From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu May 21 2009 - 08:24:56 EDT
http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2009/05/21/eritrean-passions/
May 21st, 2009
Eritrean passions
Posted by: Andrew Cawthorne
I hesitate to blog again on Eritrea, given some of the vitriol that greeted
a post last year. For some, Reuters was an apologist and mouthpiece for
Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki, simply for interviewing him in May 2008.
For others, we were doing the CIA’s work by taking some awkward lines of
questioning to Asmara.
The passion on both sides reminded me of the torrent of deeply felt
responses I used to receive when reporting on Fidel Castro from Cuba between
1998 and 2002.
Yet here I am again in Asmara, in May 2009, fresh from another lengthy
interview with Eritrea’s ever-controversial leader. Whereas last year, he
was quite formal with me, this time he was much more relaxed as we sat down
for several hours in the colonial-era presidential palace, even poking fun
before the interview at my old-fashioned tape-recorder.
We politely discussed hiking before getting down to business.
I questioned the president closely on plenty of issues, including Eritrea’s
economic prospects and his views on various hot issues around the region. I
was also able to discuss some of President Isaias’ life philosophy and
thoughts on the past and future. Before I mentioned them, he anticipated
inevitable questions on human rights and his own political longevity, saying
he was used to visiting journalists raising such questions due to
‘misinformation’ from outside.
The interview was one of two dozen or so Eritrea’s leader has given in
recent days in the run-up to Independence Day, mainly to African and Arab
media. Eritrea feels it gets a raw deal in the international arena, and
especially from the Western media. The marathon of interviews was an attempt
to redress that.
I must have asked 20 or so questions over a 2 ½-hour period. Soon they’ll be
playing the interview on state media here.
I’ll probably avoid looking at my emails for a few days.
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