The
Eritrean capital, Asmara, saw an uprising on 21 January that was both
unexpected and short-lived. Around 100 soldiers staged a mutiny and stormed the
information ministry. The army responded by surrounding the building with
tanks. After a 12-hour interruption, the state broadcast media resumed their
normal programming, the mutineers withdrew and officials went home.
What really
happened that day at the information ministry? Some information began to filter
out the next day, and more has emerged since then. But it has not been easy to
follow events as they happened. And establishing what this incident means and
what it may bode for the future is even harder.
Eritrea is
one of the world’s most closed countries and has one of the last totalitarian
dictatorships. The mystery surrounding the events of 21 January and the chorus
of denials and contradictory comments on social networks are the logical
consequence of a situation in which privately-owned media have been banned
since 2001 and no foreign press correspondents have been permitted since 2010.
This Horn
of Africa country is ranked last in the Reporters without Borders press freedom
index and is Africa’s biggest prison for journalists, with at least 30
detained. Seven have died or committed suicide in detention as a result of the
appalling conditions.
When the
only media allowed to operate inside a country are government-run propaganda
mouthpieces, the exile media play a key role. This is the case with Radio
Erena, an independent radio station based in Paris and supported by Reporters
Without Borders. It was Radio Erena that sounded the alert. We will get back to
this. First the facts.
Mutineers
take “Forto,” state media interrupted
Early on
the morning of 21 January, around 100 mutineers took up positions in the
information ministry, an enormous ochre-coloured building known as “Forto,”
which sits atop a small hill overlooking Asmara.
The rebel
soldiers quickly gathered all the employees “in the same room” and then
Asmelash Abreha, the head of state-owned Eri-TV, which broadcasts from within
the complex, was forced to begin reading a communiqué on the air.
The
communiqué called for implementation of the 1997 constitution, which has been
suspended since the 1998-2000 war against Ethiopia, and for the release of
political prisoners and all those who were arrested while trying to flee the
country illegally across its land borders.
After he
had read the first two sentences, the TV station’s over-the-air signal was
suddenly cut and its satellite signal began broadcasting archive footage. Army
tanks quickly surrounded the building. They also reportedly took up protective
positions at the presidential palace, located just a few hundred metres away,
and at the airport. The rest of the city apparently remained calm but
communication with the outside world became very complicated.
“Snowing in
Paris”
After being
off the air all day, Eri-TV resumed broadcasting at around 10 p.m. with news
from Europe. “Snow in Paris is disrupting the everyday activities of the
French,” the news programme announced. The mutineers withdrew in the evening,
and the information ministry’s 500 or so employees all went home. The next
morning they were all back at work, as usual.
The 1993
precedent
According
to reports from various sources, including the opposition exile website Awate.com,
it seems that the mutiny was led by four people – Col. Saleh Osman, two majors
and a captain – but was spontaneous and not very organized. Col Osman was a
hero of the anti-Ethiopian resistance in the port city of Assab during the
1998-2000 war.
What
happened to the mutineers and how was the situation resolved? The authorities
did not make any arrests. “The mutineers withdrew peacefully,” said journalist
Léonard Vincent, the author of a book about Eritrea, speaking on Radio France
Internationale. In fact, not a single shot was fired.
An Eritrean
interviewed by Reporters Without Borders and Martin Plaut, in a post entitled
“21 January in perspective” on his blog, both said the incident resembled one
in 1993, a few days before Eritrea’s independence declaration, when a few
ex-fighters staged a brief mutiny to demand their back pay.
To this
end, they surrounded the office of the future president, Issaias Afeworki, then
a hero of the liberation and head of the single party, the People’s Front for
Democracy and Justice. The situation was quickly resolved by means of
negotiation, but some of the ex-fighters were later arrested or disappeared.
But never
since independence in 1993 has Eri-TV’s programming been interrupted as it was
on 21 January.
After
official silence, comments, spin and denial
Although
just embryonic and ephemeral, this week’s uprising quickly drew the attention
of the international community, foreign media and Eritrean diaspora because
Eritrea is an extremely authoritarian country where fear is universal and any
form of protest seems inconceivable.
At first
there was complete silence from the government. The first official comment came
the next day from Yemane Gebremeskel, the president’s senior adviser, who said:
“All is calm today, as it was indeed yesterday.”
Comments
followed from a few Eritrean officials based abroad, including the ambassador
to the United Nations, Araya Desta; the ambassador to the African Union, Girma
Asmerom; the ambassador to Japan; and the consuls in Australia and South
Africa. All played down the incident and criticized “garbage reports” in
foreign media in the pay of “Eritrea’s enemies.”
“The
government is insisting that the situation is under control while reluctantly
admitting that there was an incident,” Léonard Vincent wrote.
Meanwhile,
the exile opposition and government supporters waged a furious battle on social
networks. Rahel Weldeab, who works for the pro-government National Union of
Eritrean Youth and Students, tweeted: “People in Asmara are going about their
daily lives while ‘experts on the Horn’ cry coup (…) I live right near the airport,
nothing is happening.”
Another
person on Twitter criticized the comments about the human rights situation in
Eritrea and said that freedom of information was respected because journalism
is taught at school. The exact message says : "And you can be a journalist
in Eritrea. They even teach journalism in school. I don’t know wtf you talking
about".
Radio
Erena, first with the news
Amanuel
Ghirmai, an Eritrean exile journalist with Radio Erena, was extensively quoted
by all the international news media on 21 January. Throughout the day,
international media turned to the Paris-based independent radio station to find
out what was happening in Asmara.
And for
good reason. Radio Erena was the first radio station to report that an incident
was unfolding in the Eritrean capital. Alerted early in the morning, the
station took to the air at 9 a.m. (Paris time), an hour earlier than usual, and
continued to follow events as they happened.
With
support from Reporters Without Borders, Radio Erena was launched in June 2009
by a group of Eritrean exile journalists. Headed by Biniam Simon, a former
Eri-TV star anchor, it relies on a network of local correspondents and contributors.
Its independently-reported news and information provide an alternative to the
government’s propaganda.
Because of
its success and the quality of its programmes, Radio Erena quickly became a
government target. Its satellite signal was jammed and its website was the
victim of a cyber-attack last summer, after it had been broadcasting for three
years.
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