Where do all the Groundless Charges against Eritrea Emanate from?

Flagrant campaigns and tenuous fabrications linking Eritrea with al-Shabaab and other extremist factions have continually been in the spotlight against the people and Government of Eritrea. The justification that these baseless accusations could have stemmed from lack of knowledge of the exalted Eritrean history and the lofty tenets and values of its trailblazer Front is tantamount to simplicity. Needless to say, it is self-evident that anti-Eritrea forces are building up these trumped-up charges in an attempt to preclude the challenges by this sole state in the Horn region against erroneous and adventurous policies, as well as to cover up fiascos.

Terrorism, as an international agenda, began to be hyped mainly in the wake of 9/11. The Eritrean people, however, has waged war on terrorism since the days of liberation struggle in the mid 1980s. As terrorist Osama bin Laden and his organization al-Qaeda together with other fundamentalist groups took roots in the Horn of Africa, if there had been any nation that they had first homed in on labeling as an ‘atheist’ in the region, it is Eritrea. Hence, the Eritrean people, free from propaganda campaigns and interest-oriented alliances, has been compelled to single-handedly pay dear sacrifice in the fight against terrorism.

It is only paradox to history to hear parties that nurtured al-Qaeda and other fanatic elements in the 1980s defile Eritrea’s good name linking it to al-Shabaab and the like. It remains common knowledge that the United States established, armed and sponsored terrorist factions in Afghanistan in order that they could carry out acts of terror in the USSR. Asked whether the United States had concerns if the fundamentalists it was arming could represent world menace in the future, the then U.S. National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezniski, condescendingly responded: “What is most important to the history of the world? The danger a handful schizophrenic Islamists could cause or the collapse of the Soviet empire?” Indeed, it didn’t take long for the U.S. itself to take the self-induced strain. Consequently, the United States, posing as a torchbearer in the ‘war on terrorism’ since the mid 1990s, but especially after 9/11, has at the price of innocent peoples all over the world and in consort with subservient states that manipulate terrorism for political prostitution dwelt upon fomenting global chaos merely for hegemonist gains. Thus, despite the Government’s disapproval to the United States’ self-defeating erroneous adventurism, tarnishing the image of the Eritrean people, who paid huge sacrifice for regional peace and stability, simply amounts to absurdity.

But how are these trumped-up charges against Eritrea’s good reputation being fabricated and publicized? Forthcoming article shall deal with the matrix of such manufacturing.