National Assembly session underway

A long-awaited session of the Eritrean National Assembly began on Tuesday morning with several important issues on its agenda. Eritrean radio said discussions at the 14th national assembly meeting would include issues of peace and sovereignty, defence against Ethiopian "aggression", the draft bill on political parties and organisations, the bill on elections, the press and the national budget for 2002. In an opening address, President Isayas Afewerki, as chairman of the National Assembly, said that "although the weyane [Ethiopian] army was supposed to withdraw from sovereign Eritrean territory in line with the peace agreement signed in December 2000, it has not done so". "The proposed Temporary Security Zone could not be set up and tens of thousands of people could not return to their homes," the radio quoted him as saying. "Because of this, it cannot be said the first agreement on the cessation of hostilities has been implemented." However, he said, "because of the goodwill shown by Eritrea and the correct path it followed", the year 2001 "witnessed relative peace". Ethiopia and Eritrea, which went to war over a border dispute in May 1998, signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in June 2000, which was followed by a comprehensive peace accord signed in Algiers in December the same year. On next month's border ruling by the Boundary Commission in The Hague, Isayas said Eritrea expected the decision to be based on colonial treaties in accordance with the Algiers peace agreement. The National Assembly meeting comes against the backdrop of political dissension in the country, with 11 dissidents of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) in detention and the private press banned. The last session was held in September 2000, and analysts point out the current meeting is long overdue. Parliamentary elections, due in December 2001, were put on hold as no National Assembly session had been held to ratify the electoral law and the law on political pluralism. See also IRIN Focus on impending National Assembly session at www.irinnews.org/report.asp ReportID=19172&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa