about an Egyptian-Egyptian rapprochement. The historical relations between the two peoples are difficult to follow in the direction of escalation and tension, which leads to direct war between the two countries, but the Agency's wars will continue and push the parties to achieve specific gains for each party which will prevail during the next stage. ■ In this atmosphere, how do you see ways out of this crisis?

The latest indicators indicate that dialogue is the only way to resolve conflicts between the countries of the region, especially that the dam is at its end. The escalation between the countries of the region adversely affects all development processes, disrupts trade between peoples and fuels hostility, especially in the context of clowning and irresponsible media. 

Q: Relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa have passed through the stations of tension and attraction before reaching a stage resembling an alliance?

The Sudanese position is a major turning point in relations with Egypt and the development of a new strategy in the Sudanese national security which has for decades been based northward towards Egypt and the Arab region to turn eastwards towards Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region. This will have major repercussions in the region and the nature of its strategic alliances. That Sudan does not feel the dangers of Egypt in the construction of the Dam of the Renaissance, but perhaps overcome the side of Sudan interests and benefits of building the dam on the side of fears and risks and this is what needs to know from the Egyptian side. 

■ The crisis of the proxy war in the Red Sea is one of the manifestations of the collapse of the Arab collective security system after many and decades have seen it as an Arab lake?

The security of the Red Sea is a very sensitive issue for international security, even if it is part of the regional security of the people of the region. Therefore, the major powers, especially the United States of America, consider their security to be part of their security and attention is increased whenever the national security of the Arabs is weakened and their systems are disintegrated or some of their countries For tools serving foreign strategy, which we see from raced to the presence on the shores of the Red Sea and the construction of military bases is only an attempt to the presence studied under international hegemony. 

However, the proxy war and the internationalization of the Red Sea pose a serious threat to the security and stability of the countries and peoples of the region.

■ ■ The proxy war and internationalization will have future risks to the security and stability of the region, especially in light of regional and international conflicts. Unless a special strategy for regional security is developed away from conflicts, foreign axes, influence and foreign dependence, the threat and external interference will continue. 

■ The issue of the Agency's war in the region opens the door to developments in Sudanese-Gulf relations, which are witnessing some kind of mistrust, especially in dealing Khartoum with developments in the Gulf?

The relations between the Sudan and the Gulf countries are governed by a number of factors, and it is difficult for them to focus on any of the parties to the Gulf conflict. Its relations with Saudi Arabia are very important in economic interests where Saudi investments are superior to other Gulf countries. Long and remained more stable than others and contributed to many files, including the file of peace in Darfur and the East and is present in the field of investment and development and therefore with this situation is difficult to sacrifice either side of these two parties long. 

■ Important relations between Sudan and Saudi Arabia did not prevent the rapprochement of Sudan with Turkey and the leasing of Swakin to the government of Erdogan?

■ Security concerns that some international and regional powers can pose make Sudan look for alliances that can find the desired balance. Perhaps the direction towards Russia and Turkey stems from this view. In any case, holding all ropes may not last long. Is bound by extreme choices in its positions with these conflicting axes, and thus sacrificing the least interest to Sudan