In recent weeks there have been some interesting discussions in the Eritrean public domains, where writers including Yosief G/Hiwot (YG) and a certain Ali Salem raised issues that certainly drew the attention of readers. In this regard, I did not see any harm in Yosief researching the recent past of our liberation struggle - “the ghedli” - to explain the root causes behind the behaviours of the  regime. However, YG’s questioning whether Eritrea was worthy of all the sacrifices paid for was a challenge to our conventionally accepted wisdom. In response to such questions, I believe that Eritrea’s independence and sovereignty is irreversible and all the sacrifices paid by its people are justified because they were carried out to repulse Ethiopian aggression and illegal annexation. In such cases, the price paid for is not measured by the rewarded entity – Eritrea, per se, but rather by the achievement of Justice! Hence, Yousief’s questioning, while still appreciated, does seem to have been intended to lead to inaccurate conclusion such as the one he resorted to when he questions the legitimacy of Eritrea as an independent entity or the sacrifices made to achieve that independence. 

In retrospect, if the question was whether the entire armed struggle for liberation with its heavy cost was avertable? I would have answered: Yes, and would have probably come closer to agreeing with YG’s prolonged analysis of the entire period of “ghedli”/”Nidal” for the following less spoken about reasons:-

1. The Eritrean Liberation Movement (ELM) was a natural and subsequent political development in Eritreans’ struggle for their legitimate right to self-determination. The ELM (1958 – 1965) came about in the wake of Ethiopia’s unilateral violation of the Federation arrangement and the lowering of Eritrea’s legitimate flag[i]. Since Ethiopia failed to respect the compromise federal solution imposed by the UN through Resolution 390-A, Eritreans had to decide whether to submit to Ethiopia’s will and become second class subjects in the Amhara ruled Ethiopia or pursue their legitimate, but temporarily interrupted, right to full self-determination. They chose the later and ELM was born as a true expression of this choice.
2. For the first and perhaps last time in Eritrea’s delicate history, the ELM managed to appeal to Eritrea’s diverse society, united Eritrean Muslims and Christians, Highlanders and Lowlanders, infiltrated institutions including Eritrea’s police force, spread its organisation and mobilisation cells of 7 (famously known and still remembered by our Kebessan counterparts as “mahbar shaw3atte” and in the lowlands/Muslims as “Haraka or Haraket”).
3. Having succeeded in winning over and uniting all Eritreans to the Independence cause, albeit through peaceful means and not by coercion, ELM’s path for liberation and independence was interrupted and later replaced by the ELF. 30 years later we can clearly see the strategic error committed by the founders of ELF in the cost not only to our lives and properties, but also to our social fabric and cultural values, including the refugee exodus (mainly from the Muslim/Lowland areas), in addition to the arrogance and militant dictatorship displayed by the armed struggle leaders in their intolerance to differences of opinion and their resort to subduing opponents by force, and the continuation of this culture to this date.

On the basis of the above reflection on our history alone, I would lean toward the idea that, yes, perhaps we would have been better off without the ELF as it existed and its offspring including the EPLF/PFDJ and the entire armed struggle. The ELM would have probably managed to produce a nationally united leadership that would have led a united people through a “blue and green olive” revolution to our final independence at a far less cost to our lives and properties.

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To make myself even clearer, I do not question the legitimacy and importance of our independence or the struggle for our independence, nor do I question the sacrifices already made by our martyrs in the armed struggle, may the almighty God bless their souls, and the sacrifices of our people in general. What I would object to or strongly detest is the policies pursued by our armed struggle leaders that led to our present day dilemma and decadency and still continues to haunt us. 

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As for Ali Salem, the issues expressed in his writings are grievances and resentments felt across the Eritrean lowland communities. Demographic changes in the lowlands have been taking place over the last 50 years and they certainly are not only the outcome of the recently reported transfer of people from the highlands to the lowlands, but a precipitation of the past and present. They have been going on alongside the scorched earth policies the Ethiopians pursued from 1967 to 1991, which led to the exodus of genocide fleeing lowlanders to the Sudan, where they still live in refugee camps barred from a dignified return to their country by the EPLF/PFDJ regime since 1991. However, these deep rooted problems are not the faults of the Tigrigna ethno-linguistic group, but of the rulers of Eritrea starting from Haile Sellassie through to Menghistu Hailemariam and to the /Isaias Afwerki regimes. The latter literally refused to cooperate with Donor countries and the UNHCR to facilitate the return of refugees to their original locations, and therefore is certainly responsible and accountable for this misdeed among others.

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In the meantime, I would add my voice of discontent over Ali Salem’s use of phrases such as “ethno-Nazis”, which I believe are too extreme, uncalled for and counter-productive. Demonising any community does not serve the cause of Lowlanders, nor will it erase the self-inflicted weakness prevalent among some of the currently assembling groupings under the so-called “solidarity front” and or help their ill-conceived attempts to monopolise representation of Lowlanders and Muslims through antagonism and use of emotional rhetoric.

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Isolationist and antagonistic noises are more harmful to us, as Lowlanders and Muslims, than they are to the well entrenched and better organised Tigrigna highlanders. They also help strengthen the position of and their chauvinist allies by weakening the position of our Tigrigna moderates and democrats. It may be useful to remind ourselves that just as there are ardent chauvinist Tigrigna, there are also plenty of patriotic Tigrigna who have been outspoken against the EPLF/PFDJ both from within and from outside and they have paid dearly in the course of struggle for democracy and justice alongside their Muslim brethren. On the other hand, just as there are Muslim and Lowlander victims, there are also perpetrators of crimes and morale decadency amongst us as a segment of the Eritrean heterogeneous society.

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Thus the road map to resolving our national, ethnic, regional, cultural and human rights problems is not by demonising one another, but by bridging the gaps and rallying behind a common cause of defeating a common enemy: despotic dictatorship (including those dictators waiting for an opportunity), and reinstating our social, cultural, regional, ethnic, economic and human rights. A holistic approach is the way to recovery from our current ills. We, as Eritreans, as much as we may be divided, we are also too intertwined and intermingled as a society, territory, history and culture to be separated or partitioned into fiefdoms. 50 years of common struggle have also proven that partition projects that were attempted at different times throughout that period did not succeed. I do not see them succeeding today either. Nor will union with Ethiopia can be the answer for Ethiopia itself is still in transition from a state created and dominated by Amhara/Habasha colonialism to legitimacy based on unity by consent as stipulated in their constitution adopted in 1995 and the commendable article 39 contained therein. Whether they will succeed in the transition process is something for all to wait and see.  This issue’s relevance to us as Eritreans is to state that Ethiopia is not qualified to bring about a solution to our internal Eritrean problems. It is only through Eritrean means and Eritrean means only that we can resolve our problems and put our country in the path of justice, democracy and sustainable peace and development.

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Meanwhile, it is in our national interest to continue promoting effective peaceful civic resistance at the national level by continuously putting pressure on the regime and reaching out to PFDJites who wish to change their course and be part of the struggle for change, as well as by supporting nationalistic groups such as the EDP, EPP (inclusive of Gash-Setit group), EPM, EIC and Nahda. These groups’ programs and initiatives are all for inclusive approach to our struggle and reportedly seem willing to formulate a united peaceful resistance in the face of PFDJ’s despotism. Others with a different choice can also be engaged and persuaded to follow the route of the above five groups by staying away from isolationist and antagonistic approaches that they may be embroiled in at present.

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I conclude my article by quoting Mohamed Ahmed’s statement stated in his latest and eloquently written article:-

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If and when an Afar is complaining and we don’t lend an ear; If and when a Jeberti is sad and we don’t share his grief; If and when a Kunama is aching and we don’t feel his pain; If and when a Muslim feels robbed and we don’t feel his loss; If and when a Christian feels used and we don’t feel his predicament – then as a people, we are doomed.

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May Peace and Justice prevail in Eritrea!

\n Bohashem@Arkokabay.comBohashem@Arkokabay.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it