MARTIN PLAUT, Senior Research Fellow, Horn of Africa and Southern Africa, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study THERE are few leaders as enigmatic as Eritrea’s president, Isaias Afwerki. In my book, Understanding Eritrea: Inside Africa’s Most Repressive State, I profile the president who led the country as it fought for its freedom from Ethiopia for 30 years, only to then turn on his own people. Eritrea has been independent since 1993 but has no constitution and no parliament. No budget has ever been published. Elections have never been held and Isaias’s opponents languish in jail. The president is…