South Sudan’s president has sacked his entire cabinet, in an apparent power struggle with other senior leaders.
Salva Kiir issued a decree dismissing all ministers and deputy ministers, as well as Vice-President Riek Machar.
No clear reason was given for the sackings, but analysts say Mr Kiir and Mr Machar have been embroiled in a power struggle for months.
South Sudan has suffered from chronic economic problems since it split from Sudan in 2011.
There was tight security outside ministry buildings on Wednesday, while radio broadcasts urged people to remain calm, the AFP news agency reports.
Its stability has been hampered by lingering rows over territory and oil with its northern neighbour.
Recently some of Mr Kiir’s colleagues have hinted at discontent with his leadership.
Local reports say Mr Kiir is battling to maintain control of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the former rebel group that now runs the country.
Mr Machar, who had been stripped of some of his powers in April, had hinted that he may stand against Mr Kiir for leadership of the SPLM before the next presidential election in 2015.
Dissolving the cabinet in South Sudan hints at a wider attempt by the president to restructure not only the government but power and access to power in the country.
There have been reports in recent weeks of strained relations within the governing SPLM and the relationship between the president and his deputy are said to be at an all-time low.
Although the cabinet restructuring has been a long time coming, its timing is curious and raises suspicions that the president could be using his executive powers to stamp out dissent in the party and disagreement within his government.
Whether the sacking of the entire cabinet will succeed in calming the disquiet within South Sudan’s political circles remains to be seen -there is also a real fear that this might further divide the country along ethnic lines.
The BBC’s Nyambura Wambugu in the capital, Juba, says there is a real fear that the sacking could further divide the country along ethnic lines.
Mr Kiir is from the Dinka community, which is the largest in South Sudan, while Mr Machar is from the second-largest group, the Nuer, some of whom have complained about Dinka domination.
Financial scandal
Under-secretaries have been put in charge of the departments and the government insists it can function smoothly until new ministers are appointed.
Barnaba Marial Benjamin, who had been information minister until Tuesday, characterised the sackings as a “major reshuffle” and said it was part of Mr Kiir’s constitutional mandate.
“Some of these people will come back and some will not,” Mr Benjamin AFP.
Among the other leaders to be dismissed was Pagan Amum, the top negotiator in peace talks with Sudan.
He was removed from his post as SPLM secretary general and the decree said he would be investigated for mismanaging the party.
Last month Mr Kiir sacked two other senior ministers embroiled in a multi-million dollar financial scandal, a decision reportedly criticised by Mr Amum.
It was unclear whether Tuesday’s decree had any link to the scandal.
South Sudanese journalist Nhial Bol said Mr Kiir had probably acted to end the paralysis in his government.
“Things have not been moving in the government because of this internal fighting over who is going to control the SPLM,” Mr Bol told Reuters news agency.
South Sudan is rich in oil, but is one of Africa’s least developed countries, with few paved roads and poor health and educational facilities.
It gained independence from Sudan in July 2011 after a decades-long civil war.
However, the oil refineries are on Sudanese territory, so the South relies on its northern neighbour to get its product on to the market.
In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the Security Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to re-establish the eight-member Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia until November 25, 2014.
World Bulletin/News Desk
The Un Security CoUncil extended the mandate of the United Nations expert panel monitoring compliance with sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea by 16 months.
In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the Security CoUncil asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to re-establish the eight-member Monitoring Group on Eritrea and SomaliaUntil November 25, 2014.
The group, which monitors compliance with the embargoes on the delivery of weapons and military equipment to Somalia and Eritrea, also investigates any seaport operations in Somalia that could generate revenue for the militant group known as Al-Shabaab that controls some Somali territory.
The Security CoUncil in 1992 imposed an embargo on all deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Somalia.
In March, the CoUncil partially lifted the weapons ban for one year to boost the Somalian government’s capacity to protect areas recovered from Al-Shabaab and defend against fresh attempts by such groups to destabilize the coUntry.
The resolution indicated that the arms embargo would not apply to arms or equipment sold or supplied solely for the development of the government’s security forces, but it kept its restrictions in place on heavy weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles.
Charcoal ban
The 15-member CoUncil also expressed its concern at reports of continuing violations of the charcoal ban by member states and stressed that it is willing to take action against those which violate the ban.
It also reiterates that a charcoal export ban applies to all charcoal from Somalia, whether or not it originated in the coUntry, and requested AMISOM to support and assist Somali authorities in preventing the export of charcoal from the coUntry.
Israel: NewPressure on Asylum Seekers to Leave For Eritreans, Sudanese, More Threats of Prolonged Detention
(Tel Aviv, July 15, 2013) – Israeli authorities are using new procedures to pressure at least 1,400 Eritrean and Sudaneseasylum seekers, some detained for over a year, to return to their countries, Human Rights Watch said today. Under international law, asylum seekers should be detained only in exceptional circumstances, their claims should be fairly examined and they should never be forced orpressured to return to a country where they face a serious risk of persecution.
Recent guidelines instruct Israeli officials on how to interview detainees while filming them about whether they wish to give up their asylum claims and return to their home countries. Detainees are told that if they do not agree to be sent home, they face years in detention. On July 14, 2013, 14 Eritreans detained for many months left Israel for Eritrea via Istanbul.Some of the group told the UN refugee agency they would “do anything to get out of prison.”
“It doesn’t matter how Israel dresses this up, this is using the threat of prolonged detention to force Eritrean and Sudanese nationals to give up their asylum claims,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Israel should end its unlawful detention policy and release all asylum seekers while their claims are fairly examined.”
Worldwide, some 80 percent of Eritrean asylum seekers are granted some form of protection because of credible fears of persecution relating to punishment for evading indefinite military service in Eritrea and other widespread human rights abuses. Under Sudanese law, anyone who has visited Israel faces up to 10 years in prison. Sudanese officials have said the courts will apply the law.
The 14 who left Israel on July 14 are part of a group of20 detained Eritrean asylum seekerswho in early July signed papers agreeing to return to Eritrea, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Israeli officials took them to the Eritrean Embassy in Tel Aviv, which issued them travel documents.
As of late June, UNHCR reported that almost 2,000 African nationals were in detention in Israel, including 1,075 Eritreans – all but 28 of whom had lodged asylum claims – and 625 Sudanese – at least half of whom had claimed asylum. UNHCR says that the authorities have rejected about 30 Eritrean asylum applications and reached no decision on the rest.
The detainees have little hope of being released because of restrictive and unlawful Israeli asylum laws and policies. On February 25, UNHCR told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that an “agreement to return to Eritrea under a jail ultimatum cannot be considered voluntary by any criterion.”
According to refugee rights activists, in late June, more than 300 detained Eritrean asylum seekers went on hunger strike for about a week in Israel’s Saharonim Detention Center to protest their prolonged detention. Some left in ambulances, and their condition is unknown. Israeli news reports said that prison officials acknowledged transferring detainees to other parts of the facility and to prisons in an effort to end the strike.
On June 27, Israel’s attorney general approved the new procedures, which he said aimed to document “the free will of infiltrators” who are in detention in Israel, and who wish to return to their home countries of Eritrea and Sudan. The procedures cover all Eritreans and Sudanese nationals detained under Israel’srecently amended Prevention of Infiltration Law, also known as the Anti-Infiltration Law.
The procedures authorize Border Control officers to record video interviews in which they ask detainees requesting to leave Israel “open ended questions” to clarify whether they are “aware of the situation” in their countries of origin. If the detainee has claimed asylum, the officers should explain that the person may “freeze” the asylum claim and agree in writing to return to the country of origin.
An official who believes the detainee’s request does not “express free will” can determine that the detainee should remain in detention. The procedure states that a detainee can retract a decision to return home at any point, but that the person will return to detention.
“The Israeli authorities are doing everything they can to present blackmail of asylum seekers as lawful procedure,” Simpson said. “No matter how many laws and regulations the authorities adopt, detainees agreeing to return to countries they fled do so because prolonged detention has broken their resolve.”
International law prohibits refoulement – the forced return to a serious risk of persecution. Human Rights Watch said Israel violates the refoulement prohibition if Eritrean or other asylum seekers “choose” to return to their country after Israeli authorities threaten prolonged or indefinite detention as the only alternative. The 1951 Refugee Convention bars such return “in any manner whatsoever” to places where a person would face a serious risk of persecution.
UNHCRguidelines ondetention say asylum seekers should be detained only “as a last resort,” as a strictly necessary and proportionate measure to achieve a legitimate legal purpose, and that countries should detain a person for expulsion only after the person’s asylum claim has been finally determined and rejected. Detention is permitted only briefly to establish a person’s identity, or for longer periods if it is the only way to achieve broader aims such as protecting national security or public health.
On July 1, Israeli authorities also adopted new rules expanding their powers to detain Eritreans and Sudanese nationals living in Tel Aviv and other cities.
“Every few months, the Israeli authorities adopt new laws and procedures to detain as many Eritrean and Sudanese nationals as possible to then force them out of the country,” Simpson said. “Israel’s aim is crystal clear: use the threat of long-term detention to thwart thousands, and possibly tens of thousands,of asylum claims.”
For more information on recent steps to expand the use of detention, press detainees to leave Israel and make life more difficult for those who are not detained, please see below.
For more information, please contact:
In Geneva, Gerry Simpson (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish): +41-79 2-199-568; or +33-6-83-74-56-07; or simpsog@hrw.org In Jerusalem, Bill Van Esveld (English), +972-59-507-5886; or +972-54-920-4062; or vanesvb@hrw.org In Washington, DC, Joe Stork (English): +1-202-299-4925 (mobile); or storkj@hrw.org In New York, Tamara Alrifai (English, Arabic, French, Spanish): +1-646-309-8896 (mobile); or alrifat@hrw.org
The New “Voluntary Returns Procedure” Israel’s new procedures governing how officials should document an asylum seeker’s wish to return to his or her country of origin aim to justify unlawful pressure on detained asylum seekers – who by definition fear persecution in their home country – to return home.
Until recently, Israel had no formal procedure to handle cases in which Eritrean and Sudanese detainees said they wished to leave Israel. The attorney general announced that his office would develop a “voluntary returns procedure” after the media criticized the Israeli authorities following a case in early March, when an Eritrean detainee reportedly agreed to fly from Israel to Uganda, but was then forced to fly to Egypt. In Egypt, he decided to return to Eritrea rather than face renewed detention on return to Israel.
In a May 13 court hearing, the state attorney said that in the previous year, Israel had “voluntarily deported” 534 Sudanese nationals who had been in detention, and 1,500 who had not been detained,through a third country. UNHCR says that in addition to the group of 20 Eritreans who agreed to leave, on July 10 its staff spoke with seven Sudanese men, including some from Darfur, detained at the Ktsiot Detention Center who said they had agreed to return to Sudan because “they preferred to take a risk and not to stay indefinitely in prison” in Israel.
Expanding Detention of Asylum Seekers
Over the past few years, hundreds of the Eritreans reached Israel aftersurviving kidnapping in Sudan and Egypt and widespread torture by criminal gangs in Egypt’s Sinai desert. The majority of those in detention, including Sudanese nationals, entered Israel in or after June 2012 and were detained on arrival under Israel’s Anti-Infiltration Law, which allows the authorities to detain anyone irregularly entering Israel.
Israeli authorities have also used a September 2012 regulationto arrest and detain people under the Anti-Infiltration Law, mostly Eritrean and Sudanese nationals who have been living in Israel for several years.
The September 2012 regulation allows the authorities to detain and deport any “infiltrator” suspected of offenses “endangering national security or the public peace,” even without formal charges or convictions. Under the regulations, immigration officials may order the detention and deportation of three categories of people:
- Those police are holding on suspicion of having committed an offense, but whom police intend to release “because there is not enough evidence to try [them] in court or due to lack of public interest” in prosecuting them;
- Those suspected at any pointof having committed an offense and whose cases have been closed due to a lack of evidence or public interest and who were released before the 2012 regulations came into effect; and
- Those convicted of any criminal offense who have served their sentences, whether before or after the 2012 regulations went into effect.
UNHCR officials in Israel and Israeli groups working with refugees say that many of those detained under the regulation were suspected of minor offenses, such as low-grade assault charges or possession of stolen goods such as mobile phones.
On July 1, Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority amended the 2012 regulations and expanded the definition of suspected offenses on the basis of which Israeli authorities can arrest and detain people in these categories. The amended regulations say that immigration officials may order the detention and deportation of someone to whom an offense is “attributed” that “causes real harm to the public order,” including “low-level property offenses (examples are cell phone and bicycle theft), offenses of forgery (including specifically the forgery of visas and permits), as well as offenses of violence (threats at the low level and regular assault offenses).”
On July 9, the Israeli daily Maarivreportedthat the Israeli authorities had arrested 500 “foreign nationals from Africa” under the September 2012 and the July 1 procedures and that an unnamed “senior official in the Immigration and Population Authority” had said the law allows the authorities “to detain foreign subjects in administrative detention until at least January 2015. In parallel we are allowing those who were arrested for light criminal offenses to be arrested and to leave the country.” The official added that he expected “the number [of detainees] will grow by hundreds [more] in the coming days.”
Pressure on Eritreans and Sudanese Not in Detention About 50,000 other Eritrean and Sudanese nationals live in Tel Aviv and a few thousand live in other cities. Israel has informally suspended their deportation, but senior officials have repeatedly threatened to deport them without officially clarifying whether they would first be allowed to claim asylum. In early March, the Israeli media reported that the interior minister said he planned to detain all “infiltrators” – which Israeli law defines as anyone who irregularly enters Israel and which includes the 50,000 Eritreans and Sudanese – and to deport them to a still-to-be-identified third country.
On July 10, the Tel Aviv municipality closed down 10 unlicensed businesses belonging to “migrants,” the Ynet news website reported. A refugee activist who witnessed some of the closures told Human Rights Watch that it “was a humiliating process with officials with dogs and horses kicking out the owners and taking away their belongings in trucks.”
Carter Discusses Security Partnership With Leaders in Ethiopia
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 25, 2013 – Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with senior government and military leaders here to discuss the U.S.-Ethiopia security partnership and shared interests in East African security challenges, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said today in a statement.
Carter’s July 23-24 visit to this Horn of Africa country was the final leg of a three-country trip that began in Israel and included a stop in Uganda.
The deputy secretary is the highest-ranking Defense Department official to visit Ethiopia in more than a decade, Little said.
“My visit here to Addis represents not only the increasing importance we place on our partnership with Ethiopia, but the importance we place on the role of the African Union also in addressing Africa’s security challenges, be it Somalia, Mali, the troubled Sudans, or the Central African Republic,” Carter said after a meeting last night with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Carter characterized the U.S.-Ethiopia partnership as an important bilateral relationship and expressed gratitude to Hailemariam for the critical role Ethiopia has played in addressing regional challenges in Somalia and the Sudans.
“Ethiopia and the United States have shared interests in these countries and we continue to explore additional ways that we can work together to tackle East Africa’s security challenges,” the deputy secretary said.
“I’d like to note that my government recognizes Africa’s strategic importance,” he added, “and we at the Department of Defense recognize its strategic importance today and [for] the future.”
Carter and Hailemariam also discussed next steps in response to recent events in South Sudan and exchanged views on the African Peace and Security Architecture, maritime security, and conflicts in Somalia, Mali, the Central African Republic and Africa’s Great Lakes region. The African Peace and Security Architecture is an ongoing Africa-AU framework for crisis management on the African continent.
A senior defense official said that Ethiopia is not a formal partner in the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia, called AMISOM, it has forces in Somalia and was the first of Somalia’s neighbors to respond against al-Shabaab, even before the African Union pulled together what now is AMISOM. Al-Shabaab is an al-Qaida-linked militant group and U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization fighting to create a fundamentalist Islamic state in Somalia.
“The Ethiopians are the No. 1 peacekeeping contributor in Africa at this point in terms of number of forces,” the official added. “They have substantial forces involved in South Sudan and in Sudan, and they’ve been involved diplomatically there as well.”
Carter also met with Chief of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces Gen. Samora Yenus to discuss the critical role Ethiopia has played in stabilizing Somalia and providing peacekeepers along the border between Sudan and South Sudan.
While in Addis Ababa, home of the African Union headquarters, the deputy secretary met with Erastus Mwencha, deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, the most senior DOD leader ever to visit the AU. The African Union, made up of 54 African states, this year celebrated the 50th anniversary of its original Organization of African Unity. The AU took the place of the OAU nearly a decade ago, and one of its objectives is to promote peace, security and stability on the continent.
At the AU, Carter thanked Mwencha for the African Union’s leadership in tackling Africa’s security challenges.
The deputy secretary also met with alumni from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Addis, founded in 1999 and one of five DOD regional centers.
The ACSS is an agency within DOD that serves as a link between military and civilians involved in the security sector from across Africa, Europe and the United States, according to center literature. The goal is to bring people together to maintain a global network of professionals with a shared commitment to addressing security-related challenges facing Africa.
At a breakfast yesterday morning, Carter met with ACSS alumni from across the continent who offered their perspectives on Africa’s progress in addressing its security and development challenges.
“My job in the Department of Defense is to let people have the basic security that allows everything else in life to be possible — economic development, political development, personal development, community development and everything else,” he told the alumni.
None of that is possible, he said, unless people can wake up every morning and go to work and take their children to school and do all kinds of everyday activities in a safe environment. A few places in the world are blessed with such security, and after a while begin to take it for granted, he added, and people who don’t have it think of nothing else.
“So our job in part is to provide that security. Here in Africa, there are so many sources of insecurity and certainly the United States military is not the answer to them,” Carter said. “We try to make contributions where we can, where you teach us that would be a useful thing to do, and I’m very open to that.
“We in the United States are increasingly turning our thoughts to Africa,” he continued, “because we recognize that this is one of the places that is going to determine its future and our future by trade and culture and many other things.” Biographies: Ash Carter
Military beats them, threatens to keep them from attending university.
By: Morning Star News
Friday, 26 July 2013,
Eritrean authorities are punishing 39 high school students for their Christian faith, excluding them from a graduation ceremony and subjecting them to beatings and hard labour, according to Christian support organization Open Doors.
After completing a four-month military training required in Eritrea, the students, including 11 girls, have been arrested for their “Christian beliefs and for their commitment to Christ,” sources told Open Doors.
“The youths are now enduring beating, forced hard labour and insufficient food and water” at the SAWA military training centre, the organization reported in a press statement. “Sources said authorities are also threatening the students with long imprisonment and exclusion from university should they ‘fail to renounce Christ.’”
After completing school, all Eritreans are required to participate in national service. The 39 students were selected out from 17,000 students of the 26th national service intake who graduated on July 13, according to Open Doors. Graduating students then continue to Senior Secondary School to complete grade 12.
Since 2002, worship outside the government-sanctioned Sunni Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC), Roman Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea has been forbidden, with Protestant worship a criminal offence. In 2005, authorities also began persecuting the EOC, particularly those in the church’s renewal movement.
The government began a widespread crackdown on Christians outside the state-approved churches early this year, according to Open Doors, detaining them in harsh conditions. Christians make up 47 percent of Eritrea’s population of 5.2 million, and Muslims 50 percent, according to Operation World.
The Marxist-leaning architect of repression of religion and free speech in Eritrea, President Isaias Afewerki, has been in power since Eritrea’s liberation from Ethiopia in 1991; the National Assembly elected him as president 1993.
“In 2001, in the wake of a two-year border war with Ethiopia (1998-2000), Afewerki began cracking down hard on anything that could be viewed as a threat to national unity,” Elizabeth Kendal wrote in the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin on Nov. 13, 2012. “He cancelled elections and closed all independent media. Opposition figures – politicians, activists and journalists –were removed, mostly to underground ‘secret prisons’ for the ‘disappeared.’”
An estimated 3,000 mostly Protestant Christians were incarcerated for their faith by the end of 2010. That number fell to about 1,500 as of November 2012, according to Kendal, and Open Doors estimates the figure is now about 1,200. The prisoners are held in shipping containers in desert camps, with some kept in underground cells, Kendal noted.
“The conditions are inhumane: Children and the elderly are amongst the prisoners sharing skin diseases, dysentery and other horrors in confined, unventilated spaces,” Kendal reported. “Torture is routine . . . Several Christians have died in custody, and others have perished in the desert trying to escape.”
The Eritrean military has reportedly made a business of Christians refugees, kidnapping them out of refugee camps in Sudan and selling them to traffickers in Egypt’s Sinai. There they are sold to Bedouin gangs who ransom them for tens of thousands of dollars, electrocuting, raping, starving and murdering the Christians as they threaten their relatives.
An ongoing controversy involving the Eritrean Community Radio program on KFAI, which airs on Sunday afternoons, continues to divide the Twin Cities Eritrean community, with no resolution in sight. The program, which started in the 1990s, is hosted by Essey Asbu, a board member of the Eritrean Community Center, based in St. Paul. Another group, the Eritrean Forum of Minnesota, claims the KFAI program takes a pro-Eritrean government stance, and wants an alternative point of view to be heard.
Over the last couple of years, a number of contentious meetings have been held at KFAI, with Eritrean Forum members demanding time on the program, while many of the program’s listeners (and KFAI contributors) object to the Forum’s point of view.
Eritrean Forum position
Steve Paulos, a member of the Eritrean Forum of Minnesota, moved to the United States in 1974, when Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia. “We’re only asking to have constitutional country,” he said.
Paulos said the KFAI program follows only government-run news. “It’s transmit directly from Eritrea,” Paulos said. “He gives news from one station. We object to that.”
Paulos said the KFAI Eritrean community radio program was “given to everybody to serve the people living here. Unfortunately, it’s been taken over by pro-government people.”
According to Mugaleto Baka, another Forum member, one result from their meetings with KFAI last year was the advice that someone from the Eritrean Forum take volunteer training and begin volunteering with the station. Baka took part in the training program, with the hope that afterwards their group would be able to air their viewpoint. “We were understanding that the hour would be divided in two,” he said.
At first, Baka said, Vargas told him that he would have to submit a copy of whatever announcement the Forum wanted aired. Then, he was told that it was up to Asbu whether to air it or not.
“We’ve been trying to remain neutral on the subject,” said Vargas. “Our programmer is not required to address a U.S. travel warning.”
Essey Asbu’s position
Essey Asbu began volunteering for the program to help a friend in 1998, and 1999 joined as a host of the program, eventually to host by himself, he said.
The basic goal of the Eritrean Community Radio program, Asbu said, is to bring news about Eritrea. Back in the late 1990s, when Eritrea was at war with Ethiopia, “a lot of people didn’t have access to the internet,” he said. Any information people received was through VHS tape, which was often months old. Throughout the years, the program has also incorporated some cultural news as well.
“We can build a bridge between people here and people at home,” he said.
According to Asbu, each program has about 20 minutes of news in the Tigrigna language, with English portions as well.
According to Asbu, Eritrea, as a third world country, has been devastated by war, with entire cities erased. In one of the Northern Cities, only one mosque remained after the war, because, he said, the Ethiopians left it standing so they could find the city.
Since the wars, Eritrea is basically “starting from scratch,” he said. “We were bombed to the stone ages.” The country has few amenities, but the people “pride ourselves in the peace in our country. No one carries guns.”
But Forum members disagree with that assertion. According to Habtemaryam, who came to the United States in 2004, after leaving Eritrea in 2001, Eritrea is a very unsafe place. “Everyone has a gun,” he said. And citizens must request permission to move from one place to another.
Recent controversy over call-in
More recent controversy has erupted over Asbu’s refusal to air a travel warning from the U.S. State Department that explained current conditions that can be faced while traveling to Eritrea. Then, on June 9, Forum member Habtemaryam called in to the program to talk about the 22 years since Eritrean independence. Forum members claim Asbu didn’t allow Habtemaryam to speak, and was generally rude to him.
Habtemaryam’s call on the program this past spring isn’t the first time he’s appeared on the show, Asbu said, and his appearances are always controversial. Many Eritreans here in Minnesota, he said, don’t like to “let the dirty laundry out. It’s hard to have an open discussion about anything.”
“Every time I have a call-in program, people get disgruntled,” Asbu said, and no one has called more than Habtemaryam. On the Eritrean Independence Day, Habtemaryam called in, and wanted to discuss the 22 years of independence.
Habtemaryam also wanted Asbu to issue a travel warning, saying that there’s trouble for Americans going to Eritrea. The announcement described how if people travel, they must have their passports with them at all times.
On the June 9 show, Habtemaryam said that Asbu wouldn’t allow him to finish talking, and began attacking him. One of their disagreements was about whether there was a university in Eritrea.
Another was Habtemaryam’s contention that 4,000 people flee Eritrea every month, which was reported by the United Nations.
After the interview was finished, Habtemaryam said that Asbu “undermined him” in the media, saying he was stupid and other insults, and attacked him more the following week.
Asbu said he challenged Negassi, saying he had to back it up with facts. “I have to be able to ask questions,” said Asbu.
According to Asbu, Habtemaryam said Eritrea’s independence has been hijacked. Asbu, in turn, wanted to point out improvements in education and health care since the country’s devestation during the Ethiopian war.
According to Asbu, one university was closed in the mid-1990s because “it was not serving its intended purposes.” He said it has been since reassigned to take in law and medical school. He also said there are seven new colleges since 2000, offering studies in agriculture, sciences, social sciences, etc.
The Eritrean Forum “say I’m an apologist for the government,” he said, but he denies that. He does oppose the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Eritrea due to their devastating effect. He also takes issue with claims that Eritrea violates human rights.
Asbu acknowledges that young people are fleeing the country, but he says the main reason is economics, and the bad living conditions of Eritrea. Even top ministers abandon their work and go to other countries, in order to pay for their families, Asbu said.
Asbu also acknowledges that there is no independent media in Eritrea, but he says the reason is because in 1995-2000, media was thriving in the country, and there was controversy about media funded by the United States, and so it was forbidden.
The country has had Internet since 2000, but the speed has been very bad. Cell phones became available in 2007. “There is progress,” he said. “Sometimes the very people advocating for change become the biggest stumbling block,” he said.
In 2008, Eritrea kicked out the NGOs, because food aid “has to be self limiting,” Asbu said. “If it doesn’t have an end line, it’s just money for the NGOS. 80 billion dollars go for NGOs every year.”
Eritrea gave up a lot of the aid, and it was a difficult moment, but by 2010, they were feeding the people, he said.
The main stumbling block for peace, Asbu said, is the continuing border dispute. “Ethiopia should pull out,” he said, so that the 350,000 soldiers that are waiting at the border can go home.
Asbu said he gets attacked on both ends, with some from the community saying he’s too liberal, and other saying he’s pro-government. “I’m not going to go out of my way to talk about our great president is. At the same time- I won’t say he’s a thief,” he said.
Asbu said he likes to focus the conversation during call-in sessions. Habtemaryam is one of the few people that is willing to put his name out. Others- no matter what their political views, shy away from speaking out.
KFAI’s response
Last year, former KFAI Executive Director Janis Lane-Ewart agreed to allow the Forum members to contribute announcements and news items to be aired as part of the program.
Notes from the board packet on April 16, 2012, indicate that Lane-Ewart and News Director Dale Connelly met the Eritrean Community Radio host and community members. At that time, Lane-Ewart said, “The programmer is expected to present public announcements as provided to him, and that translation of the program by two impartial translators will begin after pledge drive,” according to the board packet. “These translations are intended to determine if the program is fair, unbiased and representing the views of all Eritreans in the Twin Cities.”
According to KFAI Programming Director Miguel Vargas, the programmer does air announcements if they are not too long. “There are times where some things can be aired like events and announcements,” he said, but often Eritrean Forum members submit “long, opinionated pieces they would like recorded and placed on the show.”
When asked about translations for the portions of the show that are not in English, Vargas said that KFAI doesn’t have translations.
Last August, the Eritrean Forum submitted an announcement that referenced human rights violations by the Eritrean government.
“Management thought it was lengthy,” Vargas said. “It was very political.” Vargas asked the Forum members to make the comment shorter, and he said they got upset, and felt it was censorship. They went to the Board of Directors, who in turn requested that the programming committee investigate the issue.
A meeting in October 2012 “got out of hand,” according to Vargas, and there was no amicable resolution.
KFAI’s programming committee then decided to give Vargas authority to nix any announcements that he doesn’t deem suitable, he said.
“What KFAI has tried to do is stay outside out of the political part of it,” said Vargas.
Asbu is a board member of the Eritrean Community Center of Minnesota, which holds events at a space on University of Minnesota, According to Vargas, members of the ECC have been very supportive of the radio program. “He has a supportive listening audience out there,” he said, which also includes pledge money.
Those listeners associated with the ECC call in to complain when the radio program airs announcements from Eritrean Forum, or when guests such as Habtemaryam call into the program.
“It’s not an easy thing,” said Vargas. “That’s when we realized- we need to stay neutral. We need to give better guidelines about getting messages through.”
“Essey has every right as an programmer to set an agenda. It’s really on the guest to be cooperative with that.”
One alternative that Vargas has suggested to the forum group is to do their own web programming, which could be presented on KFAI’s web page, but so far, they have declined.
Thoughts from others in the community
Marta Merzi, a young woman from Liberia, said she’s a supporter of people having their own opinions, but she said that the members of the Eritrean Forum aren’t given facts. “It’s more venting,” she said.
One of her main issues was with Habtemaryam’s claims that there are no schools, or food in Eritrea. According to Merzi, Asmara University, which was shut down in the aftermath of the war, has re-opened, and there is also Orotta School of Medicine as well a new institute called “The Confucius Institute.”
Merzi said she’s a skeptic of all news. Eritrea, she said, is not looked upon very highly in Western news sources. She questions some negative allegations about the Eritrean government; such as the coup that she says was not really a coup.
Amnesty International, which claims human rights abuses by Eritrea, she said, is using the claims as a political tactic to “dethrone the ‘other’” she said. “There are plenty of human rights issues around the world that Amnesty International has not spoken on.”
Merzi visited Eritrea in 2002, when she was 17. Although she was not fluent in the language, she said she felt empowered to see so many people with brown skin who looked like her, and people in the government that looked like her as well. There was religious diversity, she said, which she found powerful.
Merzi enoucrages people not to trust government sponsored news either. “Use your own reasoning,” she said. “There are many sources of information. Be fair.”
Rahwa Tesfe, a member of the Eritrean Forum of Minnesota, left Eritrea when she was eight years old, in 1989. She’s been in the United States since 1993.
When Eritrea first gained independence, Tesfe said, “everybody was happy. We are one now, we are united.” Some people living in the United States moved back. But in 1998, the Border War started with Ethiopia, and people started dividing.
Now, Tesfe said, people are aware of what’ happening to their brothers and sisters in Eritrea, but they “can’t talk out loud, they can’t voice their opinion.”
People who want to go back to Eritrea are especially fearful, she said, because if the government finds out they were speaking out, they will go to prison.
Tesfe said the Eritrean community radio program should serve all Eritreans. She’s been involved in writing leaders and speaking with staff at KFAI about what they can do.
Dear participants; I have been notified by few individuals that they comments in the forums were missing and they want to know the reason. One of them actually suspects a foul play of screening comments by ASSENNA which I do not think so. I have nothing to do with this as a simple writer but I feel like the grievances are something to think about although I think things might have taken place accidentally. I am sure we can repair the situation if we work together: please share your experience in this regard in the. Thank you.
Question: Can the scattered youth organizations and opposition forces that have so far failed to organize a unanimous voice for unity reconcile the Eritrean society while they are still incapable of reconciling within themselves? Can they be a good role model of future generations on reconciliation and unity without practical reduction of the most important narratives of the Eritrean resistance for freedom and democracy?
USMAN: ‘We won’t change the no-war no -peace situation and we will continue with the endless slavery of the conscripts until we get our land from the Weyanes. The Ethiopian government had through Qatar and Russia offered us 40 Mega-Watts electrical energy in exchange for dialogue and we refused the offer..”
Comment: Dialog is the only way to go in our situation. If you want your land, go get it through dialog with Ethiopia: how else would you get it otherwise? Eritrea should accept dialogue to resolve the stalemate rather than refusing it in order to stick with dictatorship and lawless governance in the country. Ethiopia must on the other hand give us our land without contemplation should it be interested in normalizing relationship with us. The Eritrean government’s position on the question of improving the diplomatic relationship is acceptable because we cannot do it unless it gives back our BADME. We, however, must accept dialog for this to happen. The Eritrean government should therefore be pressed to do dialog on equal footing with clear understanding that it can interrupt it should Ethiopia show a tendency not to return our land in the process. The government’s refusal to dialog is intentionally designed to sustain its dictatorship at the expense of the society because said dialog has no condition and that it can walk away from it without any consequence if it does not consider the peaceful return of BADME.
Usman’s language should change from WEYANE to ETHIOPIAN GOVERNMENT because deception through the WEYANE syndrome is out dated after the death of Meles and the smooth transfer of power to individuals from other ethnic groups in Ethiopia.
IMPLICATION
Usman may have leaked the information (40 MW offer for dialog with Ethiopia) in order to look strong but the opposite is manifested here: The offer first shows that Ethiopia is trying its best to dialog with us which can only be with the eventual return of BAME in mind unless the leaders are naïve. The information further tells that Ethiopians are aware of the intolerable and ever worsening ENERGY crisis in our country. They are aware that the government has so far failed to provide dependable energy even in the capital city, Asmara. This also shows that Ethiopians have developed their means of energy to the point of having the capacity to supply a neighboring country while Eritrea remains desperate on the issue with all the advantages it had. They appear to upgrade and manage the energy requirements of the country (>86 million) in the last 20 years of hard work and focus while we cannot even sustain what we inherited from them during independence for about less than 6% of its population (about 5 million with almost half of us in the Diaspora).
Apparently, it seems to me like Ethiopia is basically babysitting Eritrea trying to tantalize it with the offer into sitting down and FORMALLY ACCEPTING BADME and good relationship through dialog: this is like offering a candy-bar to a child for willingness to take a shower in a hot summer day. The extremely parasitic and desperate government of Eritrea would have taken the offer without a thought but it could not because dialog would bring peace to the region through the return of BADME and that will end its excuses of failure and procrastination of justice and democracy in Eritrea. The return of Badme is the grave yard of the regime and it must avoid any possibility for this to happen, one of them being DIALOG.
Internal confusion and International Pressure
“Eritrea seeks to ease isolation by new bilateral ties” says a post at Assenna. In contrast; “In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the Security Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to re-establish the eight-member Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia until November 25, 2014. “The UN Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations expert panel monitoring compliance with sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea by 16 months until November 25, 2014. “
Comment: The No war No peace state with Ethiopia that lacks any initiative from Eritrea to resolve the difference by means of dialog; Eritrea’s continuous flirtation with Al-Shabab to disrupt the Somalian Democratic government; and of course its refusal to rule according to the constitution are the minimum homework for the country to get out of the sanction. Therefore, it has no one to blame except itself. In the mean time, we should continue to support the SANCTION and press for a harsher version if possible.
The Diaspora
Eritrean community radio divides Minnesota Eritreans
“An ongoing controversy involving the Eritrean Community Radio program on KFAI, which airs on Sunday afternoons, continues to divide the Twin Cities Eritrean community, with no resolution in sight. The program, which started in the 1990s, is hosted by Essey Asbu, aboard member of the Eritrean Community Center, based in St. Paul. Another group, the Eritrean Forum of Minnesota, claims the KFAI program takes a pro-Eritrean government stance, and wants an alternative point of view to be heard.
Steve Paulos, a member of the Eritrean Forum of Minnesota, moved to the United States in 1974, when Eritrea was a part of Ethiopia. “We’re only asking to have constitutional country,” he said.
Paulos said the KFAI program follows only government-run news. “It’s transmit directly from Eritrea,” Paulos said. “He gives news from one station. We object to that.”
Paulos said the KFAI Eritrean community radio program was “given to everybody to serve the people living here. Unfortunately, it’s been taken over by pro-government people.”
Comment: Good move by the resistance. The radio station has no right to monopolize news and serve the interest of the regime because it belongs to all Eritreans. Do all things you can do including challenging them legally if necessary to assert your democratic right of sharing the station equally.
Another very sloppy goodie (typical Eritrean style of wasting resources and opportunities)
Comment: I like the momentum but I am not personally excited at all with this event. What could have been done is more important than what was done in this occasion in my opinion. The Diaspora demonstrations continue without any tangible result because of lack of strategy or focus on the main agenda of the society. I congratulate the participants of the event but I cannot help telling them that they made another mistake forgetting the issue of UNCONDITIONAL UNITY of our forces for a temporary government in Eritrea. The Afwerkis must be enjoying the show from distance while the rest of the world wondering on when the Eritreans will get the point.
Frankly speaking, shouting in the streets with no concrete agenda to achieve is getting boring and embarrassing. It served the purpose of exposing the government in public..PERIOD. Why don’t you pressurize our forces to unite instead of telling the world the same thing again and again? What do you want the world to do with your grievance when you are fighting against the solution yourselves? What new information have you provided the people of Holland in the occasion and why do you waste your energy and resources on this? Don’t you know that the sympathizers of the Eritrean government have the right to enjoy their festival and that you cannot stop them in democratic countries like Holland? For how long will Eritreans procrastinate the burning issue of our society (UNITY) and make fools out of themselves by shouting the same thing time and again? What do we want and what are we trying to achieve from this except monotonously telling (NAGGING) the world what it already knows? Is this the limit of your creativity on the burning issues of the resistance (RECONCILLIATION and Unconditional UNITY)? Does it really make sense?
The world wants to help as long as we have UNITY but we keep on doing things scattered here and there without touching the base. Stop whining and crying for no result other than becoming entertainment of the crowd Upgrade your struggle by concentrating on UNIFYING THE FORCES should you want others to take you seriously and to rescue your people before it is too late: Shout in the streets to RECOINCILE the youth and the forces if you really want success.: good luck otherwise!!
It is a matter of common knowledge that, the term “Eritrea” is an ancient name derived from the Greek name of the Red Sea (Sinus Erythrism) according to the most preponderant narrations, consequently, the Greeks are the ones who had given our country “Eritrea” its name, that was right after the Greek occupied Massena in the 3rd Century B.C. The Royal Decree issued in January 1890 by the Italian King Hebert(I) represented an official acknowledgment of the Politically significant name of the country, on the other hand, the meaning of Eritrea had outrun its political significance and submerged deeply in the emotional-feelings of the peoples inhabiting this geographical territory and constituted part of their entity, hence, Eritrea has become an identity and a source of belonging to its inhabitants whom are proud of it and would sacrifice their lives for it, a sense of belonging which is an integral part of any given geographical entity and the populations inhabiting it, which gives denotation to the phrase “one people under the canopy of one country”, whereas shared cultures, common history, societal mingling and reciprocated political-and-economical interests are unambiguous and needless to be detailed here.
The afore mentioned factors are not an immoveable inert destinies, in the contrary, they are an ever-moving characteristics, often exposed to an ebb-and-flow depending on historical events and opposing or coexisting interests, Therefore, in spite of assuring the presence of such factors, Eritrea had witnessed many turning points in its history, in which these factors stood out, to the extent that made us think of it as an invincible factors, nevertheless, other events of different features would have make these factors seem as insignificant, and questions would rise whether we are one people and would be able to continue being defined as such ?
Apparently, the major challenge that is confronting the project of our National Unity was, still exists to be, the Eritrean regime, which is ruling since the independence of Eritrea, A regime which is playing games with our people’s trifling contradictions for the sake of prolonging the period of its reign, as a result, the entire National Unity’s Project is at a stake, unless the whole political forces, civic society groups and the diverse segments of the Eritrean people exert a relentless efforts to overcome it.
With the above facts in mind, the Eritrean Opposition for Democratic Change which symbolises the oneness of the Eritrean people, couldn’t, and shouldn’t overlook the issue of the National Unity Project and the dangers surrounding it; this article comes in line with the efforts in the searching for dynamics to salvage the National Unity and the Salvation of the Eritrean people from the catastrophe under the brutal regime of one man dictatorship.
1.2 Geography of Eritrea:
Eritrea is located at the western coast of the Red Sea with a territory covering 124,000 square kilometers, it lies north of the Equator between latitudes 12-18, the Red Sea detaches Eritrea from the Arabian Peninsula, Eritrea borders the Sudan in the North and Northwest, Ethiopia in the South and Southwest, Djibouti in the South and The Red Sea in the East.
Eritrea possesses the longest coast along the Red Sea, compared to the other countries overlooking the Red Sea from its Western Coast, Eritrea’s coast extends to 1.080 square kilometers, in addition to a large group of populated Islands, Dahlia Archipelago is the largest among the Eritrean group of Islands, Halib and Fatima Islands are the closest Eritrean Islands to The Bab-el-Mandeb strait.
Eritrea has a distinct topographical variety of landscapes that could be divided into three geographical territories:
1/ The Highlands: which consists of the central plateau and the Northern hills sloping down towards the eastern and western lowlands of Eritrea, the Eritrean Highlands represent a natural extension of the Ethiopian Plateau.
2/ The coastal Plains: That consists of the coastal areas along the Red Sea.
3/ The Lowland Plains:This comprises the Eastern Plains that include a large land mass of the Dankalia province and the Sahel Provinces, these areas are surrounded by a variety of plateaus and mountain ranges, whilst the western plains start at the ends of the central plateau’s slopes and extends toward the Sudanese border, The Lowland plains constitutes the largest Eritrea’s province and the climate that prevail in Lowland plains is of Savannah features, the lowland plains are considered pastures for grazing of livestock except for the areas in the west of the Gash-and-Setit basin.
Eritrea: Urban Geography.
Eritrea is well distinguished for its ethnic and clannish diversity, which is a natural feature concerning most of the African countries, though, Eritrea’s diversity is of significant indication compared to its relatively small population, this diversity is considered one of the factors effecting the Project for National Unity, according to the majority of historical reference books, The groups that constitute the Eritrean society are descendants of the groups migrated from the Nile River and the African Great Lakes regions, , in addition to other groups of Semitic and Cushitic origins which extend to the Ethiopian plateau, The Semitic, Sabaeans and Himyarites, are considered the latest groups migrated to Eritrea at the time after the destruction of the Marib Dam, the migration of the Agazian tribe of Yemen is one of the key factors in the formation of the Eritrean society, its legacy is still animate in the plateau, reflected in the Tigre , Tigrigna and Amharic languages. Nevertheless, the trail of migration from Arabia continued even after the advent of Islam to the Arabian Peninsula, there had been a flow of migrations to Eritrea, the most famous tale in this regard is the migration of the Saba (companies) of prophet Mohammed which is mentioned in the History Books of Islam, while the latest migration from Arabia to the Eritrean coasts is that of the Rashaida Tribes in the 19th century C.E, the Rashaida tribes inhabit the Far North of Eritrea and extend to inside the Sudanese boarder.
A variety of Eritrean tribes and clans were formed as a result of these frequent migrations, each of it attributed its ancestry deeply in history, though, the realities on the ground would testify that in spite of the variety of these groups and the societal mingling through intermarriages, juxtapositions and shared lifestyle, even though we can identify the linguistic groups that probably belong to different ancestors, these groups include speakers of Tigre, Tigringa, Saho, Blin, Afar, Kunama, Nara, Hidareb and Arabic.
1.3 History of Eritrea
Eritrea is deeply rooted in the memory of History; an ancient Egyptians had addressed it as the (punt land) and regarded it as a source of Ivory, elephants and perfumes, since the era of Hatshepsut (1468-1486 BC), EgyptianPharaoh vessels frequented the Eritrean coasts, Greeks had given the name of Eritrea as derived from the old name of the Red Sea “Sinus Erythreum” and they left their marks in the country, during the reign of Ptolemy (I) 323 B.C.E Ptolemaic Kingdom had influenced Adulis Port which is 40 Km South of the contemporary Massawa Port.
The Eritrean coasts remained part of the Umayyad state, and then transferred to the Abbasiya State, Eritrea remained under the AbbasiyaState until 1517 CE when Caliphate Mohammed Bin Yaqub Al-Mutawakil Ala-Allah (IV) gave it up to the Ottoman Sultan, Salim (I). As a result, Eritrea had become one of the Ottoman States until 1557 CE, after the successful campaign of MohammedAliPasha, Eritrea became under the domination of Egypt from 1820 to 1887 CE.
In 1869 CE, an Italian pastor Pop Joseph Sabeo rented a land lot camouflaged as representative of the marine services company called “Robatino”, he rented the land from Sultan Ibrahim Shaheem and his brother Hassen, which meant the launch of Italian occupation to Eritrea, as a consequence an Italian Army occupied Massawa in 02/05/1885 and proceeded to dominate the entire Eritrean coasts which was accomplished in 1890.
After the defeat of Italy in the Second World War 1941, Eritrea was placed under British administration following the “Conference of Lausanne” in Switzerland which was convened to share the Italian colonies in Africa, later on, Eritrea was annexed to Ethiopia in a coercive confederation, in spite of the patriotic voices raised to call for giving Eritreans the right to self-determination, Ethiopia betrayed the confederation deal and occupied Eritrea until 24/05/1991 the day Eritrea’s independence dawned, followed by the successful referendum in 24/05/1993 which culminated in the official independence of Eritrea , thus Eritrea had become a sovereign country, part of the United Nations and the international community.
The Momentous Events in Eritrea’s Modern History.
The collective mindset of the people of Eritrea, couldn’t be mistaken the distinctive events that contributed to the makeup of the Eritrean Nation with all its current Political and social Characteristics, these events were of international, regional and domestic magnitude and formed the key indicators of the Eritrean Identity, events that had been, and still is, of major effects on the National Project, the most significant events are as follows:-
National Self-determination.
The fate of Eritrea was discussed within the Italian colonies after the defeat of the Axis Powers in the Second World War, but the super-powers had put off the option of self-determination motivated by two focal reasons.
a-The strategic position of Eritrea on the Western coast of the Red Sea that overlooks The Bab-el-Mandeb strait, addition to its unique position as an associating point for the communication network between the super-powers in the Middle East and the Nearest East.
b- To satisfy the ambitions of the Ethiopian Empire (being a key strategic ally to the Super-powers) to set its foot on, and secure an access to the Red Sea, which seemed impossible unless, somehow, via associating Eritrea to the Ethiopian Empire.
It was obvious, that, the two above reasons had made it possible for the fate of Eritrea to be annexed to Ethiopia, therefore, Ethiopia started its mobilization for the project of uniting Eritrea with Ethiopia through the Eritrean Andinet Party, and it had pursued all possible maneuvers be it religious, financial, intimidation and even assassinations. On the other hand, Al-Rabita Al-Islamiya Party emerged as an opposite project demanding the independence of Eritrea, another project emerged demanding the division of Eritrea between Sudan and Ethiopia, this was one of the momentous junctures in which the Eritrea’s National Unity was seriously threatened, but Eritreans ,encouraged by their shared traits, managed to overcome internal and external challenges ahead and avoided the dangers when our gallant forefathers convened in Dekemhare in 1949 and formed a united national front composed of six parties known as the Independence Block which constituted the initial core for the long march of the Eritrean people toward National unity.
1.4 The Era of Armed Struggle.
The deal of Federal unity was turned to nonexistence as a consequence of Ethiopia’s interferences on Eritrea’s internal affairs; Eritrean compatriots started thinking about means of resistance, the Eritrean Liberation Movement surfaced as a project for national independence, documents of that epoch would evidently testify that the project of ELM was one of the various projects that reflected the qualities of National unity, then The Eritrean Liberation Front came into view with all its energetic brilliance, despite historical barriers and the factors of the consign were the Eritrean resistance originated , add to that, The Ethiopian campaigns to undermine the Eritrean resistance exploiting religion and poverty which the Emperor played games with, it did not take much longer time for the Eritrean people to take part in the ranks of the Eritrean Resistance, the entire components of the Eritrean society with all its religious, ethnic and regional diversity enforced the project which had become an embodiment of nation unity, in spite of inaccuracies encountered the struggle as a result of immaturity, blurred political vision and contradictory ideological trends that fettered the struggle, as external interferences whether to secure and improve ones own interests or Ideology played a key role in the creation of the widest crack on the wall of national unity , and by this we mean the Eritrean Civil War.
The Civil War:
Talking about this era need a lot of caution and accuracy, but the important point here is that all the secondary contradictions such as religion, nationality, region, ambitions, organizational and individual and foreign interferences, all of which were factors that led to that dark phase in the center point of the ambitious national project (The Armed Struggle), these factors had incited Eritreans to find a theoretical justifications sufficient to take up arms in the face of their brothers , which led to the blood spatter, resulted in piles of hatred and bitterness which are still insists to form a painful thorns in the body of the national unity that requires a lot of wisdom to be erased from the individual and collective historical memory , however, that this phase was not al-evil, as it encouraged many positive initiatives beyond the secondary contradictions such as ethnicity, religion or ideology, towards the mobilization of all Eritreans against the major contradiction which was the Ethiopian colonization at that stage, and perhaps the popular enormous pressure towards overcoming that ugly phenomenon was of an aspect that would fill every Eritrean with pride, and the immense popular committees which emerged to mediate in this conflict , to the extent that the citizens of Asmara stood out in large masses in the lines between the two skirmishing factions, this phenomenon reflects that the secondary contradictions that the Eritrean Regime along with some forces are exploiting in order drive a wedge of division to undermine the unity of the Eritrean people is not new, it had been tried before but the project of national unity prevailed in the end because it is deeply-rooted in the collective consciousness of the Eritrean people.
1.5 Independence.
The date 24 of May remains a memorable day in the history of Eritrea, transpired in the deepness of national project in its brightest image in which the most segments of the Eritrean population overlooked the differences with the EPL, spontaneity of the marchers who turned out joyous in all cities where Eritreans lived as exiled and refugees, hopes and expectations which had long been ravaged by years of in internal conflicts and the humiliating lifestyle in the refugee camps increased, the capable sectors of the people in exile began to return in spontaneous and voluntary repatriation, also many high-ranking leaders of the Eritrean political organizations have forgotten about their differences with the EPLF , they left their positions to join the procession and to contribute the reconstruction and building of the nation, despite the negative signs which the leaders of the EPLF’s “interim government” began to show, But the euphoric hearts and minds were eager to the dawn of freedom and does not distinguish or did not believe those negative signs and regarded them as a natural consequence of the inexperience and immaturity in the part of the leadership of the new state, particularly, as a revolutionary mentality need time to accommodate the requirements of the State and entitlements. The processions of the repatriation and the returning masses continued towards Eritrean, also the morale of others who could not return due to extraordinary circumstances increased, and the state of public euphoria overwhelmed the people at home more than those who were abroad , the people breathed the Eritrea dream, soldiers postponed claiming their rightful prerogative , the public tolerated the clear abuses committed against some of them, and new returnees to overlooked some forms of insults and provocations in the spirit of endurance reassuring themselves that the upcoming future would be much better, the euphoria was limitless as the regional and international communities joined in and had shown unrestricted support .
The Referendum:
After two years of hovering over the heavens of fine dreams forgetting all the bitterness of the past, which unfortunately have not been met by eligible interim government or the EPLF, on the contrary, the EPLF had indicated that Eritrea is going to a stage of unknown fate through its official statements by means of rejecting to recognize the Eritrean Political and organizations and demanded them to enter Eritrea as individuals after denouncing their political organizations, also refused the National call made by a number of organizations. The EPLF also entered into quarrels with some of the ethnic components of Eritrea, all these wicked deeds did not shake the Project of National Unity in the collective mind of the Eritrean people, then, the defining moment arrived when 98% of the Eritrean people voted in unison ” yes to independent and united Eritrea’’ in a referendum arranged under the supervision of the United Nations and other international and regional organizations , but EPLF picked up the signals of the 98% and construed them according to its erroneous decoder that the result of a referendum was a testimony to its own popularity and not of national nature, EPLF’S mentality had made it possible for the nation to loose a rare opportunity that could have been the right moment of drafting a project for national Unity built on the pillars of stable consensus that is rarely seen to be achieved in the history of nations and peoples.
How long is the distance between us and our Project of National Unity?
Now, since it is over 120 years of the Italian Royal Decree, that gave Eritrea its political overtone, and Eritrea had passed through an Italian, British colonization then was entered into a fragile federation followed by forced annexation to the Ethiopian Empire , then political and armed struggle with all the bitterness and the cost of martyrdom and disability, homelessness and asylum, and a repugnant authoritarian rule to a period of nearly two decades , we find that the Project of National Unity is at the crossroads, more than ever before, especially as the challenges of history in itself was reason for the strength of the project after a short period of meditation and self-examination because whatever the external powers attempted to exploit our secondary contradictions they remains an external factors whose presence a matter of strengthening our national unity, but the challenge now is of different nature which revived an internal controversy that remains dominating the details of the daily lives of many sectors of our people, the irony is that, the preservation of the National Unity Project in itself has become one of the threats of the project, we have kept hearing a dummy run that, the current regime is the only one who can preserve the unity of this country, this rehearsals coming from a quite considerable number from among the segments of the population that couldn’t be bypassed anyway, therefore, the National Conference for Democratic Change being held at a decisive stage, the questions poising ahead of us would be as follows, : Are we in fact one people? And, Whether to live in one nation is as much an inescapable or is an option which can be considered within other alternatives?, And whether there are real possibility to live in peace within this country?, All of these questions are supported by well searched documentations of the memories and bitterness of the dark periods in our history, the eyes could not find sufficient incentives to search for the bright periods, in which the project of national unity was reflected in its strongest features, and perhaps it would be useful to enumerate some of the factors that brought the Project of National Unity to the current “defining moment”.
Geographical dispersions
Unhappy as it might be, the Eritrean people have known no period of stability in which the nation’s components could come together and be able to detect and strengthen the shared values between them, working for the placement of the secondary contradictions in the right cart, so as to utilize them as a catalyst for constructive competition that leads to the development of nations, nations doesn’t measure periods in years and decades but in centuries, the strategic position of Eritrea had made it a target of every aspiring colonial power, a colonial powers that certainly make their interests a top priority, employing the theory of divide and conquer which manifests itself in the fueling of the secondary contradictions as insurmountable barriers, in which a number of Eritrean political activists were made unable to live in their country and were compelled to migrate to the neighboring countries including Egypt which was a hum for revolutionaries the Nasser era, the Ethiopian colonization was the worst of colonization models, Ethiopian interests necessitated the displacement and eradication of the Eritrean people because Ethiopia never cared about the people, its major interests were only the sea and the land of Eritrea, the Eritrean people stuck to its land, its legitimate right to freedom and its revolution, to make matters worse, Ethiopia launched the policy of the Scorched Land, to freeze the sources of the Revolution, a policy that resulted to a devastating consequences, a large segments of the Eritrean people fled to the neighboring countries of Sudan ,Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia, the freedom of movement within Eritrea was no longer accessible, thus, the geographical dispersions had played a key negative role against the emergence of the Project for National Unity as it was desired, Eritrean refugees had been influenced by the cultures of their respective host countries and in which they found themselves in, especially the second and third generations, , In this aspect , We should not forget that some of the factors were also positive where sections of the people abroad were able to develop a common language beyond the barriers of ones own language, race and culture, they intensified intermarriages between all tribes, identified each other and mingled in national spirit, alas, the habitats where such mingles occurred did not enable the improvement of the Project of the Eritrean National Unity. Not only that, but that, the flame of the struggle flares attracted enormous sectors of the Eritrean people regardless of their ethnic background, hadn’t the Eritrean Revolution witnessed political splits, the factors above alone would have been a safety valve for the project of national unity.
No doubt that geographical separation is naturally followed by differences in culture, concepts and interests, which had made the Project of National Unity a matter of dispute between the off springs of different environments, and today in this forum, which brings together public figures, diverse components, environments and cultures of different interests, it is necessary to compromise on a common understanding of the Project of National Unity beyond the limits of geography, cultural environments and interests, in order to meet all the aspirations of our people, regardless of ideological and political, religious, regional backgrounds, A National Unity where every Eritrean person finds his own self and his interests mirrored in it , a National Unity that every Eritrean could embrace and defend.
Different Interpretations of History:
As noted earlier in this paper, Eritrea is relatively a new political entity, but its geographical entity, population and civilization is a deeply rooted in history ,without a doubt, as reflected in the Eritrean history, but none of Eritrea’s history be it an ancient or modern had found a professional historians to express its details as is a customary regarding histories of nations, almost every nation had its own history considered as undisputable sacrosanct, and history is one of the tools of formulating a collective mind of nations and peoples, this is to say that, our failure to transit our self from oral, mouth-to-mouth, history into a professionally written history, contribute to the weakening of the Project of our National Unity.
The drafting of national history, well-researched according to the norms of proficient methodologies, would surely result in what is known as restorative justice process that embraces the virtues of exchanging of apology and forgiveness, which is very important towards the collective healing of the memories of the people. Accordingly, the Project for National Unity would be based on a common history. This requires a committee of experts as well as requires a consensus on the establishment in which the history could be based, and recognizing of its binding oblige, in addition to the procedures contained, Perhaps the model of the experience of South Africa in this regard would be worthy to illustrate lessons from, also our own Eritrean heritage contains a lot of good models , that could be applicable to resolve the differences and overcome the bitterness, we have an inexhaustible examples that could enforce the Project for National Unity.
The Ruling Regime:
Perhaps, the most significant challenge facing the Project of National Unity is the existence of the Eritrean dictatorial regime, and the longer the regime survived the bitter our challenges would be, as the pillars of our National Unity would keep collapsing one by one as long as the dictatorial regime is in power, because the survival of this regime depends on exploiting secondary contradictions among our people at the expense of the Project of National Unity , the negative effects of the existence of the regime on the Project of National Unity are greater and by no means could be contained in this paper, though, it would be helpful to tap on the issues as a an starting hints bellow.
1.6 The Absence of National Vision of the Ruling Regime:
Throughout its history, the Eritrean regime never made the national unity one of its concerns, it has always desired to cling to power, the president of the regime had revealed such a mentality in a statement he made one year after the liberation, that Eritrea will not become festivities place for political organizations, ever since, the Regime had ignored all the appeals made by opposition forces in an organized manner and suspended dialogue with the then Revolutionary Council, also the regime rejected all attempts of reform from within that was initiated by academics sympathetic to the group of (13) , ending with the arrest companions against the founding leaders of the EPLF, a group known as (G15) , as well as all attempts made by friends to mediate and talk about a national dialogue was ignored by the leadership of the regime.
It is obvious that a regime which is not concerned about the internal unity of its own organization, can never be willing to enhance the Project for National Unity, and if the doors are closed to dialogue within a single institution, it would be illogical to expect that the prospects for dialogue to be opened to the others, so, the term “institution”, seems inapplicable to today’s Eritrea which has become a State of one man.
The Regime’s Practices as a Result of the Absence of an Overall National Vision:-
The Practices of the Eritrean regime which were reflected in its rejection of all initiatives towards a National Dialogue has created many problems, earlier in the period of Eritrea’s independence , the Regimes practices have been interpreted as an ethnic , religious and cultural prejudice, we would try to mention bellow some of the regimes practices
• The problem of dividing the Eritrean people into ethnic groups on the basis of linguistic groupings, the regime’s denial to some components of the people their right to have their own distinguished identity in line with their own cherished characteristics, an issue that has nothing to do with political power , societies have been existent before the formation of political states.
• The Regime had practiced the policies of discrimination since the early years against the education institutions of Eritrean Muslims including schools and institutes and arrested teachers and Sheikhs whom were made to disappear with unknown whereabouts and without a trial
• the Regime had initiated prosecution of religious believers of some groups with respect to their religion based attitude towards the National Service, the regime pursued punitive measures rather than trying to understand the motives behind their rejection of the National Service, a matter that was supposed to be addressed with a little of wisdom within the National Unity Project, in order to accommodate all the various intellectual and doctrinal beliefs.
• the Regime had excluded the Arabic language from the official transactions arena dealing with the issue of languages as a matter of Fait accompli, the regime also imposed a mother tongues in the education, trampling upon the wishes of the people and against their will, as a result, today’s Eritrea had become a representation of a single component in the fields of education, media and the entire public life.
• The Civil Services sector is one of the important arena’s which emphasizes that the ruling eplf/pfdj regime is not concerned about the Project of National Unity at all, numbers and statistics had reflect that, more than 90% of the civil service is exclusively controlled by a single component out of the various components that constitutes the Eritrean people.
• Although the regime had been bragging about equality the Eritrean languages , but in reality those languages are none existence in everyday life and the media, worse, Eritrean languages and cultures have been confined to Expo festival shows or songs that are being aired in the state owned media, to add insult to injury, the songs, dances and the folklore of the Eritrean ethnic groups are being performed by trained professionals who are alien to the respective languages or cultures.
• The issue of land, settlements and demographic engineering that has been taking place under the regime ruling over Eritrea is one of the critical threats to the Project of National Unity, it should be well-understood that the issue of land is a matter-of-life -and-death for the components of the Eritrean Nation, land ownership is an authenticity existed prior to the State of Eritrea itself, it is a serious problem that will have great consequences on the future of the Nation, unless it is settled through a realistic methods of fairness wisdom.
• The indefinite National Service combined with arming all of the sectors of the Eritrean people, had made the Eritrean army in confrontation with the just and legitimate rights of the Eritrea people to live in freedom, democracy and peace, the army had become a tool of protection of the dictatorial Regime, a regime which had never made the Unity of the Eritrean people one of its agendas.
• The Fabricated wars with neighbouring countries, and a political hostilities with regional and International Communities, and International organizations had been playing an influential role in the destabilization of the Project of our National Unity.
• The absence of the constitution and laws had made the State of Eritrea resembles a private property of a single individual , as the events of the past and the present had undeniably shown, this certain individual was not ,and will never be, a fan of the Project of National Unity.
• The ongoing violations of human rights, the situations of terror experienced by the citizens of Eritrea, where a fear of what will happen in near future had been one of the chief premonitions of the Eritrean citizens, a fear from the indefinite military recruitment of their children, a fear of a war that could flare at any moment, a fear of the lands that are being seized, a fear of being arrested for no reason, a fear from a friend who might turn out to be a snitching spy and leads to arrest, a situation which gives no incentive for the individuals to be productive, a situation that hampers the sense of belonging to the nation.
1.7 The Eritrean Opposition Forces
Nowadays, The term “Eritrean Opposition” in its wider sense is far beyond the Eritrean political organizations, in the Eritrean political arena inside or outside the Eritrean Democratic Alliance EDA, even it goes beyond the Civic Organizations declared in the Diaspora, the debate is always on the regulatory frameworks where the political dimensions are ascribed to an Ethnicity or a religion , even the civic organizations are distributed a similar frameworks, some are dedicated to scientific or humanitarian projects, this multiplicity had been a subject of debate about the extent of the impact, positive or negative, on the Project of National Unity, which is a legitimate debate, the organizations that address them selves as religious or Ethnic or those adopt military action against the regime are always accused of threatening or weakening the National unity, but the reasons for the emergence of organizations based on religious or ethnic claims are created due to two major reasons: -
A / The injustices perpetrated by the Eritrean Regime are enough reasons to make resistance under any slogan really legitimate and justified, particularly, since the grievances that the Eritrean regime has been committing are manifested on the basis of religion and Ethnicity, targeting specific sectors, it is natural for those sectors to resist and mobilize their own constituencies that had on the receiving end of systematic injustices, in such cases, it is well known that the mobilization under a specific banner bears an emotional support and gets the response of the largest public.
B / The organizations that aloft the “National” slogans fail to address the concerns upon which the ethnic or religious organizations were established, on the other hand, the ‘’National” organizations are unable to pacify the fears and anxieties ( in the part of the Ethnic and Religious groups) of repeating the experiment of the dictatorial regime with regard to fundamental rights relating to land, religion, culture that legitimate beyond the ballot boxes and needs to be confirmed in the constitution, so that the rights of minorities would not fall prey to a compromising rivals depending the moods of the voters.
Most of these organizations are members of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance EDA, and are signatories to its charter, even the organizations which are outside the EDA have recognised and approved the EDA’s charter, which says the following on paragraphs 1, 2 and 3
1- To maintain the national sovereignty and preserve the unity of the people and the land of Eritrea within it’s internationally recognized geographical borders.
2- Preservation and improvement of the national unity which was consecrated by decades long heroic struggle of the Eritrean people.
3- Realization of the principle of justice and equality between the components of the Eritrean community, Proceeding from the principles of democracy and peace, human rights and the equitable distribution of power and wealth.
The Charter of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance EDA – although it characterizes a Minimum Program for all the components of the EDA – it is to be deemed an important safeguard of the Project of National Unity, particularly, if it is enhanced, through a serious of frank dialogues about the issues of divergences, and upgraded from an ink-on-sheets, to a Programme of Action for EDA as one entity as well as among the political organizations of EDA.
Another point is the option of adoption military action against the ruling regime, the Charter of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance provides in article (2) paragraph (5) the follows: The Democratic Alliance follows all available means to topple the dictatorial regime , even through the legitimacy of all available means, according to the above article, but fears remains about the negative effects of the military wings of the organizations on the project of national unity, what is required in this stage is the development of coordination and unity between the military wings of political organizations and the creation of joint command and single military doctrine based on the following:
A / that the legitimacy of military action is legitimized as a result of the injustice perpetrated by the Eritrean regime against the Eritrean people, the Regime rejects dialogue on these wrongdoings, as long as all the prospects of other solutions are blocked, there are no means available other than the military action, which intend to force the regime to undo the grievances, refrain from further violations and come to the table of dialogue, or to toppled. This is to say that the actions which are deemed legitimate are limited to forcing the regime into dialogue or overthrowing it.
B / in the case of the fall of the regime, the military wing must be developed to be part of the Eritrean National Army, where its task turns automatically to maintaining the National Unity in its broader sense, and to preserve the constitution with no meddling in the political and democratic choices to the people, once the mission of regime change is accomplished, the relations between the political organizations and the military forces must be dissolved , the political organizations should have their programs that would be subject to democratic competition and not through military force.
The Contradictory Interests of the Components( Identity Elements) of the Nation: -
The critical circumstances through which our people have been living, had blurred their perceiving of the National Unity, and the reason is that, our people, as we have already mentioned, is diverse in terms of races, beliefs, religions, ethnicities and regions, each group looking for its interests, which creates major conflicting-interests between these components, Perhaps, the two factors mentioned bellow, might be the reasons that led to this situation: -
1- An extensive frustration that regime had brought about after the liberation, the people who had already endured enormous sacrifices for the sovereignty and liberation of the country, would naturally expect the outcomes of liberation to be reflected positively in the independence and offset the huge sacrifices, but the magnitude of frustration was to the extent that made some to embark on comparing the colonial era and the era of ruling regime, and others began to wonder whether the independence worthy the sacrifices that were made.
2- The political Opposition did not raise its political agenda to accommodate the Project of National Unity, A project that could bear financial, psychic and materialistic towards for the entire Eritrean components against the sacrifices they had made, in fact the political programs of the National Opposition forces never exceeded the hollow emotional rehearsal of the “National Unity”, an emotional rehearsals that could not be sufficient enough to encourage the people pay new and fresh sacrifices.
Therefore, we find that a large segments of our people have started looking for other temporarily alternatives, which will have a negative effects on the National Unity Project, we find that a large segments our people looking for resettlement in the neighbouring countries or in the countries of developed world, according to the wizards initiated by international organizations to tackle the issues of protracted refugees, also a large portion of the Eritrean youth did not find any hope for their future within the realms of the Eritrean regime, on the other hand, the Opposition forces did not develop its political discourse to accommodate the expectations of the youth, thus, the desperate youngsters had been taking risky measures to get rid of the devastative situations by fleeing through dangerous borders, such as the Egyptian-Israeli border, aquatics and the Sahara deserts, not only that, but we find that the individual attitudes towards the regime and the opposition alike are being taken according to ones-own individual, group, sect or societal interests, so the means and the level of opposing in itself depends on the extent of the damage caused by the regime to the macro-interests of a given individual , a group or component, nevertheless, the acceptance or rejection in the part of individuals and groups to the political discourse of the opposition depends on the expectations the opposition could bring to a certain group or class.
1.8 The Impacts of regional and international on national unity
Perhaps, the countries of the region are the most ones engaged to the Eritrean cause, especially the bigger countries like Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt , as the interests of these countries directly or indirectly is attached to Eritrea, such an interests are deemed to take the positions of key players in Eritrea whether for or against the Regime or its opposition, followed by decisions and actions may conflict with the concept of National Unity sought by This political powers, because in theory the Project of National Unity that can accommodate or at least does not conflict with the interests of these countries must be formulated after studying all these aspects, it is well known that when countries face threats to their interests they would intervene in order to protect those interests or policies by exploiting the gaps in cohesion of the nation, these gaps are naturally a product of the failure in the part of the National Unity Project to bridge the gaps that serve as a tool in the hands of other countries.
The Conflicting Interests of the International Powers: -
It is no secret that today’s world is driven by interests, and all decisions taken by the international community through its international organizations, or taken by major countries alone are able to meet or comply with its own interests, for example, the resolution 1907 resolution under Chapter VII (punitive measures ) of the Charter of the United Nations , has nothing to do with the aspirations wishes of the Eritrean people , in reality it has more to do with the interests of the superpowers, or the neighbouring countries in implementing its political vision for the region, such a decision has no doubt a significant impact on the Project of National Unity whether negatively or positively. This is only to demonstrate the international impacts on the Project of National Unity and not to analyze the effects of the (1907) resolution on our national unity
1.9 National Unity and its Methods
A quick search on letters and brochures of all political organizations or civic organizations, media, we find out that the Project of National Unity is a fundamental pillar in each of their programs, but this concept at each point is different from the other, so agreeing on a common concept of national unity to become persistent in the brochures and guidelines all key players is one of the main objectives of this article is what is the national unity that we seek: -
- Is that the Smer Or the Teshamo discusses every day in their paltalks?
- Is that the ENCD want to reclaim?
- Is that the EPDP aspires?
- Is that the Eritrean so called Youth wishes?
- Why did all the previous attempts of national unity approaches failed?
- Can Eritreans live together in peace?
- What is peace?
The definition of National Unity:
The term, National unity, is used to denote the union of different groups of people brought together by specific characteristics in a geographical territory and having a political authority, this unit generates a sense of belonging and loyalty to this political entity, geographical location, as required by the circumstances of cohesion to protect this entity, according to the multiple interests achieved under the status unity for those groups, with security and prosperity being the most important among the interests .
In the case of Eritrea as noted above, the limited geographical area, and the relatively low population has given Eritrea the definition of a multi-ethnic nation, most of the inhabitants of Eritrea are Muslims and Christians, and there are natural religions, whom had been distributed to different political and ideological doctrines throughout their history , with all of this, the necessary characteristics to fulfil the project of national unity have been available and visible so you cannot trample on it, a source of pride for all Eritreans and perhaps an epic of struggle for the liberation of the entity have enhanced this sense and provided unlimited emotional dimension where every Eritrean could have sense of preserving the unity of the Eritrean entity is our covenant to the our martyrs, but all this is not enough to maintain ,the country is going through all the challenges that we have mentioned above and by the Project of National Unity, we seek it must be a conscious choice bear that would the consequences and entitlements for the satisfaction and conviction, it also must be based on the following: -
Voluntary.
The components of the Eritrean people are no doubt the pre-political existence of the state, when the Italians demarcated map of Eritrea, the demarcation was done with the interests of Italy on the top of their priorities, but as matter of fact the did not come blindly but in terms of identifying participants and factors that could pave the way for one nation and one people, But under the circumstances in which we live, and we strive to preserve the oneness of the nation on a new foundations , we must include in the Project of National Unity , that should be an option for compromise and voluntary for all of the components of our ethnic, regional, political and religious characteristics, and not a project that can be imposed by force , by a certain component claiming to ensure national unity, which is the case in today’s Eritrea under the ruling regime.
Unity in Diversity:
The Project of National Unity should not be at the expense of the characteristics of the components, but it must be like a painting with its integrated colours to give a meaning and a value of a Nation, the project must respect the characteristics of the cultural and geographical components that had entered into a contract to maintain the oneness of the nation, a project that rejects dilution, domination, assimilation or exclusion
Mutual Interests:
The Project for National Unity should not be based solely on the pillars of emotional importance, but it must be backed by interest-list to the parts contracting to the Project, especially since today’s world is one of integration and unity, to establish a project on an idea of establishing a politically and economically strong country, regions and support the renaissance of each other through fair criteria by the central authority, which consists of voluntary and compromise by all, only then is the project for national unity, the desire to preserve it also becomes a necessity for all.
A Sense of Belongingness and Pride:
The project of National Unity should reflect the values and cultures of all, so each of the components its own characteristics reflected in the colourful unity, and therefore, supporting the project or defending would be a self-defence for each component, the factors could be found on language, religion, values and media, holidays, and representation in the institutions are all factors that makes a person develop a sense of belonging to the nation, , the sense of belonging is crucial to human being to stand in defence of the entity of his belonging, if the sense of belonging is fading or lost, it would certainly that one can not defend it, in the contrary he would look for other alternative options.
Mutual Confidence:
As the Project of national unity is the union of different components, the sustainability of this union depend on the confidence of the parties upon each other, any doubt that this project will be used for a certain class on the expense of the others, or that it is a trap set up by a certain class to legitimize their gains, or a project that is imposed by one component on the others, such a project would be built on fear tactics until the possession of force. The Project of National Unity can not be enforced overnight but is a long project that should show good intentions at the starting point, a good intentions that could be translated into a Programme of Action to deal with the history, present and future.
Positive Competition:
The Project of National Unity must allow space for competition between the various components of culturally or geographically differences, as this competition is the secret of the construction of the universe, and the competing nations are those which innovate and excel with the rising of each new dawn, but that competition must be governed by a central rule of values, so that to make it positive competition in the arts and trade, science and other walks of life.
Preserving Regional and International Interests:
It is known that Eritrea today live in a planet connected with neighbourly relations and continue to be connected to cultures and common interests with a large number of forces and organizations, in this relationship Eritrea could be impacted positively or negatively, and the project for national unity must take into account these relationships and interactions regionally and internationally so as to be realistic and viable.
The National Conference for Democratic Change and the National Unity: -
It has been 2 years since the Eritrean National Council was established but how did it proceed is to be evaluated before it starts to convene the next process of national congress
The NCDC is a historic event, that comes from the uniqueness of the event on one hand, and the presence of the key players of our nation in the project of national unity on the other hand, we mean the masses of the Eritrean people represented in the organised civil or political forces, religious figures, intellectuals, writers, pioneers of our armed struggle and the unions of youth and women, therefore this event is required to lay a solid foundation for the Project of national unity on the grounds mentioned above, and then we can build on this basis in the future through an agreed on mechanisms and therefore this paper proposes the following
1 / National Charter with greater legitimacy, taking into consideration the components of our political, ethnic, religious, cultural, regional and class interests, to build a national unity on the basis of a new agreements, then to be construed it on the ground and preserve it, and prevent the exploitation of the shared responsibility we all bear, each one of us according to his position and responsibility.
2 / A Code of Conduct between the media outlets that any act of gambling with the religious, cultural, geographical and ethnic contradictions must be considered red-line that cannot be tolerated.
3 / developing of mechanisms for the struggle against the Regime, the regime stay on power contradicts with the Project of National Unity, as it depends on the regime’s continue to play on the secondary contradictions and alienating the diverse segments of our society against each other, so the regime’s removal is no longer an option, but a necessity and a precondition for our country to be or not to be.
4 / to grasp the opportunity of the excellence gathering in this forum ( NCDC) and initiating the formation of a committee of the wise and sensible personalities it could be called the “Committee of Elders” and involve the various components of our religious and ethnic components to defuse the tension caused by the practices of the Regime and the task of preparing a model for national reconciliation, recourse and disclosure, recognition and amnesty and forgiveness, our Project for National Unity cannot register a break-through on a society with a collective memory occupied by hatreds and animosities and purifications , the initiative of the Committee of Elders is very important for the realism and the success of the Project of our National Unity.
5 / the task of purifying of the collective memory needs to dive into the events of history, a political and social history that would be written in the most professional and unbiased method, because building a nation on basis of history, the determined generations are those who will shape the future of the country while not knowing much about the history books including all its pros and cons, and although the writing of history is a complex process but we have to start this project now before tomorrow. Writing history is a social science based on references and basics of events witnessed by those who experienced the age of the period in a life of people in one nation.
At first official press conference of Eritrean community in south Tel Aviv, spokesmen call on Israeli government to follow lead of ‘most Western countries’ and stop deportations.
Representatives of the Eritrean community in Israel on Sunday accused Israel of crossing a “red line” after the so-called “voluntary deportation” of 14 Eritreans two weeks ago. They were sent back to their homeland from the Saharonim detention facility, where they had been detained. One of the expelled men has reportedly been tortured since arriving back in Eritrea.
At the first press conference of its kind, convened in south Tel Aviv’s Shapira neighborhood, community spokespersons decried the procedure, recently approved by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. Davit Damuz said the Israeli government is endangering the lives of those expelled to Eritrea.
“They were expelled from prison in Israel, where they were detained without a release date and without knowing what would happen to them, said Damuz. “In Israel they decided to call it ‘voluntary return’ – but that’s not true. When there’s no other possibility, there’s no such thing as voluntary and there’s no such thing as choice.
“The Israeli government exploited their situation, and now their lives are in danger. We call on the Israeli government to put an immediate stop to the return of the refugees to Eritrea. This return is extradition of the refugees to the dictatorship in Eritrea. This return endangers their lives,” he emphasized.
Representatives sent a letter in a similar vein on Sunday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Habtum Mehari presented evidence of the fate of the returnees to Eritrea: The brother of one of the expellees said that the connection with him had been cut. “His family tried to check with the authorities as to what happened to him after he landed at Asmara airport, the Eritrean capital. Eritrean army sources told the family that he is imprisoned in a detention facility in the south of the country and is being seriously tortured,” he said. “We have additional details. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you more than that because it’s dangerous for the man and his family.”
Mehari said that community representatives in Israel spoke to one of the 14 Eritreans who returned home two weeks ago as a “voluntary returnee.”
The Eritrean ambassador to Israel, Tesfamariam Tekeste, accompanied the flight. “The ambassador told them during the flight, ‘We’ll give you four months of quiet and then we’ll take you back to the army and it will be hard for you there.’ Although the expellees were afraid to give us information over the phone, one of them said that the government is closely observing and keeping track of all of them.” He added that this behavior is typical of the Eritrean government: “They create a number of positive cases in order to overturn other negative reports.”
Mehari told of additional cases in which Eritreans who had fled from their country were sent back by the Egyptian and Sudanese governments. “Submitting a request for asylum in a country outside Eritrea is considered an act of treason by the Eritrean government, so anyone returned to Eritrea is considered a traitor and is harshly treated,” he said, criticizing the policy of the Israeli government. “In the past decade there has been almost no expulsions to Eritrea, especially not from developed and democratic countries. In most Western countries – in Europe and the United States – they are aware of the fact that it’s impossible to expel Eritreans to their [old] country. Israel is unable to understand that.”
Damuz told of the present situation in Eritrea. “To this day in Eritrea, there is no freedom or rights for the citizens, there is no free communication, there is no freedom of expression, there is no freedom of conscience, there is no freedom of religion, there is no freedom of movement. There is one party and establishing an opposition to it is forbidden. Anyone who thinks otherwise or voices his opinion is arrested and disappeared.
“Journalists and political activists are arrested and imprisoned,” Damuz added. “The families don’t know where the people are taken and whether they will return some day. Every person in Eritrea has to be conscripted without knowing [when they] will be discharged. In the army, soldiers are slaves of the government. If a male or female soldier talks or asks questions, he or she is taken to prison.”
Damuz asked to send a message to the Israeli public, particularly to the residents of south Tel Aviv: “We didn’t come to Israel in order to harm you or destroy your home; we aren’t your enemies. We hear the cry and the pain of the residents here – in the Shapira neighborhood, the Hatikva neighborhood and Neve Sha’anan. We see the situation here. We aren’t blind. It’s important to us that you know – this difficult situation isn’t our fault. We all came to south Tel Aviv after being released from [the detention center] without anything – without a work permit and anything.
According to Population, Immigration and Border Authority figures, about 55,000 African migrants are living in Israel today, about 36,000 of them Eritrean citizens. Some 2,000 African migrants are being held in Israeli prisons, based on the “law to prevent infiltration,” which allows them to be imprisoned for three years without trial.
The law determines that the migrants can be arrested based on the crime of entering Israeli without a permit. An additional procedure, “for handling infiltrators involved in a criminal proceeding,” allows for the imprisonment of African migrants suspected of committing a crime, based on administrative evidence only, even if it is insufficient for a criminal trial.
The community representatives point an accusing finger at the Israeli government. “I would tell the residents here that we should oppose the government together. We’re suffering and they’re also suffering because of the government,” Damuz said. “We call on the Israeli government to examine our request for asylum fairly. All the democratic countries in the world recognize us as refugees. We want very much to return to Eritrea, we miss our families, our land and our culture – but to expel us today to Eritrea is to sentence us to death. We’re pleading with the Israeli government – give us protection.”
IBTimes UK reporter Gianluca Mezzofiore obtains documents showing Eritrean government collects illegal tax in violation of UN and Foreign Office
Eritreans living in the UK are being forced by their own government to pay a “diaspora tax” that ultimately funds the secretive country’s network of influence in the Horn of Africa, including supporting the al-Shabaab group of militants in Somalia, an IBTimes UK special investigation has uncovered.
The collection of a 2% income tax on Eritrean nationals living abroad violatesUN resolution 2023 (2011) which condemns Eritrea’s use of the tax to “destabilise the Horn of Africa region and to violate the sanctions regime”. Some of the money is used to procure weapons for armed opposition groups.
The UN Security Council hardened sanctions against Eritrea in December 2011 over its alleged support for Islamist militant groups such as Somalia’s al-Shabaab.
Among the alleged member of the Somali Islamist group was Samantha Lewthwaite – dubbed the “white widow” – the 28-year-old wife of one of the London 7/7 bombers. Lewthwaite was allegedly part of a terror unit that planned to target the city of Mombasa, Kenya.
he Foreign Office in Whitehall had earlier sought to curb Eritrean diplomats who were collecting the tax in the UK after claiming that the money was used by the Eritrean government to destablise the region.
On 20 May 2011, the Eritrean ambassador in London was informed that the collection of the diaspora tax levied on Eritreans might be unlawful and breach the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The Foreign Office told the ambassador to stop all activities relating to its collection.
However, documents obtained by IBTimes UK and redacted to protect the identity of the source, show that the practice still happens in Britain.
The 2 per cent tax
Several Eritreans have described the tax as a “consular service” for any citizen wishing to renew their passport or Eritrean holders of foreign passports requesting a visa to visit Eritrea. Every Eritrean must produce documentation of the tax payments they made in their host country and on this basis the 2% tax is calculated.
“Many people do not pay it voluntarily, but if you have any needs of service from the embassy eg, you want to send home the body of a relative who died, your family needs to renew a trade licence or you simply want a visa for your British-born child to visit Eritrea, you are asked to prove that you have fulfilled your obligations,” Selam Kidane, an Eritrean living in the UK, said.
The first document seen by IBTimes UK is a transfer order slip dated 2012 from a British bank to the Housing & Commerce Bank of Eritrea in the capital of Asmara for further credit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It belongs to Eden (not her real name) who was forced to pay the diaspora tax after authorities threatened her parents in Asmara that their family business licence would not be renewed.
“If it wasn’t for my mum I wouldn’t have paid,” Eden, a British citizen, said. “I have always refused to do that and delay the payment since I got in the UK.”
Even those like Eden who have not required consular services for several years are required to pay “arrears” for the years in which the tax was not paid.
The alternative for Eden’s parents, if she had not paid, would be to sign a letter in which they stated she was no longer their daughter, which would effectively disinhereit her.
A well-placed source told IBTimes UK: “The problem is not with the diaspora tax as such, although that can be frustrating. The key feature is the message by which it can be taken from the people. It is more nuanced than Nazi Germany. It’s corruption and use of social pressure.”
Among the “national obligations payments” made by Eden are the recovery tax, which is the 2% diaspora tax, and the Hzbawi Mekhete, which in the Tigrigna language means “national defence” and is a fee that funds the army.
While the 2 per cent tax is negotiable, the “national defence” fee is not,IBTimes UK understands.
“I had to struggle to pay this money. I feel so terrible, I had to borrow money from friends and a charity in order to pay,” Eden said. “I disagree with paying this tax. I consider tax a ransom on me. I feel so horrible.”
The second document (shown below) is a confirmation of Eden’s payment made from London by the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The translation reads: ”Per the information we received from you, we confirm that the above sum has been credited into our account and we are enclosing the credit advice. Please complete the transaction in accordance with the procedures, entering it into the database and also the government account system.
Victory to the Masses!
Berhane Yemane
Head of Mission Accounts”
The North Korea of Africa
Dubbed the North Korea of Africa, Eritrea is considered one of the continent’s most opaque countries. National elections have not been held since it gained independence in 1993. The country is governed by the one-party authoritarian rule of President Isaias Afewerki, who has been in power for 20 years.
Torture, arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on freedom of expression are routine. Mandatory military service imposed on all men and women between 18 and 55 is one of the main causes of flight from the country. It has been calculated that 4,000 Eritreans leave the country every month and, according to a 2008 estimate, 40,000 Eritreans live in Britain.
Advocacy group Reporters without Borders has ranked Eritrea bottom of a list of 179 countries on freedom of expression. Access for international humanitarian and human rights organisations is almost impossible and the country has no independent media.
The Foreign Office told IBTimes UK: “We are aware of allegations over the use of harassment to collect revenue from members of the Eritrean diaspora in the UK.
“On 20 December, 2012, FCO officials raised these concerns with the Eritrean ambassador and reminded him of UN Security Council resolution 2023. [The UK supports the resolution] which condemned Eritrea’s use of the diaspora tax to destabilise the Horn of Africa region and decided that Eritrea should cease using illicit means to collect the tax,” the spokesperson said.
IBTimes UK contacted the Eritrean embassy but it has not responded to any questions about the tax.
Canada expels Eritrean diplomat
In May, the Canadian government expelled an Eritrean envoy over allegations that he had demanded the 2% diaspora tax and “national defence” fee from Eritreans in the country.
Semere Ghebremariam Micael, head of the Eritrean Consulate General in Toronto, had been under investigation over the allegations.
“Canada has taken steps to expel (declare persona non grata) Mr Semere Ghebremariam O Micael, consul and head of the Eritrean Consulate General in Toronto, effective immediately,” Canada’s foreign affairs minister John Baird said.
The 2013 annual report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea to the Security Council’s Somalia/Eritrea sanctions committee revealed that the Eritrean government was still undermining stability in Somalia by paying political agents and a warlord linked to Islamist militants to influence the Mogadishu government.
Asmara has always denied any involvement with al-Shabaab militants fighting to overthrow the Somali government. It said that UN sanctions imposed in 2009 for supporting the Islamist militant group were based on lies.
The UN Security Council has decided to extend for 16 months sanctions against Somalia and Eritrea.
“In a resolution adopted this morning, the council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to re-establish the eight-member Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia until 25 November, 2014,” reads a UN statement.
That extension may point to the fact that Eritrea is a case of sanctions that work – but it is ordinary Eritreans who are paying the price, not the government.
“The whole thing is extremely unfair,” said Kidane. “In all the years since independence the regime in Eritrea has never been accountable to the people and yet it has created a system to maintain itself in power by extorting those very people.”