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Martin Plaut | |
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| Born | May 1950  |
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| Occupation | Journalist |
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Martin Plaut (born 1950) is a journalist and academic specialising in conflicts in Africa, especially the Horn of Africa. [1] He worked as a BBC News journalist from 1984 to 2012 and is a member of Chatham House. [1] [2] As of 2019 [update] , Plaut was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London. [3]
Martin Plaut was born in May 1950 in Cape Town, South Africa, to a furniture designer father and an artist mother. Plaut attended Cape Town High School and worked in his father's shop in Cape Town from 1969 to 1973. He obtained a degree in social science from the University of Cape Town, where he also particpiated in the sit-in during the Mafeje affair in 1968. [4] He obtained an honours degree in industrial relations from the University of Witwatersrand, and in 1977 finished a master of arts degree at the University of Warwick. Plaut joined National Union of South African Students while studying. [1]
Plaut joined the British Labour Party. He held senior roles in the party, connecting it with the internal resistance to the South African apartheid system. Plaut resisted the wish by the African National Congress (ANC) to be considered the "sole legitimate representative" of South Africans, since other major resistance groups, including the Pan Africanist Congress were recognised as legitimate by the Labour Party. The ANC unsuccessfully pressured the Labour Party to sack Plaut. [1]
Plaut worked for two years as an associate fellow at Chatham House, leading research into Africa, afterwards remaining a member. [1]
Plaut joined the BBC in 1984, reporting mainly on the Horn of Africa and southern Africa, and parts of West Africa. He became the Africa editor for BBC World Service News. [1] Plaut was based in London, typically visiting Africa 3–4 times a year. In December 2007 he covered the Christmas massacre in Niangara by the Lord's Resistance Army. After visiting the site of the massacre, conducting an interview and safely returning to a safer location, he had difficulties explaining to editors in London that revisiting the scene to refilm in a way preferred by editors was impossible. [5] Plaut retired from the BBC in 2012. [2]
In 2017, Plaut described Eritrea as a "mafia state", in the sense that Constitution of Eritrea was written and ratified but not implemented; there had not been any elections since independence; Eritrea had "no annual budget"; and Eritrea was effectively ruled in an "arbitrary and personal" way by president Isaias Afwerki together with senior military officers and officials from the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ). Plaut stated that mafia-like characteristics included Isaias controlling Eritrea "with ruthless efficiency", controlling Eritreans abroad by threats and intimidation, and Eritrea having a "covert network of illegal activities" run by close colleagues of Isaias, acting "more like a Mafia don enforcing his will than a legitimate head of state". Plaut attributed the mafia-like nature of the Eritrean state in 2017 to the historical role of the Eritrean People's Revolutionary Party, a Leninist party that secretly controlled the much broader Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the fight for independence. The major illegal activities listed by Plaut included human trafficking; a covert parallel economy in hard currency, dominated by a 2% Rehabilitation Tax on the Eritrean diaspora; and surveillance and intimidation of the Eritrean diaspora. [6]
In 2017, Plaut argued that the quality of reporting on African conflicts by Western media had worsened due to budget drops, fewer correspondents in Africa, and difficulties in persuading editors to fund journalists' travel to Africa. He stated that careful preparation and having a strong support team, as was his case at the BBC, is "essential for a successful assignment". [2]
As of 2019 [update] , Plaut was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London. [3]
Plaut has published several books on his studies of African wars and politics, and observations of areas of London.
When interviewed by Amnesty International in 2019, Plaut stated that he had been harassed by PFDJ members and supporters several times. At a 3 February 2014 University of London conference, Plaut was shouted at and accused of taking bribes by the First Secretary of the Eritrean embassy. On 30 November 2018, he was lured into a meeting at a café in London, splashed with a bucketful of liquid and filmed by the attacker and other Eritreans, who called Plaut a "traitor". The attacker was prosecuted. [3]
The politics of Eritrea and the government of Eritrea take place in the framework of a single-party presidential republican totalitarian dictatorship. The President officially serves as both head of state and head of government. The People's Front for Democracy and Justice is the only political party legally permitted to exist in Eritrea. The popularly elected National Assembly of 150 seats, formed in 1993 shortly after independence from Ethiopia, elected the current president, Isaias Afwerki. There have been no general elections since its official independence in 1993. A new constitution was drafted in 1993 and ratified in 1997, but has not been implemented. Since the National Assembly last met in January 2002, President Isaias Afwerki has exercised the powers of both the executive and legislative branches of government.
Isaias Afwerki is an Eritrean politician and partisan who has been the first and only president of Eritrea since 1993. In addition to being president, Isaias has been the chairman of Eritrea's sole legal political party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).
The Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), colloquially known as Shabia or HGDEF, was an armed Marxist–Leninist organization that fought for the independence of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It emerged in 1973 as a far-left to left-wing nationalist group that split from the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). After achieving Eritrean independence in 1991, it transformed into the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which serves as Eritrea's sole legal political party.
There have not been national elections in Eritrea since independence in 1993. In theory, elections choose representatives from the country's six regions for the National Assembly. Elections would also occur to elect representatives for the country's regional assemblies and other posts within the country's districts. However, local elections have been regularly held in the past. Eritrea was the least electoral democracy in Africa in 2023 according to V-Dem Democracy indices with a score of 0.073 out of 1.
The Eritrean–Ethiopian War, also known as the Badme War, was a major armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that took place from May 1998 to June 2000.
William Philip Schreiner was a South African barrister and politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1898 to 1900, during the Second Boer War.
The National Assembly of the State of Eritrea has 150 members, 75 members appointed and 75 members representing the members of the Central Committee of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), the sole legal political party of Eritrea. According to the IPU, the National Assembly has 150 indirectly elected members. The National Assembly was composed in 1994, and its meeting place is located in Asmara.
Aster Fissehatsion was an Eritrean politician and an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience. She is the former wife of former vice-president of Eritrea, Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo.
Abdullah Abdurahman was a South African politician and physician, born in Wellington, Cape Colony. He was the first Coloured city councillor of Cape Town, and the first ever Coloured South African to win election to a public body. He led the anti-segregationist movement African Political Organization established in 1902.
The Eritrean Army is the main branch of the Eritrean Defence Forces and is one of the largest armies in Africa. The main role of the army in Eritrea is defense from external aggressors, border security, and developing national cohesion. Historically, the predecessor of the Eritrean Army, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), played a major role in establishing and defending the country's independence from Ethiopia in 1991 during the Eritrean War of Independence. Since then, the army has continued to be involved in low-level border conflicts with Ethiopia and several other neighbors, including Djibouti and Yemen, with the most notable one being the Ethiopian-Eritrean War from 1998 until 2000, which ended in a partial Ethiopian military victory and Eritrean boundary line victory. It is widely regarded as one of the largest and more capable armies in Africa, despite the country having a smaller population than most of its neighbors with around 250,000 to 300,000 personnel due to mandatory national service. Conscription became open ended since the war with Ethiopia and no demobilization has taken place.
Eritrean Islamic Jihad, also referred to as the Eritrean Islamic Salvation Movement is an Eritrean Islamist organization and one of several opposition groups that operates in Eritrea and from surrounding countries.
The Constitution of Eritrea is the supreme law of Eritrea. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the State and source of legal authority. It sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of government. Despite its ratification by the legislature, the constitution has yet to be implemented as of 2024.
The Democratic Movement for the Liberation of the Eritrean Kunama is a Kunama political and armed organization active in Eritrea. That advocates for the rights and autonomy of the Kunama people, one of the nine ethnic groups in the country. The group is mainly funded by Eritrean diaspora and is allied with the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organisation.
Corruption in Eritrea is considered a deeply serious and growing problem. The level of corruption used to be considerably lower in Eritrea than in many other African countries. Indeed, it was traditionally viewed as having a “strong ‘anti-corruption’ culture” and considered relatively “egalitarian and corruption-free.” In 2006, a report by Bertelsmann Stiftung stated that corruption, as of that date, was not a serious problem within Eritrea. While noting that there had been “cases of corruption since independence,” they existed on a negligible level, although politically-motivated corruption allegations have been made. But, in fact, corruption is said to have been growing steadily worse ever since 1998, when, not long after the end of its decades-long war of independence, a border conflict with Ethiopia led to another war.
The 2018 Eritrea–Ethiopia summit was a bilateral summit that took place on 8–9 July 2018 in Asmara, Eritrea, between Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and officials from the two countries.
The Tripartite Agreement, officially the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Between Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, is a cooperation agreement signed by the leaders of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia on 5 September 2018. Designed to "promote regional peace and security" in the Horn of Africa, the agreement was signed in Asmara by Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed, Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo) and Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki. The tripartite meeting was followed by tripartite meetings in November 2018 and January 2020.
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