Yelfiwos Wondaya

Some argue that helping family is good enough for one to be patriotic; they do say that in order to ridicule those who are involved in Ethiopian politics.  Although it is true that helping one’s family is necessary but would not mean necessarily good enough for those who insist on such larger duties in life as politics, philosophy, religion and nation. Naturally, in my life, I have more time and energy for my family than I should have to my country.  Isn’t that natural for any animal on earth to do so?  Therefore, something like lending a hand to one’s family is natural and is always done out of sixth sense.  Isn’t that one of the simple biological factors that we humans do share with the rest of the animal kingdom?  Rather what makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom is his way of organizing nations and systems in an orderly manner.  The manner in which human compassions, understandings and sympathy prevail and accommodate different social and political views and issues.  Besides, disciplines including but not limited, Economics, Politics, criminology, Law, Psychology and religion and so on and so forth are the creations of human beings at some point where human being is found itself @ the center of the universe.  Taken as a whole, we as human beings are the mothers of all inventions.  Nations and politics are the landmarks of our inventions in which older generations have to have some paternal concern to pass on to the young one that comes after them.  So sharing and loving are common compliance to me.  It is indeed good but helping one’s nuclear family and related individuals is not something that you can simply equate with the broader national responsibility that has to do with the characteristic of a nation as a whole. 

Just a thought. 

Yelfiwos Wondaya

(A reply to the self-defeatist camp of Neamin Zeleqe)

By Tsegaye Kassa

Self-defeatist groups are mushrooming in the movement for democracy and liberation of Ethiopia, a country which has been under the throes of an ethno-fascist junta for the last 18 years. There are many Neamin Zeleqes  in our ranks be it by design or by persuasion as the result of the frustrating political situation in Ethiopia. Whoever Neamin Zeleke is and whatever motivation he has, we should judge him only by what he objectively is trying to add to Ethiopia’s problems or possibly contribute to the liberation of Ethiopia from the dictatorship of TPLF-EPRDF.

It seems there is no clear line of thought among some of the “democratic” opposition in Ethiopia as how to deliver the liberation of Ethiopia. As many of us think and do, Ethiopia’s transition to democracy will be realized by only practically engaging ourselves in the struggle. However as long as the movement for liberation of Ethiopia lacks the minimal moral and patriotic restraint to choose the means of struggle, there would be no liberation of a single inch of Ethiopian land from the ethno-fascist TPLF-EPRDF mafia. This being the case let us take some of the points of Mr. Neamin Zeleqe’s absurd scribble that we had to see in some of the Ethiopian websites under the title : “The Imperative for Ethiopians Dealing with Eritrea”. The title of the article mirrors how hopeless and self-defeatist the writer himself is. By extension we cannot see the liberation of Ethiopia if we join hands with such defeatists. At least one would expect some self-respect and love of one’s country.

To the majority of Ethiopians, anything that comes with the help of the Eritrean bandas is counterproductive and directed against the strategic interest of Ethiopia. One wonders why some groups in our community at home and in the wider world fail to see this very basic fact, which in fact should be a primitive physiological reflex to majority of Ethiopians. When any Ethiopian thinks of Eritrea, the only jerk reaction we get is the perception that we have to deal with a region that has seceded itself from it’s motherland and has committed heinous crimes on the Ethiopian population, who had to leave Eritrea after the secessionist rebels took control. The Eritrean secessionist movements deny their African roots and have created a fiction which stands against the true history of the Ethiopia of today. They see the history of Axum as a myth. And the thousands of years Ethiopia contributed to world heritage like Christianity, Islam,  legal norms and customs, music and literature, coins and crowns etc seam for the Eritrean secessionist simply a fugitive of the Ethiopian mind. The secessionist movements in Eritrea were supported by Ethiopians because as we all know we thought the Eritreans were our own people, who were being oppressed by the Ethiopian governments. We were right in protecting and sheltering Eritreans coming to Ethiopia. But the fact is the Eritreans never saw this in a positive perspective. They declared war against Ethiopia in 1998-2000 which was dubbed as a border war. The Eritreans thought the few million dollars of weaponry they had from Egypt and Libya could destroy Ethiopia once and for all from the face of the world. But the world laughed at the fool Eritreans and was surprised by the gallant Ethiopian army, which defeated and literally uprooted the spineless Eritrean army. Such is the bloody relationship between Ethiopia and secessionist movements in Eritrea which have dubbed themselves as a government on the territory that historically belongs to Ethiopia. Such forces of anti-Ethiopia cannot liberate or help the liberation of Ethiopia. Eritrea has backstabbed Ethiopia 1000 and more times. The Alger’s Agreement which give Eritrea a new boundary in contrast to the treaty between Ethiopia and Italy in 1896, the time around which northern part of Ethiopia was declared  a colony of Italy by Italy  and was called “Eritrea”, a crime which Italy committed with the support of England & France. Italy after the Battle of Adwa was given the region called Eritrea as a symbol of reconciliation for the defeated Italian army to use it until they could leave for their home to Italy It was leased to Italy by Emperor Menelik II, whose army defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia and Italy agreed the Mereb River to be the boundary. All the regions south of the Mereb River belong to Ethiopia. It is superfluous to mention the United Nations and the International Community should not recognize such a region, which has been created by blackmailing and sabotage of Ethiopia. Further the UN should recognize the Treaty between Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia and Italy regarding the boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

THE SABOTAGE OF THE ERITREAN SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS AGAINST ETHIOPIA

During the Eritrean secessionist movement, all armed groups were against the Ethiopian Nation. The unsuspecting Ethiopian authorities were treating Eritreans who were living south of the Mereb River equal with other Ethiopians. Both ELF and EPLF and their supporters disseminated anti-Ethiopia propaganda and were in conspiracy with Arab League countries against Ethiopia. Egypt was directly organizing Eritreans who were against unity with Ethiopia. Egypt and other Arab countries provided the secessionist movements with training and logistics. In return the Eritrean secessionist movements were in service of the Arab League’s plan to control the Red Sea – a day dream, which has become impossible because of Israel. The Eritrean secessionist movements exploited the kindness and brotherhood of the Ethiopian population south of the Mereb River. By extending their influence to the Tigrigna language speaking communities of Northern Ethiopia, the Eritrean secessionist movements, spread their venom of regional nationalism. The formation of TPLF was induced or intiatiated by the secessionist movements in Eritrea. ELF was organising and supporting TLF (Tigray Liberation Front) and EPLF supported TPLF. The Eritrean secessionist movements were also spying and sabotaging nation-wide Ethiopian opposition forces like EPRP. EPRP was forced to leave it’s base in Tigray by TPLF and EPLF.
During the armed struggle of TPLF against Mengistu’s regime, the Eritrean secessionist movements, particularly EPLF committed many acts of sabotage such that the armed struggle in Tigray against Mengistu was in jeopardy. EPLF forbade TPLF to pass through Eritrean regions to Sudan. TPLF succeeded to liberate and control north western Ethiopia and had it’s own passage to Sudan. During the armed struggle, EPLF succeded to infiltrate the unsuspecting tigreans. Tigreans of Eritrean origin controlled the leadership of TPLF with the direct and indirect assistance of the Eritrean secessionist movements. Meles Zenawi was made the leader of TPLF by Eritreans who were members of TPLF. Meles Zenawi purged the pro-Ethiopia wing of TPLF. Meles Zenawi and co killed some Ethiopian patriots of Tigray origin, who were members of the leadership of TPLF.

After the down fall of Mengistu’s regime, some units of EPLF marched to Addis Abeba with TPLF-EPRDF.The Eritrean guerrilla fighters that marched to Addis Abeba with TPLF-EPRDF were plundering Ethiopian factories and were transporting them to  Eritrea. They were burning some production depots and factories in the hope of devastating and destroying the Ethiopian economy. Above all the Eritreans were killing and kidnapping Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, who had Ethiopian citizenship and did not want to take the new Eritrean citizenship. Eritreans were being used and still are being used by Egypt, Libya, Europe and other countries to spy over Ethiopia and Ethiopians. The self-appointed government in Asmara was conspiring with the enemies of Ethiopia. Such hatred and animosity of Eritreans was timely recognized and Ethiopians started to take care of their country. Some Ethiopians exposed those Eritreans sabotaging Ethiopia and called the government to take action. For example, the people of Agame in Tigray region stopped all traffic passing to Eritrea and asked the government to stop the plundering of Ethiopian resources by Eritreans.

The regime in Addis Abeba is controlled by Eritreans ( eri-tigreans). Meles Zenawi, Bereket Simon, Sebhat Nega etc are Eritreans. The Shaebya mafia group seems to want to control more of Ethiopia. Issayas Afewarki is waging war by proxy against Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi and co. have made enormous concessions to Issayas Afewarki at the cost of the Tigrean population of Ethiopia in particular and Ethiopia in general. Contrary to popular view, Meles Zenawi and his henchmen are anti-Tigray and specially anti-Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi is destroying Ethiopia in the name of Tigray people. Ethiopians of other regions should be careful in wrongly assessing the situation in Tigray region of Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi and his henchmen have been promoting an anti-Ethiopia and anti-Tigray policy. Zenawi and his Eritrean buddies have sidelined the Tigrean people effectively. Meles Zenawi ordered the murder of General Haylom. Many Ethiopian patriots of Tigray region in TPLF, specially those in the military were killed by Meles Zenawi and his gang. Many generals like General Tsadikan were practically made to resign with threats to their lives and to the lives of their family members. Ethiopians of Tigray region like Seye Abraha, Gebru Asrat and others were expelled from the EPRDF. Seye Abraha spent years in prison for faked up corruption charges. These and other facts show that Meles Zenawi is an Eritrean and is ruling Ethiopia in the name of Tigray.  These statements should not be seen or interpreted to apologize for the people of Tigray. The writer is aware of the historical mistake the political leaders of Tigray had committed. The political leaders in Tigray of Ethiopia should have not accepted the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia  as democratic and legitimate. This is unpardonable and has to be corrected by standing for the reverse of the secession of Eritrea or at least to stand for the boundary of Eritrea to be Mereb Melash (North of the Mereb River). The Tigrean elites of Ethiopia should shoulder their historical responsibility for the current situation in Ethiopia. The region now called Eritrea should be part of Tigray as it has been prior to the arrival and occupation of the region by Italy’s worthless army, an army which was bent to destroy but not to win a single battle. The people of Tigray should voice their opposition to the secession of Eritrea, which has no legal basis for it was decided without due consideration of historical facts. Massawa belongs to Tigray of Ethiopia and tigreans of Ethiopia should demand from and confront the powers that be to get control of their port.

At present Eritrea is actively busy with organizing anti-Tigray and anti-Ethiopia groups. But the sell-out Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega are not taking adequate measures to foil the plot coming from Asmara. As in the past Meles Zenawi will allow Eritrean forces to occupy some parts or the whole of Tigray region of Ethiopia. Besides the Eritrean mafia group under Meles Zenawi and Sebhat Nega is prohibiting non-Tigrean Ethiopians from settling and working in Tigray. Sebhat Nega, Meles Zenawi and his Eritrean henchmen are sabotaging and criminalizing the people of Tigray of Ethiopia. The Eritreans in TPLF, who are controlling TPLF-EPRDF are planning to force the secession of Tigray from Ethiopia. But the heroic people of Tigray are resisting and will have to intensify the struggle to oust the Eritreans in TPLF.

As to Eritrea as a whole, there is awareness in Tigray region of Ethiopia how anti-Ethiopia the self-appointed fascist government of Issayas Afewarki is and has been. Eritrea is arming and training Somalian forces, ONLF and OLF. Eritrea supports categorically only forces that do not accept the ancient history of Ethiopia. Eritrea works day and night to dismember Ethiopia and tries to destabilise Ethiopia by all means. Shaebya of Eritrea are arming the secessionist forces and opposition groups in Ethiopia to overthrow the dictatorial regime of Meles Zenawi. But why is Eritrea then arming and training OLF, ONLF and other opposition groups which do not stand for a united Ethiopia? Those opposition forces, which might stand for a united Ethiopia, are supported only if they are entirely subservient to Eritrea. The sad story of Ethiopians under the umbrella of EPPF is one example to cite. The EPPF leadership is entirely controlled by Eritreans and some in the leadership of EPPF are Eritreans, who are accountable to the self-appointed president of Eritrea. Ginbot 7 will have the same fate if it co-operates or collaborates with Eritrea. It is very disturbing that Ginbot 7 is in bed with Eritrea. The very fact that Ginbot 7 failed to defend the pre-1991 political boundary by collaborating with Eritrea makes Ginbot 7 unreliable. Whether Ginbot 7 is making a tactical rapproachment with Eritrea or not is to be seen. All the same Ginbot 7 has tarnished it’s name and no Ethiopian group will take Ginbot seriously. EPRP and MEISON have no co-operation with Eritrea, which makes them very reliable and patriotic organizations where to Ethiopians can go to wage the struggle for a united and democratic Ethiopia. In general Ethiopian opposition groups should not collaborate or co-operate with Eritrea. Even if Eritrea meant seriously to stand for unity and democracy in Ethiopia, we should not rash to join hands with Eritrea for as we note the history of the secessionist movement, it is against Ethiopia and would take a very fundamental change in Eritrea which has to be imposed from outside. Those opposition groups collaborating with Eritrea should know that they are weakening the struggle of the people of Ethiopia. This in contrast strengthens Meles Zenawi’s grip of power for the people of Ethiopia would distance from forces that collaborate with Eritrea. This does not mean we should not co-operate at all with Eritrea. But as long as Eritrea is anti-Ethiopia and continues to wage the falsification of Ethiopian history, we should see Eritrea as anemey to be dealt with.

If Eritreans have changed their mind and want to rejoin a united and democratic Ethiopia, then they should support forces that struggle for the unity of Ethiopia. If Eritreans have recognized the historical mistake of seceding from their motherland Ethiopia, then they have to make it clear that the secession of Eritrea is wrong and has to be reversed. Until Eritreans reject the position that Ethiopia is and was a colonial master of Eritrea and accept that they are Ethiopians, we cannot co-operate with them because they are part of the problem which Ethiopia has to fight against with all means at her disposal. We could continue discussing about the political situation in our region with Eritreans but to hope to get assistance from Shabya to erect a democratic government in Ethiopia is tantamount to being part of the international conspiracy to dismember Ethiopia.
…………………(to be continued)

SOLUTIONS WITH DEBTERAW, XI Call me by my name, address and title   – July 4, 2009

In the recent past months, there is a simmering movement towards settling scores of politicking between Eritreans and Ethiopians. Such instances are

• Federation vs. Confederation

• A repeat of the slogan for struggle via “Bale or Bole” (EDIAL)

• Formation of a youth league for EPRP

• Crying wolf by the leaders of Shaebia and Woyane for Unity and Power Abdication

• A promise to reveal the existence of the Ark of Covenant by the an Ethiopian Cleric

and so on and so forth…

All the above could be taken as a sign for positive thinking for final arrest to the Eway Revolution.

However, on close analysis, there are very important elements “missing” from these movements.

Scenario one: In the designs of God and in the eyes of men, “all men not women were created equal” Who created Eathiopians? Or alternatively, what is the day or the date for the INDEPENDENCE of Eathiopia? Miazia 27, Meskerem 2, May 24 or July 4? Do we really understand the meaning of Independence, Freedom or Liberty in the context of Eathiopia? Is this enough to be a challenging question? If there was no beginning date for Colonialism, we should not look for one as Independence.

Let us start with July 4, 1776. Was this date and year the Independence Day for America? Was this calendar an adoption or Declaration of Independence? If we know the answer to this question, I hope Eathiopians will come to their senses to talk about arnet or nezanet.አርነት፡ ነፃነት common terminology. Who struggled for what and for whom?

The Eritreans might have mismatched the Italian Colonialism to Ethiopian Colonialism that did not exist. I believe their long struggle was for freedom and liberty and not for Independence. If it was for Independence, it must be an independence from Italy. This should be the topic for reconciliation. Ethiopians should accept the independence of Eritrea and Eritreans in return would accept that their Independence Day was a culmination of European colonialism. This should be the challenging question before moving on to the next movement.

Scenario two: Sports and Entertainment do not seem to be part of these movements. The fact that the soccer players from Eritrea and Ethiopia crisscross in order to avoid each other instead of coming together. This year for instance, Ethiopians are in Chicago, Eritreans are in California and the Oromos will held their own on Atlanta, Georgia.

On the one hand, The Eritrean soccer federation does seem to grasp neither the adoption nor the declaration of Eritrean/American Independence. The Federation was hiding or rather sandwiched between the day of the Martyrs and the day of Family/Religious Festival known as ንግደት. I do not believe that their agenda was and is about sportsmanship. If it is, we have not seen it yet.

While on the other hand, The Ethiopian Sports Federation was/is not participating in the agrarian societies where food is plenty with missing “sportsmanship and comradeship”. The Ethiopian Sports Federation was in a unique position in the sense that political groups, business people and civic communities gather in one place. Unfortunately, a quarter of a century has passed without making significant contributions to either development or cooperation among people of all walks of life from Ethiopia.

Can any one explain this anomaly of our struggle for change and revolution? Art, Entertainment and Sports industry should take center stage for reconciliation and development. Without these three sectors of Industry, little will be accomplished in the case of Eritrea and Ethiopia let alone in the Horn of Africa.

A reminder to all Revolutionaries of Eway Ethiopia

• You were involved in the struggle to bring peace and democracy

• You had the courage to fight for your Rights

• You were imprisoned for your thoughts

• You died for your beliefs and

• You are going to die for your Blue and Red Nation (BRN) but not for your currency (BR)

A message to all anti-Eway Revolution

• Forgive and move on

• Stand for Eathiopia

• Ask questions of why and how

• Differentiate between Tabot and Constitution

Then

• Tell the truth for it will set you free

• Confess to not only to your God but to your fellowmen

• Speak to Power without fear

• Dare to be open to disclose your ID

• Search for the whereabouts of DEBTERAW

Why DEBTERAW?

For DEBTERAW is the one who taught us that

R is for REVOLUTION

Not for RACE

E is for Eritrea and Ethiopia

Not for ETHNICITY

.

That is why we should re-examine the RE as a subject not as a predicate.

In short let us all

TAKE THE HEAT FOR OUR INALIENABLE RIGHTS

LET US TAKE A STAND FOR OUR DEMANDS not dreams

TAKE THE HEAT FOR OUR INALIENABLE RIGHTS

LET US TAKE A STAND FOR OUR DEMANDS

Happy Four to all!!!

woldetewolde@yahoo.com

(In response to “In Lieu of Eritrean & Ethiopian Ties”)

Iskinager – July 2009 at 16:27

Time is the best mid-wife. It gives birth to truth and reality. Eritrean peoples have come to learn the truth in the most painful way. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. The knowledge we acquire retrospectively is sometimes so disturbing that we ask ourselves over and over again, why were we not aware of it in the first place. Why were we so blind not to see the obvious? Why did we make such a grave mistake?

After so many years of denial and self-hypnosis, Eritrean peoples have come at last to the cross road and they are asking the most painful questions in their lives.

• Was thirty years of sacrifice worth an independence devoid of freedom, but not only that, was it necessary to shade so much blood to replace a freedom that was not perfect by an outright slavery?

• Was cohabitation colonialism and occupation as long as Eritrean peoples were freer when they were with Ethiopia than today, as an independent country?

• Were Eritrean peoples used by their elites, by TPLF/woyane, Egypt and the Arabs, for a cause that is not theirs?

• Can Eritrea exist without Ethiopia economically and security wise?

• Can Eritrea afford to have an enemy like Ethiopia or can Ethiopia afford to have an enemy next door?

Unfortunately, there are many painful questions Eritrean peoples and Ethiopians should ask themselves, if they have the slightest sign of logics and rationality left in them, after decades of ignorance and foolishness.

There is a simple and an obligatory answer to all these questions after so many years of sufferings. Eritrea was amputated from Ethiopia forcefully and the best thing to do is to return to its mother Ethiopia. To me Eritrea is the prodigal son and it should be seen as such by all Ethiopians. The other obvious solution is mutual concession on issues that will divide them for ever, i.e. the boarder issue and the issue of Assab. I believe that both solutions will give peace and economic prosperity to Eritrea.

Ethiopians should not close the door on Eritrean peoples, simply because they made the wrong decision. Both people are tied up together by fate, history and our genes. Eritrean elites and TPLF/woyane tried to separate the inseparable. They used all sorts of false issues and the outcome is what we see today, a painful situation both for Eritrean peoples and Ethiopians.

We have a new nostalgia for Ethiopia on the side of many Eritrean peoples, of course, excluding the die-hard anti-Eritrean peoples and ant-Ethiopians. I say die-hard enemies, because a regime and its followers who do not see the plight of its people and where its advantage lies, are deadly enemies to the people they rule and this is what Eritrean peoples saw from the present regime, after so much blood they sacrificed at the alter of the petty god, Issayas Afeworki.

Let the All mighty God give strength both to Eritrean peoples and Ethiopians, to see the reality on the ground, before they destroy each other, a fact that will serve the enemies of the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Arab nations, who want to make the Nile an Arab river, a personal property and do not want to share it with its true owners, the people of Ethiopia.

Amdemikael Mengisteab <amdemikaelmengisteab@yahoo.com>

Background:

For the most part the following critical issues and their analyses in this article are exclusively relevant to understand how the PFDJ regime has been consistently handling the Eritrean and Ethiopian ties since its days as a guerilla fighter front in the bushes.

From the outset, the Eritrean and Ethiopian ties for nearly a century can be considered as links filled with never-ending disruptions; where some segment of the population of every generation has been uprooted before it finishes whatever it has started in terms of progress and cohabitation with each other.

To this very day, those same trends of disruptions and disturbances persistently continue to linger around, with no end to the scene in all aspects of livelihoods. To this effect let me point out key factors that keep on disrupting the internal dynamics within Eritrea and even further affect its lasting ties with Ethiopia.

Eritrean Livelihood:

In Eritrea the euphoria of independence dwindled already right at its inception phase long ago before even it was well grasped by the Eritrean public. Contributing factors to such public frustration, anger and out cry for help and cooperative opposition ventures are so many. Let me only summarize the following obvious reasons. The Eritrean population still lingers with abject poverty subjected to untold tough living situations. Key causes include, but not limited to, (a) protracted land expropriation by Shaabia, (b) endless national service programs exerted on the public, (c) crop expropriation and multitude restrictions of trade on food and other items, and (d) seasonal crop harvest decline due to drought. Needless to say, Afewarki’s regime has passed a decree prohibiting the sale or purchase of grain without government permission. Indeed, it has imposed tight control on consumable items including oil, wheat flour, sugar, and the like; where their prices has increased by nearly 40% for a long while now. What does this mean? For the Eritrean population with meagre or no income sources, the main problem are lack of affordability. Even the rations that were supplied through the so called “fair price shops” have been slashed; or are distributed occasionally. On top of these, just as I write, the energy supply crisis is yet unresolved. In a nutshell, with each day that goes by life is becoming extremely difficult and severe to cop with.

In the end, viewed from Eritrean perspectives, the above accounted challenges provide a reflection of the absence of transparency in terms of PFDJ Regime’s handling of decisive matters pertaining to domestic administration. The end result has become quite astonishing. One observes and hears about thousands of recent arrivals who have joined the Diaspora Eritrean groups. These are young escapees or better identified as the Sawa refugees. Vast majority of them are usually concerned with their daily problems of survival, and wish to forget the harsh life they left behind in Eritrea. Indeed several of them shockingly express extreme emotions about their harsh experience and do not want to be reminded of it, or even of Eritrea itself. This is one of the gloomy features of the current Eritrean reality that promotes serious questions in various corners of the globe with deeper implications for Eritrea’s future.

The Moslem-Christian divide

Actually, the Moslem-Christian divide continues in Eritrea. Frankly speaking, it has not yet given chance for “Eritrean nationalism” to blossom and ripen; the means to unify the two distinct groups remains remote. Each religious group’s manifestations are carried out by adopting defensive identities alien to the other religious group. Recently a Kunama organization has accused Afewarki’s PFDJ regime by calling it as the Tigrinya regime of genocide. Likewise the Afar organization along the Red Sea has accused the ELF and EPLF of genocide and has initiated petition to bring the leadership and cadres of these two guerilla forces in front of the ICC. Periodically, red flags and complaints are continuously popping up everywhere from various minority groups ; and yet we are hiding our heads under the hot sand and keep on denying as if nothing is happening in terms of dismay against Afewarki’s PFDJ-regime. As a matter of fact, Eritrea remains distinctly divided into two opposing religious camps whose culture has been moulded around each according  to one’s religious belief; namely the: ‘Moslem-Christian divide’. The gap dividing the two remains distinctly visible both at the leadership and at the community levels. Even outside Eritrea, each religious group living in Diaspora maintains its own distinct habitation and association separately. The depth of the Moslem-Christian divide’ is so severe that the two religious groups have nothing to do with one another as there is nothing in between to hold them together. On a more serious note, the Moslem Eritrean group looks towards Islam and towards the Arab world for its likely change and progress while the Christian group looks towards the sophisticated and the capitalist Western world for its ideological inclinations. Given these two conflicting or contradictory life styles within today’s Eritrea, it makes one wonder why then these two groups even want to live under one roof. And if the nominal marriage of convenience between the Moslem-Christian groups hasn’t worked for the last 6-decades, why do Issayas Afewarki and his PFDJ regime’s cronies expect the Moslem-Christian divide to disappear on its own? Evidently, it is clearly visible as the Moslem group is more pulled towards the Moslem neighbouring communities in the Arab world while the Christian group is ambivalently caught-up with choosing side – either to adjoin itself with its Christian neighbours inside Ethiopia; or remaining aloof by its own for other circumstantial reasons that I cannot dwell on at this moment. In any case, Shaabia / PFDJ regime’s suppression of the Moslem-Christian divide cooking in a pressure cooker for so long is still pretending to tell the wide world that such a problem doesn’t exist within Eritrea; and doesn’t want to resolve it either.

Romanticizing Eritrean Liberation Struggle:

Viewed from Eritrean perspectives, in what follows, I will provide a reflection of the absence of transparency in terms of Eritrean Regime’s handling of decisive matters in lieu of the standing and the obvious Eritrean and Ethiopian ties.

For the Eritrean youth in particular, the 1961-1991 (or the 30 years) skirmishes between Eritrea and Ethiopia are propagated as: “liberating the Eritrean land and people from Ethiopian colonial occupation.” If that was truly the case, let us then ask ourselves the following: didn’t Eritrean populations possess directly their own rural and urban lands within Eritrea proper when we were in unity with Ethiopia in the period ranging between 1961 and 1991? Were there any Ethiopian landlords in Eritrea at that period at all? On the contrary, weren’t many of the Eritrean elite groups enjoying access to and ownership of all types of resources (including land, senior government positions, business firms and other assets) inside Ethiopia? The naked response to this question is that the Eritrean people were directly in ownership of their land better during the so called “1961-1991 Ethiopian colonial occupation” than they are presently having access to and ownership of it under Issayas Afewarki. If liberating “land” can be considered as a strong justification point for the creation of a nation, who had indeed, denied the Eritrean people to make a nation out of Ethiopia where they had extended access to resources on top of what they inherited within Eritrea proper? Who had denied them from running business within the rest of Ethiopia itself? But if it was the sole desire to have a nation all for the Eritrean people – a nation that we don’t want to share with the rest of Ethiopians – then the question to be answered is: why do we opt for that?  If the dream of all the huge sacrifices the Eritrean population made was to establish a democratic nation – then why did handful Eritrean youth and elites struggled along with the rest of Ethiopians for a free democratic Ethiopia, while others opted to go the solitary way deep into the Sahel? If neither the liberation of land nor the aspiration for democracy explains the goal of the 30 years of Eritrean fight against Ethiopia, what could it have possibly been the case that initiated and ignited the liberation struggle in the 1^st place? Was it Egypt that remains suspicious of the Nile that instigated the whole lot as rumors go in some corners? Was it the Arab-patrol-dollar coming to the top echelons of the frontal leadership circle? Were the Eritrean and Ethiopian ties in all honesty a typical colonial relationship for initiating armed guerrilla struggle? Was Ethiopia really that colonialist? Were the Eritrean people deprived of access to either Eritrean or Ethiopian resources during the times of unity? Could the outright conflicting desires of the Moslem-Christian divide be accommodated and enable us for forging a sustainable nation building as such amidst cries being heard by the Kunama and the Afar just to mention the two? Has the PFDJ regime’s militaristic stand a copy paste of the Mafia framework, which we know of since a long while?

I may not have the full answers for all these breathtaking quarries. All I can indicate is the following. Those who do not respect the rights, origin, belief and culture of others, will not genuinely defend theirs. Accordingly I’m not sure if the myth-filled denial and fabricated nationalism that persists in today’s Eritrea under Afewarki and his PFDJ regime’s will ever hold water and remain sustainable as the signs of splinter movements are  underway among non-Tigrinya nationalities of Eritrea. Rest assured key factors are surfacing clearly.

After three decades of armed struggle and two decades of de facto Eritrean independence, most Eritrean people still remain caught-up in a state of denial and in a myth of nation building that never has been and that will not materialize. And the whole liberation struggle and experiences gained thus far point to the following five crucial factors whose socio-economic opportunity costs would have been totally different had it been possible to halt those who brew disillusion from the very start of the liberation struggle:

1)     Both the urban and the Diaspora Eritrean population segments are caught up with deep denial and utter confusion of what they see and hear. Particularly, looked at through a prism and examining matters in search of evidences between to points (starting from one end and moving through to the other end), one may arrive at two distinctly differing results: (a) At the 1st end of the connection, the death tall that have been reached by the fighting forces on either (the Eritrean-Ethiopian) side of the isles thus far boils down to futile attempt. (b) At the 2nd end of the ties, the much boasted about victory talks and anxiety are all echoing quite unreasonable victory dances and crocodile tears for killing each other for nothing. The negative impacts attained through both demographic and material losses caused by the series of skirmishes carried out thus far have depleted the Eritrean population growth rate in particular and its economic progress by significant percentage. The disruptions caused both in rural and urban communities have solely hampered the Eritrean society from potential recovery and progress. The main reasons being the militaristic operations and life styles that were on the ground since the early 1960s; and still the periodical skirmishes between Eritrea and Ethiopia are immensely intensified regardless of the huge human, logistic, economic, and environmental losses made thus far. Indeed, to this very day, the war tension and causing the usual interruptions from normalizing livelihoods are still ongoing as both sides are firmly and decisively standing armed and alert for any likely ignition of further skirmishes along the un-demarcated Eritrea and Ethiopia border lines.

2)     In those days, when it suspected that EPRP could not back, bend, or deliver EPLF’s “colonial Ethiopia” claim, Shaabia quickly broke its ties with EPRP; and immediately opted to inculcate and work together with Woyane (TPLF) as its dependable allay for maintaining their very existence. Since 1997 however, those ties have become dysfunctional. But when we look at the Shaabia-Woyane ties in retrospective: (a) without the help of TPLF, it wouldn’t have been possible for Shaabia to push ELF and soon after that EPRP from their vicinities all the way to Sudan. (b) In the early 80’s, particularly when Shaabia’s armies were diminishing and becoming shaky due to massive death tall and casualties in the trenches of Sahel, it was thousands of TPLF guerrillas that rescued  Shaabia to defend its base against the Dergue army. Indeed the survival of both EPLF and TPLF would have been impossible if the two didn’t cooperate in those decisive moments. Let me cite a case in point. Had they not been in close collaboration with each other and demolish Dergue’s Nadow brigades, neither of these two guerrilla movements would have made it to their respective capitals. Hence for what has taken place as the result of the initial bondage and during the honeymoon period (1991-1997) the two groups remain tied to a stick in common responsibility regardless of the damage was done by both or either one of the two regimes.

3)     Issayas Afewarki’s regime is known for its immense brutality and Mafia-like handling. Without any doubt, PFDJ regime is pulling Eritrea through a classic communistic administration.

4)     A failure in the experimentation of tightly supervised hard labour programmes is an outdated communist style of nation building.

5)     Issayas Afewarki and his PFDJ regime cohorts remain prisoners to fantasies of their own making; and prefer to remain at standby where projection of “colonial legacy” has given them the excuse to impose a totalitarian political pathway that leads solely to military garrisons; to which the overwhelming silent majority of Eritrean people are saying: ‘Enough is enough!

Eritrea’s Survival at Stake  

A critical question that demands urgent attention at the moment is the survival of Eritrea as a nation since it is ill-functioning and speedily moving towards its total stagnation. Another danger in front of us is PFDJ regime’s endless forced labor, which has driven and continues to drive thousands of Eritrean youth out of the country [*See Gaim Kibreab, Forced Labor in Eritrea, Journal of Modern African Studies, 47, 1(2009)]. Thirdly, despite continuous denial efforts being exerted by Afewarki’s regime, Eritrea is a country in deep trouble in all aspects. As mentioned above, its economy is in shambles and on the verge of collapse with worsening social consequences. The reason why we are suddenly held in stagnation reminds me the traditional saying that goes: “LaHmi Hawi weledet, key’tiliHso nededet key’tgedfo weledet”. Its literal translation depicts: “A cow gave birth to fire; she couldn’t lick it as it burned; she couldn’t leave it be; as it was its baby”. There is no shame in siding with the truth. But those who have been burned by Issayas Afewarki’s PFDJ regime, and yet identify themselves with it are always in a dilemma just like the cow that delivered fire as her baby. But the naked question facing us all is: For how surely can the PFDJ sustain Eritrea solely depending on Sawa training camp and its companion project, the so called Warsai-Yikaalo Campaign, and consider them as the sole guarantors of Eritrea’s security? I have my serious doubts as things are on a shaky ground and soon falling apart. 

Conclusive Remarks:

In summing up let me ask the following: Is independence from the so-called “Ethiopian colonial occupation” worth all the sacrifice that the Eritrean people have continuously been paying as an all-consuming-50-year-long odyssey and as the only bloody path it took the Eritrean population thus far? I can only suggest three likely fear-factors that cry out for resolution. Indeed for the sake of humanity, these 3-factors must be resolved or given due response. Without solving these 3 issues it will be difficult for Eritrean society to pave the way and bring lasting peace between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

·        1stly, as the whole of the Eritrean population has been living and continues to live behind trenches all along the non-demarcated long-border-lines between Eritrea and Ethiopia; it is still too early for Eritrea to claim a victory in its independence. As a result, Eritrea has become an absolute and unequivocal state of collective serfdom; a nation of military garrisons and guerrilla warfare camps where overwhelming majorities of our nearly 4-million Eritrean peoples still remain incarcerated in military garrisons. Eritrean populations are no where near to fully claim that they are free people in the true sense of the word! The burning heat of oppression from the regime circle is felt everywhere. Failure to resolve the Eritrean-Ethiopian key disputes could exacerbate governance, health, and humanitarian problems further. Yearning for lasting solution remains in the distant future. After all, the Eritrean revolution was waged haphazardly, by folks with divergent aspirations.

·        2ndly, Ethiopia’s legitimate access to the sea through the port of Assab is still pending. This issue is a time bomb that may irrupt any moment be it while TPLF is on power or during its aftermath. Beyond today’s short-sighted geographical seizure of Assab port by Eritrea, the two sisterly nations must resolve this serious matter through a negotiated settlement in the way that Assab will no longer become a permanent source of future instability between Eritrea and Ethiopia. If halting disruptions and maintaining sustainable stability and socio-economic relations between these two states is to be given a chance, then the significance of Assab must be given eminent and immediate solutions. In the manner it finds itself now, Assab doesn’t do any good to Eritrea or to Ethiopia; except remaining as a potential time bomb between the two sisterly people; no matter how long this particular matter may be suspended by some delaying mechanisms by either regimes holding power. In fact, the solution is simple. It has to be understandable that the Afewarki regime in Eritrea is sitting in the port that belongs to Ethiopia, and there will be no peace while occupying Assab belonging to Ethiopia.

·        3rdly, as if proving the saying: “A man with one watch knows what time it is; but a man with 2-wtaches is never sure”, PFDJ regime’s is still fighting for “territorial integrity” within Eritrea proper; while at the same time preaching self-determination up to secession of nationalities elsewhere within Ethiopia. But a person living in a house made of glass does not throw stones on others’ glass windows. Hence PFDJ regime’s proxy-war tactics must be halted as it never resolves any of the socio-economic dynamics we are challenged with at the moment or in the long run. So let me say this to Issayas Afewarki and his PFDJ regime. Don’t look where you fall, but where you slipped. Likewise, while seeking revenge, dig 2-graves; one for yourself. Otherwise dwindle the empty pride; face the naked reality; break out differences; and build bridges with neighboring states. These are the likely options that resolve conflicts and feasibly work for all parties to live in peace. These are the alternatives that can reduce Eritrea’s militaristic stand, halt the Eritrean youth mass-exodus for fear of punishments or getting held under Sawa servitude indefinitely. These are the sole choices that help the new nation reach its eventual maturity.

By Obo Arada Shawl

The crocodile group is dead

The animal group is imprisoned

The oak is burning

Shaebia and Woyane, give us a break

Anonymous

BREAKING NEWS OR BREAKING EPRP?

Was this communicant Political, Intellectual or Ideological? We demand answers.

VOA (voice of America) on June 13 – a day of reckoning – broadcasted an interview with two veteran members of EPRP leadership.

The interview by Tizta Belechew was poignantly straightforward. Here are the two main points of contention.

First: Why should you have the same name of EPRP, Mr. Mersha?

Mersha’s answer was that no one could have the same name, legally.

If legally, you cannot have the name of EPRP, then what is the point of having the same name? If we cannot accept the rule of law then are you going to fight with guns in order to retain the name of EPRP? I think it is a lesson that we all should learn to accept defeat. It should be an honorable task to hold on to the true name of EPRP. It is one thing to hold on to a true name but altogether a different matter to live by EPRP’s values and principles. But tacking a small d will not do the trick. EPRP is not a corporation. It is a political party. It is not a separate entity as in ‘corporation’. EPRP is a human name with emotions and feelings.

Second: Mersha claims that Iyassou has gone to Asmara to meet Issayas.

You should have told your audience why, when and how Ato Iyassou met Ato Issayas. If you were doing this just to counter the allegation of signing an “affidavit” for working with Mr. Mellese, this would not work for you but against you.

For me personally, both claims do not only make sense but they are absurd to the core. EPRP since its inception has been struggling

• Politically

• Intellectually

• Militarily and

• Legally in that order

Why this disruption and confusion of the long and arduous pattern of leadership and follower ship suddenly become news for a lot of people? Are we done with the first three areas of struggle of political revolution, intellectual discussion and military operation to move on to the legal (loyal) aspect of struggle? I am sure succumbing to a tyrant and to a dictator while DEBTERAW AND HIS COMRADES ARE IN PRISON will disappoint many people.

That would be my first point.

The second point is that EPRP was well known for working among workers, intellectuals, students, peasants, women and the military. Working among or with them did not in any way mean to spy on them but rather to EDUCATE and if possible to organize them so that they can protect themselves from oppression or exploitation. This is a unique style of EPRP mission and vision, unlike many organizations that infiltrate for spying and policing purposes.

In EPRP’s political culture, there was no polarizing figure nor should there be but there were and are issues that polarize and they were resolved democratically.

1. Take the issue of comrades’ ሀ እና ለ (Ha and Le),

2. Take the issue of assessment and evaluation of the past struggle in order to continue or to abandon the struggle both inside and outside, which was dubbed as run-away (ብተና)

3. Take the issue of walk- away because of dictators in the leadership,

Are they not all ended up democratically? I believe they were.

But this one – altering name with no legitimacy and no moral aspects will be the first of its kind in the history of four decades of struggle. Mr. Mersha you seem to forget that ዴሞክራሲያ was/is the soul and heart of EPRP. It is the raison d’etre of its existence as one intellectual put it and its asset as one politician has said it to be.

In today’s world – a digital age has this to offer: MMT

• My space

• My face

• Twitter

Do these mean anything to you Ato Mersha? I know you are an old guard like me but hey we should adjust to the generation at hand. I advise you to consider the pro and cons of pal talk, radio talk, text messages and many other harmful and useful means of technology.

EPRP from the beginning was denied space – Politically Speaking

EPRP members were denied to show up their faces – Intellectually Speaking

And now are we to twitter of the military?

Where is DEBTERAW, Ato Mersah, answer us, please?

Were you not the last person to inform me about the military operation? Ato Iyassou has outsmarted you even politically when he said “ወያኔ በእጝ ሬሳ ላይ ተረማምዶ ነው ያለፈው” I clearly remember that you were my first hand witness of the so-called final operation to destroy EPRP once and for all. That was then, what about now? Any change?

Please, reconsider your position. You have walked away on the pretext of some dictatorship in the leadership. Promise us that you can walk-in when you have promoted your small d to Capital D. But no more confusion, please, enough is enough. Thanks.

Alex Birhanu – alexbirhanu@yahoo.com

What prompted me to write this article under the title: ‘Ethiopia- Born Again Politicians’? I happen to observe few articles popping-up these days with the news that a paradigm shift and “strategic” power struggle is on the making. Just because such persons abandoned their previous paradigm, and re-created another paradigm the unexpected way, I decided to call them as born again politicians. One such recent article is composed by Neamin Zeleke who in his article titled: “Ethiopia -The imperative for Ethiopians dealing with Eritrea” writes that: “A paradigm shift is taking place, a shift towards the view that in order to liberate Ethiopia from the anti-Ethiopia ruling Tigray mafia, Ethiopians need to make a strategic alliance with the State of Eritrea.”

My view on such stand is the following. Our principal motto should be looking at both sides of the coin at the same time and differentiate the tree for the forest. But I sense the likes of Neamin Zeleke Diaspora opposition lack that kind of outlook and heavily geared in the campaign of demonizing anything on their way. In the past, this kind of benign agenda succeeded taking the country down hill as a result of which we are still battling how best to start democratic politics all over again. Yet the same backward stepping is in the cooking at the expense of back stabbing on the Ethiopian people once again.

George Orwell’s 1984 is a book that changed our language, giving us such words and phrases as “thought police,” “newspeak,” “doublethink,” and “Big Brother”; not to mention “Orwellian.” But what is the relevancy of Orwell’s novel today? Is it a warning about future horrors that may come if we fail to guard our freedom? Does it talk about things that are already present in our lives?
Orwell, the British journalist and writer, penned his book in 1948 as a commentary on Soviet Union’s totalitarianism, a very present danger at the time. The oppressive machine in Orwell’s 1984 is a tyrannical state that maintains total control over the lives and even thoughts of its subjects and brutally crushes all dissent. It is unchecked power, “a boot stamping on a human face forever.” The closest any political force comes to this nightmare vision today, besides such communist relics as North Korea, is Eritrea and the Taliban-style Islamist radicalism.
Yet Orwell’s 1984 provide lessons beyond the totalitarian experience. Take the book’s definition of “doublethink,” the ideal mental state of the citizen of Orwell’s dystopia: it is “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them,” the ability “to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies.”

Of course “doublethink” is an absolutely essential way of thinking. How else can you hold the contradictory notions of freedom and socialism? In that sense, Orwell’s 1984 is still relevant because any sane person knows that a “government that is big enough to provide everything is also big enough to take it all away.” And what belongs as a government’s or public property is nobody’s private property. A case in point is the land reform that made all land government property – be it urban or rural.

These days, the G7 leadership and the likes of Neamin Zeleke are the Ethiopian adept at giving us the “doublethink,” the 2^nd thought in doing the Afewarki revelation politics. Recently they have began to campaign for rallying behind Issayas Afeworki’s new political approach towards Ethiopia with their political announcement that they are supposedly ‘born again opposition’ through Afewarki, and they are continuing to fool the naive and the loose cannons among the Ethiopian Diaspora with the same mere talk.

It seems to me few political pacifist liberal types who care less what comes may adore the G7 leadership’s new political approach that inclines itself to Issayas Afewarki’s revelation about fighting the TPLF-Apartheid regime; and see it as almost the Second Coming of Issayas Afewarki as salvager of Ethiopia from the yoke of TPLF tyranny! Now, we have the G7 ardent supporters copy-cutting the great savior from Asmara and shuffling along with this newly devised own form of ‘political rebirth’. Wow it’s all a big song and dance among Diaspora liberals or born again liberals!

The central question in Neamin Zeleke’s article goes: “if Woyane allied itself with EPLF to promote its strategic interest, why can’t the current Ethiopian opposition do the same?” Neamin Zeleke further asserts that Issayas Afewarki “has made it public that his country has no intention of working against Ethiopia’s unity.” Wow this reminds us of the Amharic proverb “YE CHENEKEW IRGUZ YAGEBAL”. Its also reminds us of Pixar’s movie: “A bugs life”, where a million of ants that are tired of being bullied by a handful of grasshoppers sought help from a bunch of clown bugs who can’t seriously be taken as saviors.

Let us not forget that any national political system always has its carrot and stick pluralism moving full steam. Indeed that is exactly the role these ‘political conversions’ play, whether it be Issayas Afewarki-led Bloody G7, OLF and ONLF armed strugglers, the CUD’s ‘Peaceful’ opposition, or the TPLF-power mongers. We must take all these players with a big grain of salt; and not simply at face value. For instance, look into EPLF’s and TPLF’s final divorce that led the two former allies into the 1998-2000 bloody war caused by betrayal between two scoundrels and kept them in total stalemates to this very day. Let us not take Afewarki’s recent sweet words and be lulled into complacency.

Following his flirting remarks the recently carved and crafted ‘Born Again’ type of political manipulation is usually borrowed from the churches, where the pastors and mullah rabbis are specialized in providing fake emotion to their masses of Believers. The newly crafted G7’s born again politicians are trying hard relentlessly to the extent of turning Afewarki’s messages to Ethiopians filled with concocted crocodile tears in full display. They want to tell us that there is no permanent enemy; but permanent interest. They want us to close the past episodes and outstanding controversial cases between Eritrea and Ethiopia once and for all; become Issayas Afewarki followers and born again politicians as a result of whom we can readily open-up a new chapter of comradeships from hereon.

It is indeed with a fountain of energy that some born again politicians go literally to plead to the Ethiopian readers and audience as they keep on asking: ‘Why are we always so misunderstood for holding meetings with Issayas Afewarki?’ For me this was the most comical display imaginable! I observed their expression with instant shock because if I have ever seen glowing desperation in the eyes of anybody, it was in the face of liberal Diaspora Ethiopians who don’t have any binding commitment for a sovereign state or for a united Ethiopia; but blindly want us to cross anything that has to do with principled political stand and simply join hands with Afewarki to walk the walk and fight the fight.

So G7 leadership now wants peace with Issayas Afewarki? In what terms and with what formula of settlements do we bargain on? Hide and seek politics put aside, what are the preconditions to fulfill on either side of the bargain? I won’t be surprised if the born again politicians battle Hymn and national anthem of the Ethiopian Republic says: “Afewarki’s truth is marching on”. What a con! Afewarki had the chance to achieve that kind of deal but made no effort at all to concretize a Peace Initiative with Ethiopia. It is worth noting what the previous OLF founder Lencco Letta disclosed not long ago on how Afewarki resisted to come to consensus as regards inclusiveness and mutual co-existence by forging regional and unitary solutions for Ethiopia.

It has become a newly founded political game where Afewarki wants to play the Messiah or the new regional political Guru who preaches on how global and regional politics should be run; and the G7 leadership and sympathizers his saints and apostles in Afewarki’s retirement age! What a bunch of throw ups! These politicians always have all the personal character of ‘good’ used car salesmen, which is to say none. A wrong and a hasty solution is the worst thing Ethiopians should adapt, because it will ultimately result in negative effects. Indeed I would like to say to genuine Ethiopians: Watch the G7 and their born again revelation political shows but do not be taken in easily.

As a people, as Christians and Muslims, and as people of every political and religious faith and belief, we Ethiopians must denounce this blasphemous use of politics to support — if not endorse — not simply war-like policies but war itself. The Messiah chosen for us by G7 as salvager was tossing in Eritrean anniversaries photographs of EPLF soldiers in battle gear, tanks in battle, and bombers overhead where his leadership words in the fight against Ethiopia were quoted reading: “Have I not commanded you earlier? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. I will be with you wherever you go and crush the enemy force.” How senseless do we have to be not to see the proximity in this thinking to the words and images that inflame in exactly the same way the TPLF, OLF and ONLF insurgent forces he initiated against Ethiopians battled across the country to this very day? As Ethiopians we are at our wits’ end. Tell us how do we, as a people, retroactively denounce the placing of everything deep and profound in us, everything that makes us human, our individual compacts with our only nation Ethiopia, in the service of such unbridled, ignominious, self-righteous, not to mention looked from civic morale stand point inappropriate behavior? I don’t have the answer. Do you?

As far as I see, trying to convince Ethiopians to accept working with their deadly enemy, for another war and destruction, is simply naivety in the least. A person on the verge of drowning will obviously try to cling on to a straw. But the straw will never save him even if it claims to be stronger and larger than a huge sailing ship. Here we have Neamin Zeleke and his likes along within G7 encouraging us to fight for the slogan ‘Liberty or death’ with the straw as our life-vest; determined to take any chance for the sake of grabbing power.
Most of us may consider Meles Zenawi as a dictator and he is not the patriot we would have liked to see; but Issayas Afewarki is the deadliest enemy Ethiopians should avoid by all means possible. In fact if we can consider Meles Zenawi as the man of the axis of evils, then Issayas Afewarki is the Lucifer of the axis of devils.

Belihu Chekene – bchekene@live.com

This article is the result of 4-recent articles I read as indicated in my reference list below. I’m aroused to write this article as a response to those earlier articles and share my opinion with the wider Ethiopian readers. Hence, comments from all directions are most welcome as this is the only way we clear the shadows of dangerous events from happening. I would also like to thank the different website editors and webmasters for their unreserved and objective services in rendering an open-forum for opinion exchanges and expressions of thoughts on such crucial issues that shape-up our inherent political make-ups. I’m exclusively focused on responding to the 4 articles I read and do not want to dwell on other related issues since these can be tackled and tickled at later dates.

Actually, is Issayas Afewarki the face of hate or the face hero as we know it? My approach to this question is never dogmatic; but realistic. By choosing just a few examples, and concentrating on a single strand of Afewarki’s heroic myth built around him, I would like to provide readers of this article some very specific food for thought. The article may sound provocative to the extent that some Ethiopian websites who are opting to keep tight-lips on the political future pertaining to Eritrean issues. Some may even shy away and refrain from publishing it. But let bygones be bygones. The truth must be told straight on the face. This is no more the time for hide-and-seek-politics to play with. On the contrary, it is time of change; and the wind of dynamic change is surely blowing every where around the globe.

To begin with, by way of an editorial posted on 10^th June 2009 on shabait.com, the well known Afewarki’s propaganda website, Afewarki ordered for the African Union (AU) to be entirely demolished without delay. In fact, Afewarki was blunt about his disrespect for the AU as he was referring to it by its old designation: OAU (Organization of African Union). Afewarki blatantly preaches by stating: “…the only remaining thing to do for us Africans is to throw the organization in the dustbin of history and forming another organization having no relation or resemblance to the current one;” and adding that such a move is: “… perquisite for the development of Africa and its people.” According to Afewarki AU’s crime is its: “… lending its voice and acting as a tool for external forces, western spy networks and the agents of neo-colonialism.” Hence, “… its existence has become irrelevant and also it has lost value and credibility of itself and the African people it supposedly represents.”

In his own words, Afewarki hammers the AU with charges of failing to ensure: “… Africa’s political stability, safeguarding human rights of fellow Africans and directing the course of developmental endeavors in the continent.” To our dismay Afewarki has been violating all and every human right of the Eritrean peoples left, right, front and back under the watchful eyes of the whole world. He clearly undermines the UN, the Arab League to which he once made Eritrea a member; the AU and IGAD. By his own choice he has pushed out most aid rendering NGOs and religious organizations.

In fact, there is no regional or global organization to which Afewarki abides by; and yet he criticizes AU’s impunity and inaction; and calls for setting up a new organization “… that will not become subservient to western forces and their puppets.” Are the folks at the AU, the UN, and the Arab League listening to such messages? Yea, but they and the rest of the Western world have long been desensitized to and ignoring whatever Afewarki’s venomous mouth spouts because they have, rightly, concluded that it is coming from a person afflicted with and exhibiting irrationality and mental unsoundness! Today, Afewarki is a suspect for causing piracy and fundamentalist terrorism in the region. He has been given warning to stop meddling in Somalia’s affairs.

Needless to say, we Ethiopians are also here today because of four decades of Issayas Afewarki’s commitment to derail Ethiopia’s national stability by way of hatching a cocktail of ethnic-led movements that could join hand with him and infest the region with ethnic-led politics. It’s worth remembering that TPLF was constructed from the bones of the very EPLF-organ meant for Afewarki’s destructive servitude and underground military services. There’s a reason as both groups are not total freaking defuses; but they have to deal with the fact that they knew much early the value of playing with their unilaterally carved ethnic-led political cards aggressively and mercilessly.

Entering into opposition pockets:

But nowadays Afewarki attempts to enter into the opposition pockets with a different view points as he needs their vehement support to resolve the border dispute and to shut-up the Ethiopian claims being waged about access to the sea through Assab Port. What a flattery to observe that Issayas Afewarki is selectively flirting with few loose cannons among Ethiopian opposition groups in Diaspora. These sale-outs include: ER, ONLF, OLF and G7-leaders and their sympathizers.

Recently, I was astonished to learn that the hypocrites G7-leadership is openly flirting with Issayas Afewarki by traveling often to Asmara and conspiring about how to solicit support from Ethiopians in Diaspora. It is shocking to hear that G-leadership has been in clandestine consultation with lunatic Afewarki since some years now. Thus far they have succeeded to fool our people at one time; but they can’t fool all of the people all the time. By each day that goes by the true faces of these sinister ER, ONLF, OLF and Gunboat-7 opposition groups continues to unfold; and we know now what they stand for. In turn they continue to make a mockery of themselves; and who cares for them but cut ties with such toxic and vacillating opposition groups.

Spreading Words of Wisdom

Recently, Apostle Elias Kefafle reported in his ER website a well-orchestrated recent interview he made in May 2009 in Asmara with demonic Afewarki. Accordingly we were told part of Afewarki’s revelation taken from his New Testament where it is stated in total defiance and 180 degrees turn of position that: “Eritrea is not threatened by a strong and united Ethiopia because instability in the region will impact Eritrea negatively.” Wow, since when has Afewarki possessed a rational mind that dismisses his Old Testament destructive revelation that he previously preached for too long about self-determination to each ethnic group inhabiting outside the bounds of Eritrea? Under Issayas Afewarki’s New Testament revelation we are preached by his apostles that: “Eritrea will give Ethiopians all the means at her disposal to strengthen the position of Ethiopians.” Holly molly, Afewarki’s Old Testament of successions is no more valid. Succession is now discarded as null and void through the Eritrean referendum that never was. So Afewarki is dictating to “new-born” Ethiopians about his “principled revelation of long standing policy because Eritrea can not live in a vacuum.” What a political ploy and what a surprising new twist taken for political expediency. Ironic enough it is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways. It was not long ago that Aden Sheikh Hassan was praising Afewarki as the inspiration for oppressed nationalities; in which he cited Afewarki’s 1991 speech that goes: “… there is no such thing as Ethiopia; and what there is, is no more than a shadow of a country – a country that cannot be taken seriously as a state. The only reason that there is an Ethiopia is that the US needed it for the Cold War, and recreated it, otherwise it would have disappeared at the end of World War II.”

Contrary to this Old Testament, during his interview with Apostle Elias Kefafle, Afewarki expressed his new political revelation by stating: “Eritrea’s desire and readiness to work with Ethiopians regarding security, economy, ports and all matters of bilateral concerns.” What a change of mind and heart; what a mockery that may convince loose cannon groups. I can’t help re-iterating the Amharic proverb: ‘DORON SYATALILUWAT BEMECHGNA TALWAT!’

As if Issayas Afewarki’s mockery is not enough, his disciples including: Elias Kefafle, Betinachew Tsigie and Birhanu Negadew are out there seriously preaching in favor of carrying Afewarki’s banner of New Testament. They have been trying for some years now to soften the hard-feelings among Ethiopians towards Afewarki; the man who suddenly pretends to shade crocodile tears and sheer mockery about Ethiopia. Forgetting that they are comfortably presiding on Afewarki’s-servitude from the Western metropolis like London and Washington DC, his disciples dare to preach us: “Ethiopians were let down by the West and particularly by the US. As a result Ethiopians don’t have any where or any one to turn to but to their brothers in Eritrea.” Traitors, you may flirt with the demonic Afewarki for now; but you have neither the respect nor a place in our heart. You have been traitors to EPRP; traitors to TPLF; and traitors to KINIJIT. How can we trust traitors who blindly continue to flirt with Afewarki, the mother of all troubles that hatched and planted TPLF inside Ethiopia? As if we are ever green to politics, OLF, ONLF, Elias Kefafle’s ER and the G7-leadership are fighting an uphill battle to convince us and to soften our heart and become benevolent loyalists to Afewarki’s destructive mission. Is it not asking too much? Is it not preaching to us openly to commit suicide and destroy our only home – Ethiopia by becoming loyal cowards of Afewarki? We say: No to their political nuisance. Gone are the days when the Ethiopian youths were marshaled by death only to transform Afewarki’s sinister wanton and wishes in the past.

New Revelation to Ethiopians:

It is funny that Issayas Afewarki’s new revelation as told by Elias Kefafle reads as: “desiring a lasting peace and unity” in the region. Is that not the same Afewarki who continues to follow his conventional outlook and continue to spread regional conflicts and divisive missions restlessly with all neighboring nations indiscriminately? Is that not the same Afewarki who follows his Old Testament by eliminating ethnic resistance movements inside Eritrea among the Kunama and the Red Sea Afar population while at the same time hatching ethnic-led politics elsewhere outside Eritrea? Needless to say, Afewarki episodes remind us the dictum that goes: ‘AYA JIBBO SATAMEHAGN BILLAGN!’

Although he may be considered by those who sympathize with Afewarki’s regime as a face hero within the bounds of Eritrea, Afewarki is the man who spread the face of hate within the bounds of Ethiopia. The demonic and destructive actions he took against Ethiopia in the last 4-decades are living evidence that exhibit his face of hate towards Ethiopia for all the generosity and privileges Ethiopia attempted to bestow on the Eritrean elites; at the cost of depriving similar privileges to her own true sons and daughters.

Conclusive Remarks:

In summary Afewarki and the Eritrean elite groups at large have been victims of myth and empty pride. When all is told and done, still they want everything without any compromise or consensus absolutely to go their own greedy way. At the end of the day, they never care about others neighboring Eritrea; but themselves. It was all about ego, empty pride and myth that eventually resulted in heavy loss and casualties of what they would have otherwise gained thus far. Bad as it was, the worse is yet to come. Even now Eritrea under Afewarki will obviously continue through the same destructive path. We wish Afewarki and the Eritrean regime could come to their senses, make change of mind and realize that it is time to check out the myth, the ego and the empty pride properly; be frank enough down to earth; and for the sake of inclusiveness or mutual coexistence and humanity they must learn how to give way for change and for peace. After all, love cannot be founded on hate grounds.

References:

• http://allafrica.com/stories/200906100968.html – Shabait.com (Asmara) – Eritrea: New and Independent African Union – a Precondition for Development of Our Continent.

• http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/10014 – Reaction to President Isaias Afwerki’s interview.

• http://www.ethiox.com/news.php?readmore=897 – Issayas Afeworki: The Inspiration for Oppressed Nationalities of the Horn – Aden Sheikh Hassan

• https://assimbablog.assimba.org/2009/06/12/issayas-afewarki%e2%80%99s-new-testament-versus-his-old-testament/ – Issayas Afewarki’s New Testament versus His Old Testament.

“Old Testament vs. New Testament” – In real world the Old Testament lays the foundation for the teachings and events found in the New Testament. As such the Bible is a progressive revelation. If you skip the first half of any good book and try to finish it, you will have a hard time understanding the characters, the plot, and the ending. In the same way, the New Testament is only completely understood when it is seen as a fulfillment of the events, characters, laws, sacrificial system, covenants, and promises of the Old Testament.

How do we grasp Issayas Afewarki’s New Testament versus His Old Testament?

Issayas Afewarki’s New Testament to OLF, ONLF, Gunboat-7 and EPPF supporters (and I guess to the rest of CUD supporters) presumably seems that ethnic-based system should be removed from Ethiopian political arena all together. This very “New Testament” is only completely understood when it is seen as a fulfillment of the events, characters, laws, sacrificial systems, covenants, and promises made of the Old Testament. But during most of the interview session Afewarki held with Elias Kefafle of the Eritrean / “Ethiopian”/ Review, Issayas attacked the ethnic-based regime of Meles Zenawi; and further went on condemning the ethnic-federalist structured constitution created by TPLF with the help of its initial partner OLF. Issayas Afewarki further opposes ethnic-based TPLF manifestos (and those of OLF, ONLF, UEDF, OFDM, ARENA TIGRAY etc). Where did such a world view of Issayas Afewarki come about? The replies made during the interview session are so far away and so far fetched from his principal preaching in his Old Testament where he strived to see a disintegrated and weak Ethiopia. It seems Afewarki’s calculated interview message was addressed to the Amhara audience. To one’s dismay, just a few months ago, Issayas Afewarki was preaching the old gospel or the Old Testament of ethnic-based self-determination to the Ogaden and Oromo nationalists. So which one does he really support?

What we seem to realize is Afewarki’s Old Testament versus Afewarki’s New Testament. As such, we are left to wonder what Issayas Afewarki really has in mind. The interview session manifests a confusing content; one observes Afewarki vacillating between his Old and New Testaments by changing his ideological outlook based on who he is talking with. Sometimes he even forgets to adjust his speech and makes a couple of errors by referring to EPPF as an “Amhara organization.” He was supposed to accept the idea that EPPF is “Ethiopian” organization. Just like the TPLF wants us to believe EPRDF is “Ethiopian,” the Amhara population really wants us to believe EPPF is “Ethiopian.” Afewark’s error was probably his second mistake during the long interview.

Anyway, will Issayas apologize to his long-standing flirting friends including OLF and ONLF for his revelation of national unity comments during the interview? I wonder and doubt it. Most people I discuss with tell me: ‘Afewarki would if he could; but he can’t; so he won’t’. But the OLF and ONLF probably don’t care as long as they get the money and arsenal of arms. That means, Afewarki’s the new gospel of becomes even more confusing since he was actually supporting TPLF’s ethnic-based system in Ethiopia from its implementation phase in 1991 up to 1998; until such time that the border war erupted between the two sinister organizations. After this confusing interview, everything I previously assumed were world known about Afewarki’s political stand and related facts in politics became false. After listening to Afewarki’s interview, I was left with to conclude that: (a) Afewarki has infatuated hatred to Amhara population; that was why he refused to speak Amharic. (b) According to Afewarki there occurs more crime and human rights violation in the Ogaden rather than in Darfur, Sudan. (c) In Afewarki’s view, Meles Zenawi has the ambition to annex Assab and to defend Ethiopia’s territorial integrity and Ethiopian interests. (d) To Afewarki, Meles Zenawi is the sole cause for clan politics to aggravate inside Somalia. (e) Actually, Issayas Afewarki opposes the ethnic-based ideology of TPLF, of the OLF and ONLF those groups whom he vehemently supported initially and still support those in the opposition. (f) To Afewarki

Eritrea is an economic powerhouse and an exemplary democratic country that builds self-sufficiency alone not only within the region but also in the entire globe.

English versus Amharic

I usually care less whether anyone uses Amharic or English or any other language as a means of communication. But it was a moment of surprise to me to watch Issayas Afewarki respond in English for the interview questions asked in Amharic by Elias Kefafle of the Eritrean / “Ethiopian?” Review. Why Afewarki chose that kind of communication? Obviously, most Ethiopians of his generation knew well that Afewarki speaks Amharic quite well since he happen to study both in Dessie and at Addis Ababa during his secondary high and during his 2 years collage education. So was he intentionally trying to prove to his audience his deep-sitting hatred for Ethiopians? May be so; in fact a clue one quickly observes in the interview session comes out when Elias is asking Issayas Afewarki about the Assab Port. The question directed was to find out if Ethiopia will be able to regain Assab port. (Note, most opposition parties in Ethiopia, including UDJ/CUD, UEDF and even the ethnic-based OFDM consider Assab as belonging to Ethiopia). In actual fact, Issayas Afewarki’s indirect answer to the question was basically NO. He tried to bit about the bush by going around the real question as much as possible especially because the EPPF Ethiopian rebels based in Eritrea have always accused Meles Zenawi of making Ethiopia landlocked. But at the end of the day, Issayas was very bold telling that Ethiopians will have to use the port just as any other country would; by sharing or paying for it. 6 years ago Issayas banned the availability of Amharic music in Eritrea as was reported by the BBC. One can check it at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2632399.stm.

So what is the purpose of EPPF in Eritrea? The fact is the original EPPF is no more functional while the pro-Afewarki new “EPPF” is simply controlled by Issayas generals. One can check it at: http://www.abugidainfo.com/?p=3123. As far as Afewarki is concerned the Assab issue is a done deal. From the start both Meles Zenawi and Issayas Afewarki actually share the belief that Assab belongs to Eritrea. But since the purpose of the interview was to get Amharic speaking Ethiopian opposition to support Issayas, the Afewarki accused Meles Zenawi of trying to regain Assab Port. What? This is funny. Wasn’t Meles accused of by the opposition groups alike for having not tried to regain Assab Port? What Elias Kefafle is doing is quite confusing indeed. Issayas Afewarki also accused stating that the clan politics in Somalia persist because of Meles Zenawi. The naked fact is that the clan politics in Somalia has been going on for many decades and may be centuries. As far as instigating the border conflict is concerned the International Commission in Hague actually blamed Eritrea for invading Ethiopia in 1998. For details please read at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4548754.stm. So what does Afewarki mean? Generally, although not comparable at the same degree, both Dictators Meles Zenawi and Issayas have failed to create a healthy economy and democratic system between the two sisterly nations. But Issayas was pretentiously lecturing about economy and justice throughout the interview; as if everything is smoothly progressing within Eritrea. Why all this fuss about the entire quagmire?

Back to Basics

Out of curiosity, when we return to the basis of the whole matter, we fall on to the following case in point. The brief research done by the well known British institution Chatham house gives the reader an idea on how Eritrea came about into being.

”Eritrean nationalist discourse has constructed myths to suggest that Eritrea is a rich country, that successful industrial development under Italian rule was sabotaged by Ethiopia, that it enjoyed rapid growth in the early years of independence and that all this could be restored when peace returns.”

Gunter Schroeder questioned these myths and outlined a more complex reality: “an economy that was static and stagnant up to the time of colonialism; an ecology that was already depleted by the start of the 20th century; food production capable of meeting only 60–70% of needs; little evidence of any significant additional natural resources – in short, all the main characteristic of a poor rural economy. Italian warfare against Ethiopia was a powerful motor for social transformation in the 1930s when 150,000 Eritrean men were under arms out of a population of just 750,000. The soldiers gained skills that gave them alternative opportunities for employment and options to leave the land. Preparations for war also drove Eritrea’s early industrial development, which operated in a protected market, catering exclusively for the Italian army. When the Federation was created Eritrea enjoyed a huge comparative advantage for its industry and its skills in relation to Ethiopia’s underdevelopment. Industry was drawn to the political and economic centre in Addis Ababa, resulting in significant population migration from Eritrea. The result was that modern Eritrean economic elite forged ahead inside Ethiopia, before, during and after the war of independence. This all came to an end in 1998, leaving Eritrea for the first time without a protected market for its industry or its skills. Even when the Ethiopia–Eritrea conflict ends and trade resumes, Eritrea cannot expect to recapture the Ethiopian markets – these have been lost to Ethiopian competitors. Eritrea’s industry is too small to compete with Ethiopian producers, let alone with the Chinese producers who now dominate industrial production for African markets.”

All we can say is Afewarki is confusing the whole matter between his Old and his New Testaments. Better late to convey the truth than never, we wonder what those flirting Ethiopian oppositions have to say about Afewarki’s two differing testaments.

Abrham Berhe

Whenever they see critics of Issayas Afewarki some commentators ask what about Meles Zenawi. Usually a writer has a specific goal and bounds to restrict one’s views when the writer starts composing on a given topic. That means I don’t have to jump all over and address all leaders in the region inclusive of Meles. Here and now my very sole concern is to write about the agonies faced in Eritrea by Eritrea’s highly feared leader Issayas Afewarki.

In his recent interview message, Issayas Afewarki makes it clear that he is unhappy with the current leader of Somalia, the moderate Islamist President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and urges Al Shebab – the radical Islamists, and the people of Somalia to overthrow him because he “changed to partner up with the infidels – the hypocrites of the Western World”. Why is Issayas Afeworki so worried by the turn of events in Somalia? First, understandably, he is unhappy that the radical Islamists – Al Shabab are no longer going to make deeper roots in Somalia – a hope that could only materialize under the leadership of Al Shebab. But his major worry is that, if Sheikh Ahmed succeeds in uniting and stabilizing Somalia, then the Islamist revolution will remain confined within Somalia’s borders only, and that there will be no further interest or incentive for the Islamist revolution to spread outside of it into neighbouring nations. Under Sheikh Ahmed, the nationalist cause would trump the regional and global cause (that of Islamist Jihad). Issayas Afeworki realizes that if Somalia is stabilized as a nation, the first thing that it has to do is normalize its relations with Ethiopia and Kenya. And that means, at minimum, reigning over the militant groups that want to destabilize Ethiopia – and that would be the worst nightmare scenario for Issayas Afeworki. Instead he foresees that the anarchy in Somalia is essential to his contemporary designs both on the international and regional arena, where he is dead set to derail any prospects of Somali nationhood under the rule of Sheikh Ahmed where the Islamist cause would remain confined to the nation.

What are the likely reasons for this line of thinking by Issayas Afeworki? What is in there for him? The strategic location of Somalia, very close to Middle East and other African nations that are considered to be in the “infidel” camp (Ethiopia and Kenya), makes it ideal to his efforts to destabilize few neighbouring nations and internationalize his support to Islamic revolution. While training, and materially and financially supporting Islamist fundamentalist groups in Somalia, the last thing Afeworki strives these days is on ‘how to destabilize Ethiopia through Somalia’. So it is not surprising that when Ethiopia pulled out of Somalia earlier, Afewarki couldn’t hide his unhappiness. To him, the Somalia insurrection was relevant so far as it bogs down Ethiopia in an endless quagmire from which it would be unable to extricate itself; the last thing he wanted to see was for these two forces to disengage from fighting permanently. Moreover, he was hoping that this Islamist insurrection would spread not only to the Ogaden region, but throughout the South Eastern parts of Ethiopia (Balie, Harar, Arssi and Sidamo) where the majority of the population is made up of Oromo and other ethnic Muslims. Thus Issayas Afeworki has put all his hopes mainly on Al-Shebab militant Islamist group that has, self-admittedly, a close connection with Al Qaida and, consequently, has been listed as a terrorist organization by the US.

In fact, at this particular moment, Issayas Afeworki is quite dangerous to the region. Issayas Afeworki’s help to opposition groups coming to Eritrea from all direction is more handy and potent: First, given the geographic proximity of Eritrea, the country has become a hub of armed groups that, at one time or another, have been deployed in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Second, Issayas Afeworki is footing the bill for the training, arming and transporting these armed groups. In the latest UN report on Somalia, Eritrea was identified as the main financier of the armed groups in Somalia. And third, the latest footprint of Iran in Eritrea tells us that it has become a conduit of arms smuggling to militant groups all over the area, one that reaches as far as Hamas in Ghaza. This is what WIC had to say on an interview with the Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia (on March 19, 2009): “In an interview he held with WIC, Ambassador Ben-Haim said the Eritrean government is providing military training, and supplying military logistics for a number of terrorist groups. Ambassador Ben-Haim said that the Eritrea government, in addition to its attempts of destabilizing the Horn of Africa region, is also working to subvert the peace process in Somalia by supporting and arming Al-Shebab, a terrorist group in Somalia. The Ambassador said the Eritrea government, which has put its hands in smuggling weapons, is an arm supplier of Al-Shebab in Somalia and other internationally recognized terrorist groups including Hamas.”

With all the evidence built-up thus far, there is not the slightest bit of doubt that Eritrea has established itself as a terror-sponsoring nation. Given this fact, it is unfortunate that the Bush Administration left the White House without designating it as such. And it is even more unfortunate that Eritrean in the opposition waffled on this issue and missed a great opportunity to unseat the tyrant. But that doesn’t mean all is lost. Now, the same kind of momentum is building up against the Issayas regime, and we should make the most of it. An alliance is in the making, and we shouldn’t miss this boat. Already the US, Israel and Ethiopia are in this boat and France might join soon if the Djibouti case remains unresolved.

The African Union (AU) has taken the unprecedented step of calling on the UN to impose heavy sanctions on one of its own members. It wants to punish Eritrea for helping Jihad’s fighters in Somalia with arms and training which it says have caused the deaths of many civilians and AU peacekeepers. The union has also called for a no-fly zone over Somalia and a blockade of its ports. Neither is likely to happen. Air patrols by America and others might win the Jihad’s more support; a blockade of the long coastline is almost impossible. But the AU may have better luck with sanctions. The UN Security Council has already expressed “concern” that Eritrea may have breached an arms embargo on Somalia.

Some say Eritrea’s arms shipments to Somalia have been paid for partly by Iran and individual rich Arabs. Maybe it is so. But Eritrean support for the Islamist insurgency in Somalia is long-standing. And the AU is fed up with it.

More than any other foreign entity, it is the Eritrean people that have been daily experiencing the terror unleashed under this totalitarian regime. Not a single population group has been spared: students, merchants, farmers, parents, minority religions, ethnic groups, etc. The whole nation has been turned into a huge prison. And lately, with the mass exodus picking up speed, with the killings and massacres at border crossings and prisons, with a full blown famine raging all over the country and with the plan to dislodge entire villages and to dismantle centuries-old monasteries, there is a Khmer Rouge like apocalypse looming over the nation. If we are to save our people from a catastrophe of Khmer Rouge like proportions, the time to act is NOW. And the urgency of the matter gives us no luxury to pick and choose the means by which to finish off this regime. We should be able to grab this opportunity and join this alliance, and do whatever we can to convince this alliance-in-the-making to finish off the Issayas regime by whatever means necessary.

 All past actions and reactions of Issayas Afewarki have proven beyond doubt – to the world at large – the sheer irrationality of the man. His associations and diplomatic relations cannot be expected to have any logic. The 95-page report, “Service for Life: State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea,” documents serious human rights violations by Issayas Afewarki regime including prolonged military conscription, arbitrary arrest, torture, appalling detention conditions, forced labour, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and worship. It also analyzes the difficult situation faced by Eritrean youth who succeed in escaping to other countries such as Libya, Sudan, Egypt, and Italy.

Nothing could be more diversionary than Afewark’s perceived actions in the service of Iranian and Al-Shabaab’s designs. The interim Somali government recently accused Afewarki of sending two plane-loads of weapons to Somalia in violation of UN arms embargo on that war-ravaged country. The Somali government alleged that two planes from Eritrea landed at an Al-Shabab controlled airstrip in Lower Shebelle Region in Southern Somalia on April 28 and May 1. Voice of America says the accusation is a repeat of events in 2007, when the United Nations said Eritrea was secretly sending arms and missiles to Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab. 

Hell on Earth

It is an open secret that Eritrea is not only a grand prison but also hell on Earth. The only Eritrean people who are doing fairly well are those who live in Diaspora or outside Eritrea. Those inside Eritrea are helpless and voiceless held in military and labor camps. Especially those people who live in Soba Debub of the Senafie area; Seraye in Gohaine Eritrea, in Barentu and Tesenei areas are suffering much by Afewarki’s authoritarian regime and its labor camps. For them the road to success and prosperity has become through Wodi Afom’s arrogance and belligerence.

Because of his stubborn attitude and consistent mistakes committed there of, Issayas Afewarki never sees problems that Eritrea is facing; he never ever apologizes; rather he diverts both the problem and the blame to someone else. A case in point is what has happened to Haile Derue. While on a visit to Europe Issayas Afewarki (Telamat Ugum) told many Eritrean residents there about the 1998-2000 war stating that we were beaten by Woyane and decided to retreat. A month later when Haile Derue told the same statement to journalists he was critically considered as “Temberkaki” for leaking the issue to external journalists and thrown to jail; while Telamat Ugum Issu remains as a hero telling us all throughout his motto: “Hade Lib Hade Hizbi”.

Holly Molly there is no rule of law; no justice; and no liberty for Hizbi Eritrea. Issayas Afewarki is the jury; Wodi Afom is the judge and the executor. Regular citizens find themselves in hell locked by Ugum Issu Wedi Medhine Berad of Abashawel. Eritrea and Issayas Afewarki are behaving in the same way as Hitler was behaving just before WWII. Issayas is building his military might and will soon be noticed by the international community. Issayas conscripts the youth into armed forces far more than Eritrea needs; and is eventually planning to carry out his nuclear ambitions. Likewise Wodi Afom exports instability by backing rebels in Chad, Ethiopia and Sudan, and now in Somalia.

What a bunch of communist retards that we are forced to face in Eritrea. May God bless the brave Hizbi Eritrea and the so-called “Gang of-15”? We consider them all as our heroes; and all these hardships shall soon pass just like the earlier ones; it will not be long when true Wedibat holds the power in Asmara.