Written by Adhanom Tewelde
29th January 2013
In political history of Eritrea, there is a rare of practice of engagement in peaceful conflict resolution strategies. In many circumstances of political movement and armed struggle for independence, Eritreans have failed to develop a civilized culture of discussion, negotiation, compromise, and reconciliation to overcome any problem that could emerge because of the existence of natural and inevitable differences. The biggest challenge in Eritrean politics is the difficulty of conceiving difference as an asset, but a menace. The argument can be exemplified by the following historic incidents that have been happened throughout the political struggle of the Red Sea nation:
(1) Assassination of Abdel Khadir Kebire in 1949
(2) Elimination of Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM) in 1965
(3) Suppression of “Obel” by ELF in 1972
(4) Suppression of “falul” (Anarchist) by Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in 1977
(5) Dissolving “Menka” (Bat) by Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) throughout 1973 – 1980
(6) Elimination of ELF by EPLF with the support of TPLF in 1981
(7) Purging fighters’ protest in 1993
(8) Suppression of war disabled veterans’ protest in 1994
(9) Obliterating protest of students of University of Asmara in 2001
(10) Detaining influential political figures called G-15 in 2001
(11) Jailing journalists banning all private news papers in 2001 and
(12) Continuous arresting religious leaders, worshipers, intellectuals, politicians, journalists, army commanders, and ordinary citizens who oppose the system architected by iron fisted President Issias Afeworki
These partly stated mass arrest and killings happened throughout history have done accusing the victims as foreign instruments, religious radicals whether Islamists or Christians, and regionalists possibly motivated by ethnic parochialism. In armed struggle, the leadership of ELF was criticized for having religious and regional prejudices and murdering innocent nationalists, mainly Christian nationalists from highlands of Eritrea. Equally, the new reformists, later organized as EPLF, never stopped executing many nationalists especially intellectual elite, who criticized the structure and style of the leadership. The deep contradiction and power acquisitiveness that appeared in the armed struggle ended up the nationalists to involve into tragic civil wars. ELF was eliminated by EPLF with help of TPLF. The scar and pain of the tragic war still exist; the Government of Eritrea has done neither national reconciliation nor recognizing and appreciating the efforts of the nationalists in national struggle.
The aspiration of the Eritreans to form a united, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Eritrea has been hurt; the government has increasingly become militant, violent and aggressive. It assertively suppressed any form of protest; they never attempted to develop the culture of negotiation promoting non violence strategies. It deliberately planted the seeds of fear and mistrust among influential political figures, intellectuals and military commanders which badly affected to form a solidified movement for change. The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), the sole political party, has produced more passive citizens, who are less likely to be creative and innovative to take a significant role in the national issues rather they decided to flee. Consequently, the young, energetic, and driving force for change, either kept in jail or military camps or fled to neighboring, becomes no more a potential threat to the system. Mostly, web based campaign for change has been less effective for decade as the ordinary people have no continuous access to internet services because of financial hardship and less advanced internet services in Eritrea.
The patriotic struggle of Eritreans, under PFDJ leadership, has failed to establish a ground where Eritreans to enjoy such natural and legal rights. For more than twenty years Eritrean people could not enjoy fundamental freedoms- freedom to live, freedom to voice, freedom to worship, freedom to move, and freedom to think of which most of humans can get naturally. The government totally violates the political, social and economic rights of the citizens. Most of the people are politically isolated, socially depressed and economically starved which have disbursed the productive young citizens in neighboring refugee camps where there are often raping, looting, discrimination, frustration and famine. How many young citizens are being kidnapped, auctioned and sold like slaves? How many young citizens are being slaughtered for supplying body organs for world market? How many citizens are suffering and dying in underground prisons without any trial and bail?
This is a question of humanity and moral obligation, not a question of political or ideological differences. This is not the time for blind competition between pro government and oppositions. It is time to save the life of innocent citizens; it is time to save Eritrea from further destruction and pain. It is time for real and health change to turn the state from the rules of jungle to the rules of justice. Nonetheless, the expectation of true change or any political transformation from top or superiors is unthinkable and illusion, because the President of Eritrea Issias Afeworki, whose age in 70’s, not 66 as most of media wrongly cited, is not enthusiastic or possibly not ready to arrange national reconciliation, release innocent political prisoners, implement national constitution, respect natural rights and human dignity, normalize complicated political and military tensions with neighboring countries, acknowledge political and ideological differences of citizens, build strong and accountable institutions as national pillars, allow to have genuine national history etc.
Healthy change is a process that may take a decade or century depending on the magnitude, type, root and character of the undertaken substance for transformation which demands good leadership styles, patience, wisdom, skills, resource and adequate time to achieve the desired outcomes. In the context of Eritrea, the president becomes older and older (i.e. in 70’s); his health, capacity, intellect, and persistence steadily deteriorate which negatively affect his dynamism. In addition, the personality of the president is not supportive for such fast change as he is an authoritative, arrogant, intolerant, aggressive and hostile in his character. He personalizes the whole institutions as he lives forever. In fact the personalization strategy the president use to totally destroy the essence of good governance in Eritrea; he has done nothing to cultivate the young generation to take national responsibility equipped with moral values, justice, understanding, cooperation and intellect. Rather his system has developed hatred, division, mistrust, egoism, crime, and negligence among young generation worsened by identity crisis and family fragmentation.
Those who believe President Issias Afeworki as an “Angel” or “National Armor” of independent Eritrea, they need to scrutinize the legacy of the leader with open and sincere heart and mind. In spite of the fact that the reluctance of Ethiopia to implement the final border demarcation, facing external challenges does not mean destroying domestic institutions, eradicating roots of justice, persecuting innocent citizens, killing spirit of education, paralyzing economic prospects and debilitating futurity of the young generation. Sick home is always weak, hectic, and defenseless that damages the patriotism, responsibility and contribution of the citizens. Currently, the system in Eritrea is not capable enough to defend the national interest and security; and it fails to protect the citizens who are being kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed in the hands of human traffickers which question the national pride, values and significance.
The promising political transformation, but less organized and coordinated, appeared in Forto based Ministry of Information in January 21th, 2103 becomes a testimony of growing dissatisfaction among wider Eritrean societies and the reluctances of the president for political change. The president further turns wild and hostile since he has already started to arrest high government officials and army commanders such as Abdela Jabir, a Director of Organizational Affairs for the ruling party, Mustofa Nerhussien, a close friend of the President and governor of Debub (Sourth Zone), Col. Saleh Osman, a distinguished army commander, and “Shield of Asseb” during boarder conflict with Ethiopia, and Col. Seid Ali Hadji, a dedicated army commander. Catastrophic human right violations can possibly occur as the government could use the incident as means to suppress more critics alleging them as traitors, terrorists or Islamic radicals. The government is found so busy to tune a political propaganda to divert the public attention, and to disguise the movement for reformation as “national infidelity”.
More considerably, these political transformation initiative has brought a significant lesson for aspirant citizens to instill justice in Eritrea to find out the best, well coordinated and effective strategy to remove the leadership understanding the character, skills of power grip, talents of establishing secretive networks, proficiency of manipulating and disguising national matters, ability to create mistrust, tension, confusion, rift and hatred among top government officials and military commanders in first place. Secondly, the initiative confirms the passivity of the ordinary citizens who live in fear and panic without having any significant role in the political life of the country because of violent, aggressive and suppressive measures that government has taken to crush the protest of the citizens, for example fighters’ antagonism (1993), war disable veterans’ dispute (1994), and G-15’s initiatives for reformation (2001).
More objectively speaking, the public partly supports the existing government, whatever crime committed, feared the possibility of emergence of power vacuum and intervention of Ethiopia in the internal affairs of Eritrea, because the phenomena of no peace and no war enables the government to complicate the internal politics and justify its weakness and crime against innocent civilians in name of national security and interest. Thus, both pro government and opposition groups should collectively pressurize the President Issias Afeworki to do all necessary political transformation in time before leaving the state disorganized such as implementation of national constitution, holding national reconciliation, releasing political prisoners, resolving boarder issues, and building strong and sustainable national institutions which help to develop good governance and stable justice system in Eritrea.
This national task cannot be done overnight; it is a process that the president must start today if he really cares about his people. But waiting biological order to remove him from power is meant exposing the Red Sea state to further power struggle, human right violations, crime, hatred, fragmentation and possible anarchy, because Eritreans have no rules of law to guide the country; nobody knows how the economy operates as some critics called it “Mafia style economic system”; no instruction of power sharing or substitution; no well established or defined governance system; and no well publicized facts about the roots and progress of conflicts with neighboring countries. Eritrea, existed through bitter struggle, appears as personal property of the president; and kindly requests the PFDJ to hold healthy transfer to its citizens. May God Bless Eritrea!!
Adhanom Tewedle
adhanomtewelde@gmail.com
Comments
Catastrophic Human Right Violations Anticipated — 15 Comments
Interesting article full of facts. What ever was said here is true. There is something wrong with the way the Eritreans communicate from opposing sides. As u said, personalizing is one problem. Fuel that with ignorance, the whole thing gets out of hand. We are all traumatized but most Eritreans from the main land are rigid, jelous and emotional to my surprise. I am sorry to say this but I found Eritreans from other backgrounds (AMICHE) more tolerant of ideas, more modest and less emotional than those from the main land. In any case, we will have a very long way to go to get out of theses problems. The president’s rigidity and emotional discharge emanated from this overall Eritrean problem. In so saying, I do not think he is the only cause of the problem at home, I think the society is responsible as well. This setup is disappointing and I believe Eritreans need a serious CULTURAL REVOLUTION.
Tnx
Fetsum Abraham,
Do not forget the Amiches were born & raised in Ethiopia ,were they learned manners & respect from Ethiopians, for those of us who were born in qa rest broom called Eritrea do not expect us to smell like roses.
For example in Addis Abeba ,hotels like Wabi Shebele, frequented by Eritrean born & raised teenagers aged 40 & 50 ,there was always fighting & bullying.
correction ,I meant to say ¨rest room¨ & not rest ¨broom¨ please.
We know happened in the past and what is going on now. Thanks for presenting the facts but the question,how to get solution national disaster.Simple angers and frustrations cannot solve problems.
sorry., please read its as…we know what happened
Good Information. Now let’s focus on Action. Do something. Example, support the Occupy movements, support the activists, join the opposition and demand positive action. We have now enough information to know that Issayas and his government is a failure and needs to be removed. Even Ali Abdu agrees with me. The only way to speed this up is to stop being passive spectator instead get with those who are taking action and become an agent of change.
Dear brother, are you expecting the tyrant to assist you in changing his fifty years structure of his empire! You are mistaken. Despite your beautiful writing, your analysis is zero. The people are brainwashed hence they do as they are told. Yes, building a new structure will take us long, but not that long. If we are genuine and have no ulterior, self aggrandizement motives, and we stand for the people a d the nation, we can do it. We don’t need help from the current regime.
Dear Gebela,
I think Zero has value. I have got it, because I contributed something little which may or may not impact. And I cherish myself when I see my fellow are still in negative which is below zero. But the collection of some little works can bring some differences.
Whether we like or not, the Government has a violent military competency and “large public support” (either true or hypocrite). In spite of the fact that Eritrean movements for change in diaspora have played a significant role to enlighten the mass, the efforts are not well coordinated and united for practical change in Eritrea. The citizens inside the country are still not responsive. In my opinion, the fundamental changes could possibly come only from the elements inside the government or what you call regime. This can be well justified by the movement of G-15 in 2001 and Forto incident in 2013, but I have not witnessed any remote controlled attempts of changes in Eritrea from Diaspora. If there is, you can share. I have no idea about it. Secondly, we should be sincere with process of democratization and building institutions; they grow with advancement of economy, social cohesion, political rights, social justice and other attributing factors. You can see the journey of USA to reach that level; you can explore the democratic and governance challenges in most of African countries. As citizens looking for change, we need to have both psychological and physical preparation for such reality and journey. But, it is not bad to be more optimistic.
Thank you!!
Well done Adhanom! My fellow Eritrean,
Please keep educating us. It will certainly take a long time before we can understand and stand on such solid ground to walk Eritrea in to peace and prosperous nation.
But this is the only way. Hence will always be in need of people with such noble ideology who will be helping us to identifying the root cause of our division which is hindering us from having civilized people and civilized way of respecting and accepting and considering each person regardless of gender, religion, educational or class statues , ethnic diversity and so on.
Again I am very happy to have you as my fellow Eritrean
Keep the good work!
God bless Eritrea!
Wanna be Eritreans. Dont go around the bushes. Fight and work hard for woyane to get out of Land of Eritrea. How is you find it difficult to be vocal about it? Get that done and the rest of teh equation will take care of itself. You will not need to fight to see internal change. But sorry , I think it will be difficult for you all to do anything about it , zibeliet kebdi koynu keykewin
Dear Brother,
I do agree with you to be the voice for the implementation of the final and binding boarder decision that Government of Ethiopia has abstained, because it is definitely a legal issue, not a political one. Personally, I believe that the implementation process can go smoothly when Eritrea, as independent state, can strengthen its economy, diplomacy, social-justice and political rights of its citizens. You should not forget that you are living with competing political and economic interest on the face of the earth. I think it is easier for the Government of Eritrea to clean his house to overcome external challenges instead of dispersing, torturing, detaining and murdering its people.If we are taking ourselves as “true Eritreans” we need to feel the pain of other fellow citizens. Thanks!!
Those who wish a dove from serpent`s eggs are doomed to suffer the consequence of their ignorance. Those who were murderrer bandits are still that, murderrer ,rapist bandits.
“More objectively speaking, the public partly supports the existing government, whatever crime committed, feared the possibility of emergence of power vacuum and intervention of Ethiopia in the internal affairs of Eritrea ..”
“Thus, both pro government and opposition groups should collectively pressurize the President Issias Afeworki to do all necessary political transformation in time before leaving the state disorganized …”
Adhanom Tewedle
Dear brother,
Supporters of DIA and his government are not more nationalist than others, they do so for a number of reasons such as self interest, “our government (which is translated as Hamasien, Christian, Kebesa .. etc. and a few more stupid reasons along the same reasoning)” and indifference.
A mixture of ideas that nowadays are slowly changing as people politically mature, and problems that used to be “some one else’s” are knocking on the door of almost every citizen regardless of who he/she is. Those who support this government are the list bothered what could happen to Eritrea if the devil goes leaving behind a completely destroyed country.
Expecting from Issias Afeworki to lead any reform is like expecting a devil to behave like an angel. People who think this could be a way out, are very far from reality or are still living in the past, when he was portrayed as great leader, while in reality he has always been a mass murderer.
well done .
Well done Adhanom! My fellow Eritrean,
Please keep educating us. It will certainly take a long time before we can understand and stand on such solid ground to walk Eritrea in to peace and prosperous nation.
But this is the only way. Hence will always be in need of people with such noble ideology who will be helping us to identifying the root cause of our division which is hindering us from having civilized people and civilized way of respecting and accepting and considering each person regardless of gender, religion, educational or class statues , ethnic diversity and so on.
Again I am very happy to have you as my fellow Eritrean
Keep the good work!
God bless Eritrea!