By Alex Last Former BBC correspondent in Asmara

Promise of independence is failing Eritrea's children

Celebrations are under way for the 10th anniversary of Eritrean independence on Saturday, but many of the original leaders of the liberation movement will not be there.

Nor are there any private newspapers to report the event.

In September 2001, in the aftermath of a second war with Ethiopia, the government arrested prominent critics, men who had been comrades in arms for decades, leaders of the liberation movement which won independence from Ethiopia after a 30-year year war.

The moves caused deep divisions within Eritrean society, both at home and abroad.

The eleven who were arrested have not been seen since.

Their arrest was quickly followed by the government's closure of Eritrea's private press, and the detention of leading journalists.

All remain in prison without charge.

'Traitors'

Their supporters say they were detained for criticising the President, Isaias Afewerki, and calling for democratic reform, in the aftermath of Eritrea's second, more recent, war with Ethiopia.

Questions about their fate and the political future in Eritrea remain.

Speaking to the BBC, the Eritrean president said those who were detained were traitors to the country.

"These are not politicians, these are people who have betrayed their nation in difficult times," he said.

"When war breaks out, when the top general declares surrender - what do you do with that?

"When people work for foreign governments paid or not paid, that's not politics, that's treason."

Call for reform

The Eritrean president maintains that his former comrades had been, in old revolutionary language, "defeatist" during the last phase of the recent war, when Ethiopian troops occupied a third of the country.

In reality, divisions within the leadership came to a head over how to stop Ethiopia, both militarily and diplomatically.

Differences became so great towards the end of the war, that the president feared his former comrades would remove him from power.

Instead his opponents opted to call for reform, not a coup. A year later they were detained, their fate still unknown.

Until the war in 1998, Eritrea had developed at a remarkable rate, but long term concerns have yet to be resolved.

The post-independence, democratic constitution has not been implemented, the economy is stagnant, and the huge Eritrean army fed by conscription waits to be demobilised.

Peace is not guaranteed - the president says it will all happen in time.