ERITREA: Custom not trumping law, there's no rule of law
Opinion
Berhane M Tekeste
11 june 2007
There is a story being disseminated by Reuters and making its way slowly but surely into the international media under the headline "Eritrea: Custom trumps law or custom stronger than law" involving female circumcision ban imposed arbitrarily in April by the interim governmental authorities in Eritrea. That is all completely misleading and disrespectful of the people of Eritrea.
The people of Eritrea are the most law-abiding and peace-loving human beings even while under over a century of colonialism, occupation and subjugation by foreigners that even a cursory review of history will attest beyond any doubt, let alone at time of peace. It is, therefore, utterly wrong, disrespectful and unfair to accuse Eritreans of not being restrained by law as implied by Reuters' headliners.
Such a headliner is also misleading because there is no rule of law in Eritrea in the first place. And where is there is no rule of law, it is preposterous to speak of people not being restrained by law? What we have in Eritrea is rule by the barrel of the gun for where else does a one-man, one-party government draw its authority when the national constitution has been furloughed for now 10 years, democracy has been publicly declared luxury item, dissent and hence political opposition is treasonous, justice is imaginary, rule of law is taboo, press freedom outlawed, right of appeal blasphemous and parliament is a wishful thinking, but from the barrel of the gun?
Under such repressive and oppressive rule, all and every prohibitive measures taken/proclaimed in whatever form by the interim governmental authorities in Eritrea are rightly perceived by the people as arbitrary dictates of the military rule not as the will and wishes of the people regardless of purpose and intent.
The people of Eritrea, like all other peoples, can only handle so much of dictatorship and tyranny. But when all that comes to denying them of what they are entitled to constitutionally and what makes them who they are as people, like age-old beliefs and cultural heritages, arbitrary changes by the barrel of the gun won't be accepted; Eritreans won't take it without resistance, passive or otherwise, should it come to that point.
In Eritrea, the resistance against female circumcision ban is much less about the issue in and of itself but more of the ban being imposed on them without their consent or right to appeal, because even the most elementary way of expressing their consent, like parliament, congress, or house of representative is non-existent.
The people of Eritrea are not at all averse to custom and/or cultural changes that become imperative in order to adapt to changing societal dynamics, by law or otherwise, as long it is done the right way because it involves constitutionally guaranteed rights. So, in Eritrea, it is not the custom defying, trumping or being stronger than the law; there is simply no rule of law. The ban is illegal. In Eritrea, the president, Esayas Afewerki, is the law.
Author can be reached at bmtekeste@yahoo.com
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