Eritrea. Mazzanti to the government: “It ‘a rogue state? Pick up location “

Claudio Mazzanti_corona bay blue

Bologna, July 8 – “Now someone has to answer because I see the contradictions.” Claudio Mazzanti, the municipal council of Bologna Democratic Party, addresses the government led by his secretary and which includes many of his fellow party members. It does matter on Eritrea, after last weekend the city of Two towers is over the center of the battle between the Asmara government of Isaias Afewerki and the opposition Coordination of Democratic Eritrea.

The question buzzing in the head Mazzanti (but not limited to him) is this: the Eritrean government is a brutal dictatorship, a “rogue state”, or is a friendly government with whom we collaborate? On the one hand there is what tells Amnesty International (and also reaffirms that the Eritrean opposition) and that is a dictatorship that exists in the country from which escape every month between 2 and 3 thousand young people; As stated by the other deputy foreign minister, the exponent Pd (former chief foreign) Lapo Pistelli, that less than seven days ago he met with President Afewerki to “boost bilateral relations” firm since 1997.

Just a few days in which to Bologna began coordinating the mobilization of Democratic Eritrea against the festival, Pistelli was in the Horn of Africa and met, on behalf of Italy and the entire European Union, the President Afewerki. For this Mazzanti judges wrong “Bologna download all the contradictions that there are international recognition of a state.” “I wonder – adds the director democratic – if the Chinese community throws a party if you face the same problem.”

Questions are not trivial, those Mazzanti, especially in light of the events of recent days, with the alleged aggression by Eritrea against two of his Democratic activists and accidents on Saturdayduring the defense of the opposition in the entrance side of North Park.

Mazzanti, a life in the Communist Party, recalls how in the second half of the seventies the Italian Communist Party had chosen to support the struggle of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, also in opposition to the USSR. During the struggle for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia, the government in Addis Ababa became a republic supported by the Soviet Union. “The Italian Communist Party decided to support – remember Mazzanti – Eritrea despite Russia and Cuba they supported Ethiopia.” “We did the fundraiser – remember Mazzanti – and we helped them to make the festival in Bologna with which to raise money to finance the armed struggle.”

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“We knew by now that Amnesty beyond the situation has changed – Mazzanti presses – and I do not believe, as some say, that Amnesty is paid by the CIA.” “If it is a rogue state – the counselor asks – why is not deleted from the international relations as it does with rogue states? If it is not, it is to say. “Mazzanti, for many years chairman of the district Navile, one of the areas where most of the city has established the Eritrean community, together with the current president Daniel Ara were the liaison between the community and the company Eritrean citizen who rented the park north . “We have excellent relations with all communities historically settled in Bologna,” recalls Mazzanti, which together with Ara and all the representatives of his party chose not to participate in the Festival despite being invited.

Mazzanti has known the Eritrean President Afewerki during a visit to Bologna during the war of independence. “And I am not surprised by what happened,” the reference is to the coup by which, September 18, 2001, Afewerki has taken control of the government doing to stop the 15 Ministers and establishing, as opponents say, a “fsscista dictatorship. “It is not surprised Mazzanti, who thinks Soviet Russia (“Stalin killed all the leaders of the October Revolution?”) And China (“How many of those who made ​​the revolution, the Long March, were purged and then eliminated?). “Nothing new” gloss Mazzanti.