A Symbolic Gesture of Unity and Reconciliation with Our People, The Eritrean People.
I call upon all Ethiopians to put aside hatred, bitternss, grievances,... emanated from the bloodshed which took place between Ethiopians and Eritreans between the year 1998 to 2000 and to show their brotherly and sisterly love to the Eritrean populace in the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation for a better future as a gesture of symbolic Unity. We must separate Issayas Afewerki and the innocent people of Eritrea. We must show them our unity by practice than preaching about Unity by verbatim.
My heart has been so hard because of the war which has taken many innocent lives for no good reason. I was not blaming it on the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea. I was blaming TPLF and Shabia, and I still believe it is the mishandling of the Ethio-Eritrea issue by TPLF which has led to all that bloodshed. From the very beginning, the referendum which has led to Eritrean independence was fake and false. I know we all say 98% Eritreans have chosen independence. However, the truth is that 98 % Eritreans did not choose independence. They were given two choices:
Slavery
Freedom.
No human being in his or her right mind can choose slavery. Almost all Eritreans ticked Freedom. If I was to be one of them, I would never choose Slavery. I would go for freedom. As such we must blame TPLF for mishandling the issue from the very beginning and conducting a referendum of slavery and freeedom. Furthermore, TPLF did not have the legal mandate even to conduct a referendum because it was not a legal government yet. While this was the root cause of the pending problem between Ethiopian and Eritrea. We cannot also blame the Eritrean
populace about the war. The war was conducted by the order of Issayas Afewerki, not by the order of ordinary Eritreans. No Eritrean would have stopped the war which has been ordered by the respected president at that time. I guess Eritrean themselves did not know the personality and whoness of Issayas himself before he exposed himself by bullying every neighboring country.
I am deeply touched very recently by the ordinary people; two families of Eritrean origin has come to the country of my residence. I met the family. The only language they speak is Tigrignea. They have spend the rest of their lives in refugee camps in Sudan. They were young when they fled from Eritrea during the war with Mengistu and Shabia. Now they are old. They have big families. Their children never went to school. Now they are resettled in a country where the official language is English. None of them can speak English, and the parents are elderly,at old age in a new country. While I was speaking to them my tears rolled down my face. I did ask myself why? I could not get the answer. Are these not my people? I told myself they are. My question was begging me for an answer. I asked myself again, is this because of Mengistu or Shabia? Probably both.
This is to say that our people are suffering because of perverted individual like Issayas who fabricated false identity to mislead and divide our people. We know Issayas has been sponsored by Ethiopia's classical enemies. Our classical enemies succeeded in dividing us and engaging us in an endless conflict among ourselves. They have succeeded in reducing Ethiopia to the poverty level we witness in our days. However, who knows, both Eritrean and Ethiopian people will probably know by now who is the devil between them. Ethiopian and Eritrean must know their enemies.
1998, I read an article written my Professor Asrat Woldeyesus, he stated that since we have external enemies who are keen to exploit our internal conflicts and difference, he warned that chasing Eritrean from Ethiopia will only benefit our enemies from outside. At that time it was not clear to me, but later I got what Prof. Asrat was saying then.
Because of all these hidden conspiracies, we are fighting among ourselves without end, and our people are living in refugee camps in Sudan for half a century for no good cause except the hidden agenda of our external enemies. What does an Eritrean living in a refugee camp for a half century in Sudan get from an independent Eritrea or from the Arab league members?
I therefore argue this is the right time for Ethiopians to show unity with their Eritrean compatriots. This is the right time for Eritreans to respond positively and to reject Issayas. If Issayas is rejected by the people he is nothing. We do not even need to go to war. There is no point talking about unity while we have no love and compassion to each other.
I also request Eritrean compatriots to voice their opposition to the kidnapped Ethiopians and ask for their immediate release as a symbolic gesture of Unity.
We need to solve our problems ourselves.
Unity by action, not by words
Gezaee Hailemichael
3/21/07