Opposition claims "good entertainment", gov't says

The Eritrean government has dismissed claims by an opposition alliance that it has a military wing aimed at toppling President Isayas Afewerki as "good entertainment".

Hiruy Tedla Bairu, the secretary-general of the Eritrean National Alliance (ENA) - which is made up of 13 opposition groups - said last week that a single military force had been set up which would target "institutional centres" connected to the government, such as the radio and television centres.

But Eritrea's acting Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed described the ENA - which is backed by Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen - as "lifeless and non-existent".

"We don't bother to respond to non-existent people," he told IRIN on Monday. "As far as we are concerned, this is good entertainment."

Hiruy said the ENA's decision to set up an armed force had been reached in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, and he claimed that military training for the force was underway inside Eritrea. Ali Abdu again dismissed this claim as "entertainment".

Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il again accused Eritrea of helping a rebel movement, known as the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), in the western state of Darfur - charges strongly denied by Ali Abdu. Human rights groups have accused the Khartoum government of arming nomadic Arab tribes against indigenous agricultural groups in the region. The SLA is made up of the indigenous communities.

"This [allegation] is totally baseless," Ali Abdu told IRIN. "This is their [Sudan's] usual way of trying to find a scapegoat for their failures. It has no foundation. They should try to find a political solution to their problems."

He also denied allegations by Isma'il that Eritrea had set up training camps for Sudanese and Ethiopian opposition groups.