| | I first visited Asmara to see the ceremony to mark the actual liberation of the city from Ethiopian over-rule in 1991, and again to take part in the formal Independence celebrations in May 1993. Following several visits in the 1990s to observe some of the realisation of the potential after liberation, my last two were troubling occasions: one in late 1998 when the country was becoming more and more entrenched in a needless war with Ethiopia, then in 2001 when the tenth anniversary ceremony of liberation was already tinged with unease following publication of a statement by 15 members of the leadership criticising the direction of policy and political practice. This was followed a few months later by the detention without trial of those 11 of the 15 who were still in the country. There they remain, incommunicado, to this day. |
