Ruling party slams Eritrean opposition meeting in Ethiopia

Eritrea's ruling party has criticised the planned convening of an Eritrean opposition conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The Shaebia website - mouthpiece of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) - accused the opposition Alliance of Eritrean National Forces (AENF) of "throwing itself openly into the arms" of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the dominant party in Ethiopia's ruling coalition. The AENF - which includes several exiled groups - was established in 1999. According to its charter, it says it "will use all necessary means to overthrow the regime of People's Front [for Democracy and Justice]" and set up a "government of national unity". An Eritrean opposition website, Awate, said the conference - which should have taken place in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum - would be held on 2 October in Addis Ababa. Awate noted that a prominent Eritrean opposition figure, Hiruy Tedla, the son of Eritrea's first head of state during the federation with Ethiopia, was currently in Addis Ababa in a "consultative role". In an interview with the pro-Ethiopian government Walta Information Centre, Hiruy - who has founded a new opposition group known as the Eritrean Cooperative Party - condemned the current authorities in Asmara. "President Isayas [Afewerki] is there because the opposition is weak, not because he is strong," he claimed. But the PFDJ accused the TPLF of "working tirelessly to put together a united front of frustrated and isolated Eritreans with a view to overthrowing the Eritrean government". "Its policy of continuing the war by proxy will add to the suffering of the people of Eritrea and Ethiopia," the PFDJ added. The two countries fought a bitter two-year war which broke out over a border dispute in 1998. There has been a tenuous peace since the signing of a peace accord in December 2000 and a border ruling issued by an independent commission earlier this year.