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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

ERITREA: Opposition alliance says it has military wing

ADDIS ABABA, 1 May 2003 (IRIN) - The opposition Eritrean National Alliance (ENA) says it has set up a military wing aimed at bringing down President Isayas Afewerki.

General Secretary Hiruy Tedla Bairu told IRIN the 13 opposition groups that make up the ENA had agreed to set up a single military force at a key meeting in Khartoum early last month.

He added that after a period of at least two months' training inside Eritrea, the military unit would then look at targeting “institutional centres” connected with the government.

“It is not going to be against individuals, it is not going to be used against personnel, but things like institutions and the economy,” Hiruy said. “Like for example the television and radio centres.”

“Our strategy is to build an army capable of giving a good left hook whenever that possibility is available to us,” added Hiruy, the son of Eritrea's first leader under the federation with Ethiopia.

“By establishing a military arm we also make it possible for the opposition forces within the army itself to join us,” he said.

He also revealed that the ENA was receiving funds from Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen. The ENA has set up headquarters in both Addis Ababa and Khartoum.

But he insisted that the support from each government was not in the shape of military equipment. The ENA has been criticised from within its own organisation for being too close to Ethiopia and Sudan.

He also denied that the ENA was a puppet organisation of the three countries, described by Eritrea as an "axis of belligerence".

The ENA was first set up in October last year when it denied it would use military force to achieve its aims. But Hiruy now says elements from various armed factions of the 13 opposition groups are united under one banner.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

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