Dissident plans to return

One of the three members of the Eritrean opposition group which was in the US when 11 other members of the group were arrested in Eritrea last month, has announced that he will return to Asmara. Mesfin Hagos, a former defence minister, said that he would return to Eritrea despite the fear of arrest, the BBC reported on Wednesday. In an open letter posted on the Asmarino website, Mesfin said he would be returning "as a nationalist and a citizen", but with "the concern that I will lose my liberty". Mesfin, who currently has no travel papers, because his diplomatic passport was withdrawn by the Eritrean government following the arrest of his colleagues, gave no date for his return to Eritrea.

Hagos is one of 15 former senior members of the Eritrean government who were sacked in May after writing an open letter critical of Eritrean President Isayas Aferwerki's style of leadership. In his letter issued this week Hagos launched fresh criticism of Isayas, whom he accused of "becoming an old-fashioned dictator, who reacts to any form of criticism with arbitrary, cruel and excessive measures". Mesfin said his colleagues had been arrested, because "they dared to challenge his dictatorial, unpredictable and arrogant behaviour". Last month Eritrean authorities ordered the indefinite shutdown of the country's independent press, and arrested at least nine of its journalists. Last week the Italian ambassador was expelled from Eritrea.