Mai zeybela Fisto Hiwet Yebelan.

Eritrea was in 1993 a new state emerging from dust through the strength and innovations of the ELF and EPLF. Even though, it is sometimes difficult to understand for some how and why this state was created in 1993, we can not deny the struggle of the heroic Eritrean people, mainly from the highlands of Christian Kebesa, who by moving to a hostile, barren and unfamiliar region in the lowlands of Sahel fought against what they perceived as perpetration of injustice against them. Indeed, no one can reject that a lot of wrong measures were taken by Haile Selassie and the Dergue (not respecting Eritrea’s autonomy and leaving Eritreans to handle their own affairs without any amharazation process) and perhaps a lot of crimes were committed against the Eritrean people as a consequence of it but equal or worse human-right crimes were carried out against Oromo, Tegaru, Somali, Amhara and others nationalities of Ethiopia by the two past governments. The main reasons for elitist Eritreans wanting to have independence was never crimes of Haile Selassie or Dergue, because these regimes especially Haile Selassie, were showing special favours to Eritreans in the beginning.

Different reasons such as economical frustration, the revolution atmosphere in the 60’ties in the world, feeling of no commonness and relation with the mainly Amharic government of Haile Selassie as a result of 50 years of colonialism and dissociation from mainland Ethiopia gave university students of the 60ties like Isayas Afewerki reasons to go to the mountains and start a war. They might have used reasons as dissolution of the federation, human-right crimes committed by Haile Selassie etc, but in reality the main reasons are the same as any other rebellious African fronts’ who are led by few opportunists and power-hungry elites. These elitists exploit the ethnical/religious/regional disagreements of some in the local population to start an armed struggle. I wonder how many peoples lives could have been spared in Africa if a quarter of all the rebellious “liberation” struggles were solved in a civilized manner around a table. I mean, I don’t know, but I suppose all power, fame, luxury and resources of a country can be equally distributed to its entire people. Can’t it? It only takes durable peace and a tradition of cultured way of solving problems in the country.

For Africans, however, revolutions with the gun are easy to start but African leaders and Africans have really difficult time initiating economic revolutions similar to that of China. Why? I don’t know. Could it be that they rather choose to dwell in childish things such as ethnicity, religion, land and honour? Let us be serious, what human being chose its ethnic group, its religion, its land? At least I can understand the honour thing. It is something that can be chosen. You can choose to be honourable by doing the right things. Helping people, staying out of trouble, listening to all point of views, respecting basic human-right laws, reacting positively to people’s quests are some good honourable qualities a leader or any person ought to have. The bad side of honour is when one thinks one knows everything and never wants to admit error or defeat. This kind of honour only gives birth to dishonour. This is the kind of honour called “Tibit” in Tigrigna- or arrogance in English. They say “TIBIT WEDKET IYU”.  With arrogance comes the fall.

The PFDJ of Eritrea emasculated of its manhood in the Badme war is disparately trying to regain a little honour by trying to revenge the humiliating defeat of the Badme war and the even more embarrassing 7 years of languishing in nothingness, waiting for the border to be demarcated. The no war- no peace stalemate is frustrating the Eritrean government. The Eritrean economy is honestly destroyed to its bone and Eritrean people are running away in volumes never seen before from the country that they love very much. Especially young people are trying to run away from Eritrea every single day. People are starving and dying. Small children and youth, like never before, are becoming serious problem in the streets. There is shortage of food supplies, medical supplies and to get everyday necessities is becoming a struggle in itself. The things that can be found are really high in price and not affordable to most civilians. The streets of the cities are filled with beggars and prostitutes. Eritrea which was supposed to be a new “Singerpore” in the Horn of Africa has instead transformed itself to be the new North Korea.

I don’t want to dwell in the problems Eritreans are facing as the result of the PFDJ’s obsession with “Weyane”. But I do believe if the Eritrean government had taken the opportunity to develop its economy from 2001 to 2007 instead of divesting all its finances and resources into the ministry of Information and Defence, Eritrea would have been in a better shape right now. The wrong policies of the PFDJ have devastated Eritrea and turn it to be a heaven for terrorist groups and its ministry of Information their propaganda tool.  

I don’t believe the Ethiopian government is so shrewd that it calculated the total collapse of Eritrean social life and economy by refusing to demarcate the border. I believe that the universal karmic law is the reason why Eritrea is in this stage. Eritrea devised a plan to destroy Ethiopia before 1998 and instead Ethiopia is blooming in economic terms. Today, Eritrea is doing all it can possibly do to disrupt the peace and economic development of Ethiopia. The latest is the massacre of the Ethiopians and Chinese oil workers in Ogaden. It is not a secret that ONLF and other Ethiopian rebel groups are financed and trained by Eritrea to create havoc in developing Ethiopia.

PFDJ, it seems, is having some peaks in its proxy-wars by creating disorder in Ethiopia like sponsoring the massacre in Ogaden’s oil field. But at the end, all its evil and grievous deeds are going to reflect back on her. The Ethiopian government mustn’t make a mistake. They must never declare war against Eritrea or take actions against it. Instead the Ethiopian government should:

- Continue to blame Eritrea for all atrocities committed against Ethiopian civilians, army, and foreigners by rebel groups or Somali Jihadists. For this purpose, a special committee should be created to inform the world media (through TV, Internet, Radio, News Papers..etc) 24 hours a day every single heinous act of the Eritrean government. The committee should use graphic images and films of Ethiopians and foreign victims of terrorist attacks to get the attention of the international press.

- A diplomatic committee should be created with the sole purpose of travelling to UN, to Europe, USA, to African, to Asian and other responsible government organs and head of states to hold conference about the suffering and plight of Eritrean people. Eritreans should be part of this committee. This committee should expose all the evil crimes carried out by the PFDJ regime in Asmara since 2001.  Eritreans who have been first-hand witness of the atrocities of PFDJ should be contacted and even given money to tell their stories in front of foreign government organs. The Ethiopian and World Media should be bombarded with news showing the suffering of the Eritrean people.

- The Ethiopian government should encourage young members of the Eritrean defence force and other Eritrean youths to run to Ethiopia by creating incentives for them. Make it easier for them get employments and education in Ethiopia. Or help them get faster visa and papers so they further can travel to foreign destinations. Help Eritreans smuggle other Eritreans out of Eritrea by giving them money and making a secret path in the dematerialized zone where Eritreans can be smuggled into Ethiopia.

Eritrea is now filled with de-motivated and disgruntled youths who just want to leave Eritrea, thanks to PFDJ. And can anyone really blame them? Humans need water to survive. If there is no water in one place, they must graze to another. This is a law of nature. Eritreans are running away not because they are traitors or like to see the PFDJ defeated but because the PFDJ is a traitor to Eritreans and it is a defeated government. Eritrea is run by a government that is defeated economically and militarily. Eritreans, especially the youth, are seeking a better destiny and future. The Ethiopian government must take an advantage of this. The Ethiopian government must be active by creating people-smuggling groups and let the Ethiopian army help out in this endeavour.

Along the 1000 KM border, there should be secret people-smuggling units helping Eritreans wanting to leave Eritrea. In every city, there should be Eritrean agents and intermediaries (although a lot of Eritreans would do it for free) paid by Ethiopian government for this purpose. Ethiopia should never make any terrorist activities against Eritreans. This is only good for PFDJ’s propaganda, not Ethiopia or innocent Eritreans. Ethiopia should only create holes in the border areas where Eritreans can run through into Ethiopia or Djibouti. Ethiopian sponsored ships and boats should be stationed in the international waters in the Red Sea to incite and help Eritreans to flee through Eritrea’s coastal areas.

The PFDJ is loosing because it is loosing human-resource. That is why it is using the human-power of the Somalis, the Oromo and others to wage a proxy-war against developing Ethiopia. Ethiopia should only help speed-up the end of PFDJ by tapping the “Mai” from the “Fisto”- the water from the water-container. Without water there is no life.

Zemede Hagos Habrom

April 24, 2007

Cambridge, England