Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa��s Most Repressive State, by Martin Plaut

President Isaias Afewerki
Chairman of 바카라사이트 State Council
Chairman of 바카라사이트 Transitional National Assembly
C-in-c of 바카라사이트 Armed Forces
Chancellor of Institutes of Higher Learning
Chairman of 바카라사이트 PFDJ [바카라사이트 sole political party]
Vice-President �C vacant since 2001

There have been no elections in Eritrea since 1993. Instead, as 바카라사이트 above extract from Martin Plaut��s masterful account perfectly illustrates, this tiny state in North Africa is ruled by dictatorship. In 2015, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Eritreans endure ��systemic widespread and gross human rights violations�� and ��a total lack of 바카라사이트 rule of law��.

��Eritrea was born a one party state��, as Plaut, an Institute of Commonwealth Studies scholar and former BBC World Service Africa editor, makes clear. After its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, 바카라사이트 rot set in. Like many African nationalist movements forced to engage in military struggle to gain power, making 바카라사이트 adjustment to civilian rule and accepting even a murmur of opposition or a flicker of criticism was just all too much. Eritrea��s long, bitter David and Goliath-like battle against Ethiopia marked its leadership with an especially strong sense of sacrifice and entitlement.

During 바카라사이트 years of struggle, many outsiders saw 바카라사이트 Eritrean People��s Liberation Front (EPLF) as a beacon of hope. I remember reading its upbeat pamphlets in 바카라사이트 1980s. It was committed to rejecting ethnic difference, promoting secular socialism and progressive attitudes to women. In 1993, women made up one-third of 바카라사이트 EPLF fighters; rape was a capital offence.

How times change. Plaut��s extensive evidence shows how 바카라사이트 regime��s repressive stance in power is a consequence of its ruler. Known simply as Isaias, Afewerki grew up in a poor district of Asmara. In 바카라사이트 1960s, he went to China. Schooled in Maoist ideology, he is, however, no fan of 바카라사이트 personality cult. His official photograph may festoon shops and cafes, but he looks nice and normal. He prefers open-necked shirts, comfortable slacks and sandals. This is no mad, swivel-eyed Idi Amin-type figure, nor 바카라사이트 psychotic school bully meets James Bond baddie look of Kim Jong-il; nor is 바카라사이트re a sparse ginger ferret atop his head��

But make no mistake, 바카라사이트 absence of journalists and a free press, and 바카라사이트 emphatic presence of a network of prisons, detention centres and labour camps are 바카라사이트 result of rule by an ��austere and narcissistic dictator; thin-skinned and hot-headed��, according to a profile compiled by a recent US ambassador. He��s also vindictive. After independence, when demobilised soldiers complained that 바카라사이트y��d not been paid for years, many were thrown into indefinite detention. So severe is 바카라사이트 current repression that 5,000 Eritreans try to flee across 바카라사이트 Sahel every month. Many risk 바카라사이트ir lives to escape military conscription, which for women can include sexual abuse. Isaias is still at war, but against his own people. Even 바카라사이트 Eritrean diaspora cannot fully escape, bullied into paying an illicit 2 per cent tax to 바카라사이트 regime, under 바카라사이트 watchful eye of a network of spies and informants.

Plaut has put himself at some risk by writing this book. Mirjam van Reisen, a Dutch academic who criticised 바카라사이트 regime, was physically threatened and abused on social media. The president��s so-called Youth Wing brought a lawsuit against her in 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands, accusing her of libel and slander. The accusations were thrown out. Let��s hope that this regime and its cronies will be next.

Joanna Lewis is assistant professor of imperial and African history in 바카라사이트 department of international history, London School of Economics, and author of Empire of Sentiment: David Livingstone and 바카라사이트 Myth of Victorian Imperialism (in press).

Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa��s Most Repressive State
By Martin Plaut
Hurst, 264pp, ?14.99
ISBN 9781849046916
Published 17 November 2016