Opposition groups planning "government-in-exile"

Eritrean opposition groups, currently meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, are planning to set up a government-in-exile, sources at the meeting told IRIN on Tuesday. Some 25 delegates from 14 organisations are gathered together under the umbrella group, the Alliance of Eritrean National Forces (AENF). They say they are arranging to hold a "national conference". “The aim of the conference is simple," one source said. "It is to set up a government-in-exile and run it as a government until we are in a position to replace [President] Isayas [Afewerki].” Among the key delegates is a prominent opposition figure, Hiruy Tedla Bairu, the son of Eritrea's first head of state during the federation with Ethiopia. He is being tipped to take up the role of executive secretary of the opposition group. He is also the founder of a new opposition movement, the Eritrean Cooperative Party. The main aims are to “sensitise the population to a change in regime and to mobilise the armed forces behind them”, the source said. “We are trying to mobilise ourselves now because we think the situation has got so dire," he added. "We want international support and feel that it will come.” Eritrean government sources told IRIN on Tuesday the meeting was a "non-starter". "It has no significance in Eritrea, neither for Eritreans," they said. Earlier, the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) said the AENF was "throwing itself openly into the arms" of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the dominant party in Ethiopia's ruling coalition. And it 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". 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".