Introduction

The Eritrean ruthless leaders are repeating history today by hiding from the world the existence of drought, food shortages and famine in Eritrea in the name and lies of "Self-reliance."  They do not care for their people as thousands will die as a result of the leaders' carelessness of not inviting UN Agencies, international organizations and other willing NGOs and humanitarian organizations to help. Why are the leaders not doing something when other neighbouring nations are scrambling to save their people and seek help to prevent the calamities that will be caused by famine? Most of the answers are given by articles in this very website when they are warning us about the devastating results of famine.

Unfortunately, one of the things which are most shameful is when the foot soldiers at Dehai and other Shaebia-oriented websites are at their denial of the existence of famine in Eritrea instead of advising their leaders to take the right steps. Are they becoming too opportunistic by not having sympathy to our own people?

This article is sending an alarm as a clarion call to the leaders of Eritrea to heed the hard lessons of history especially with respect to famine. It presents some lessons recalling the past history of famines; it exposes the lies of “Self-reliance” policies;” it describes the possible signs that indicate the existence of famine in Eritrea; and recommends some relevant ideas and approaches the Eritrean leaders should take to avert famine catastrophe. The ball is in their court. The article also serves as a sombre warning to the present repressive leaders of Eritrea who are holding hostage of the Eritrean people especially in this time of drought, food shortages and famine.

Recalling the past history of famines

If we remember the negative part of history we will not be willing to repeat it. If we remember the past, the same totalitarian systems of government like Kim El Sung’s North Korea, Mao’s China, and Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia used to hide a raging famine in their countries under the cloak of “Self- reliance!” Are the Eritrean leaders following the same path of destruction by repeating history? Does the policy of “Self-reliance” of their past ideological mentors is going to help the Eritrean people in this day and age? Are we forgetting the history of famines in Ethiopia? The same history was repeated by past bad leaders in that country.

Most of us can remember the famine in Ethiopia in the 70s and 80s. Emperor Haile Selassie had tried to hide the famine of 1974 in Wollo and Tigre when he was celebrating his 60th anniversary on the throne. We know what happened as a result of this lack of empathy and responsibility for the disadvantaged people of Ethiopia. Then Haile Selassie was celebrating his Coronation with a lot of fun fare just as President Isaias Afworki is enjoying his Expo Festival at present while Alems of Eritrean family are starving and leaving their ancestral villages in droves. What a sad irony!

Readers can watch the “Hidden Hunger” documentary film of the Wollo Ethiopian famine of 1974. It became the rallying cry of the Ethiopian people against Haile Selassie government and the catalyst for the so-called 1974 Marxist Revolution in Ethiopia.
The same history was repeated when the Derg (Mengistu Hailemariam Marxist regime).was trying to hide the famine to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the so-called revolution which did not benefit Ethiopia. Look what happened during the mid-80s when the Ethiopian people suffered because of the famine on top of the prolonged wars that was going on in that country.

To have a full account and history of the Ethiopian famines in 1974 and when drought and famine was ravaging Ethiopia from 1984 to 1986, readers can refer to the revealing book, “Red Tears” – a treatise on Revolution, War, and Famine during the final of the Cold War era.  The book was authored by Major Dawit Wolde Georgis, who was the Ethiopia’s Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner during the Mengistu Hailemariam regime (the Derg – Ethiopia’s former Marxist military government). The author provides detailed information on the Ethiopian drought of 1984-1985 and how the international community came to the rescue of the catastrophe caused by the famine. Seven million people have been spared (more than population of Eritrea) in Ethiopia by a remarkable success story of international relief. The book is a truthful, moving, gripping and powerful and very readable and offers important messages to leaders and international community.

To get a good understanding of the famine in China during Mao’s regime, readers can refer to a book, “Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most devastating Catastrophe” by author Frank Dikotter, professor of the University of Hong Kong. According to Dikotter, “Mao was in power for a long time, and abuses against the people got worse and worse. In the end, he lived in ``his own cocoon" as a paranoid narcissist. Some of the Chinese colleagues who came to North America confirmed to me there was famine during Mao’s 10-year Cultural Revolution and beyond. They related to me that each person was rationed to one time meal a day in all provinces. People were hungry that time. 

To have brief information about Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia, readers can revisit the movie, “The Killing Fields.” It is quite revealing about the “Self-reliance” policy horrific approaches these paranoid leaders have taken. There are many books written about Khmer Rouge Cambodia.

As if it has come from the pages of Mao’s policy of Cultural Revolution, at present Eritreans have stopped to eat three times per day due to the so-called “Self-reliance” arrogant principle of President Isaias Afworki. The President had publicly recommended to the people to ration their meals and reduce the portion that they it at every meal in his public pronouncements. Besides jacking the prices of food, the government is now rationing each family to only 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of grain each month. Is this not repeating the negative part of history?

Probably most of us are witnessing a paradox and a dichotomy unfolding from the recent letter (Asmara, July 31, 2011) of President Isaias Afworki addressed to Mr. Barack Obaama, President of the United States of America. The letter is now out in the public domain.  In this letter he is hiding the existence of famine particularly in Eritrea although he acknowledged the drought in the Horn of Africa, which is already a public knowledge of international community by saying, “……particularly at a time when the Horn of Africa is facing an acute drought that has led to massive suffering and displacement as well as the deaths of hundreds of people.”  Isaias is now afraid what it will do to his power when the future UN economic sanctions may be imposed upon Eritrea. Psychologically, Isaias is exhibiting paranoid narcissistic behaviour just like his past ideological mentors of “Self-reliance” policy, namely Mao of China and Kim El Sung of North Korea.

The lies of  "Self-reliance” policy

The Eritrean leaders are adamantly hiding the existence of food shortages and famine in the country in the name of “Self-reliance” policy. According to Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U. S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in her interview by the Reporter from Asmarino Independent (AI) asking her if there is a famine in Eritrea (August 11, 2011), she believes there is famine in Eritrea and she registered her concern like this: “But we’re deeply concerned that none of us know because they have barred UN agencies, barred NGOs. It has become a black hole in terms of governance and humanitarian ground truth. And the people of Eritrea, who must…most likely are suffering the very same food shortage that we’re seeing throughout  the region are being left to starve because there is no access, there is a clear cut denial of access by the government of Eritrea of food and other humanitarian support for its people.”

The State Department deputy in charge of African Affairs, Jonnie Carson warned there could be unseen hunger crises in Eritrea when no aid agencies operate. World Food Program (WFP) was expelled for six years to operate in Eritrea in the name of “Self-reliance” and urged the Eritrean regime to acknowledge the hunger and work with humanitarian organizations to prevent catastrophe (July  30, 2011).

The most galling and saddening situation is to witness the repressive leaders of Eritrea  playing the game of hide and seek instead of telling the world like it is,  that there is drought, food shortages and famine in Eritrea. In one breath President Isaias says something and in another breath his political adviser, Yemane Ghebreab says another.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Hilde Johnson, in her November 17-18, 2010 visit to Eritrea briefed the Western diplomats that President Isaias promised UNICEF total  access to the country for the purposes of conducting a nutrition survey and providing blanket  supplementary feeding  (July 21, 2011 AI staff). During that time, President Isaias admitted that “there is famine in the country.” This was in a surprising departure from his public pronouncements on the non-existence of hunger in the name of the so-called “Self-reliance” and “Food Security” policies he was toting to the public. However, the President never kept the promise he made to the UNICEF Deputy Executive Director. In other words, it was a disappointing and false diplomatic gesture that the president made to the UNICEF official.

The truth is, during the famine of 2009, the government was shoring up to meet the challenges of the existing famine through draconian land, farming, food and market policies. These “Self-reliance” policies only exacerbate the situation. According to the July 21, 2011 article by AI staff, the government implemented rampant land classification, food products confiscation from the peasants and strict market regulation where peasants were prohibited access to the city and town markets. As a result, beggars flooded to the streets of Asmara. To hide this dismal situation as a result of famine beggars were forced back to their rural areas to preserve quaint look of the capital city for the seasonal summer tourists of the visiting Diaspora Eritreans.

As a show case of official creed of “Self-reliance” the regime concocted the idea of “Food Security” by storing crops produced by poor farmers in rural areas. They regularly insist there is no hunger in Eritrea They refused foreign aid and has given no detailed information to UN or World Food Program (WFP). They were taking the lion share of last year’s farmer’s harvest. They promised to pay back but did not pay back the farmers. The government bleeds the farmers to feed the army. It is like stealing from “Peter” and gives it to “Paul.” What the government did and continue to do is to forcefully take crops from the farmers with a fake promissory note or minimal price and most of the time they decide not to pay it back.

At present, the President’s political advisor, Yemane Ghebreab in another breathe continue to spread the lies of “Self-reliance.” In a recent interview, he said, “There are no food shortages in Eritrea at the present time. Last year, we had a bumper harvest” (July 30, 2011). But Officials at the Red Cross office in the capital city of Asmara confirmed that there had been a problem this year. Yemane Ghebeab denied reports that a food crises is forcing Eritreans to flee to neighbouring countries. He continued to say, “We are also built up our reserves in terms of food stocks by importing food, so we will be ready to any emergency.” He continued to insist that “Eritrea is not experiencing a severe drought, but conceded that Asmara might coordinate with aid groups if drought or famine management goes beyond our means.” He added, “So far the situation is normal, and we believe we can manage with our own resources” (Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent and Peter Clottey, July 30, 2011).

All these flip flopping pronouncements and the time the Higdefites are denying the Stalin era like peasant starvation and genocide is merely to protect the lies of “Self-reliance” policy and the image of the autocratic government of Isaias Afworki. The repressive regime fails to provide data on the humanitarian needs of its own people. It prevents the free flow of information to allow the helping UN agencies and international organizations to make early choices that can help avert catastrophe and address the issue of hunger and food shortages.

It is tantamount as if the regime is saying, “They can control nature.” When the forces of nature and its disasters hit the land, they will not know how to control and deal with it. They will be overwhelmed by its catastrophic effects. They will be forced to seek help from UN agencies, NGOs and other humanitarian organizations. President Mengistu Hailemariam of the Marxist military regime of Ethiopia (the Derg) used to say in his public pronouncements, “We shall control nature!” as if the Marxist Revolution was going to control nature. But when the famine came and many people started to die, he was forced to seek international help on time. In Eritrea, no amount of micro dams and water management strategies will help during the time of drought and shortage of rain. Evapotranspiration will be at its highest during this time.  The micro dams will dry and be filled with silt. So much for controlling nature!

The signs of the existence of famine in Eritrea

There are ample signs of the existence of famine in Eritrea. We need to heed the signs of times.   I will list them here for all of us to convince ourselves that there is drought, food shortages and famine in Eritrea:

1) The autocratic government, which faces international sanctions, refuses to acknowledge a drought that has swept the territory.  But satellite images show that the Red Sea nation has been hit by drought conditions similar to those in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti (Luc Van Kemenade, July 30, 2011). These countries have seen failed rains and widespread food shortages. Eritrea is not an island isolated from the Greater East African Region. Although Eritrea is an isolated country politically and diplomatically, geographically, it is in the same Sub- Sahara African Region. And it is affected by the same forces of nature. In other words, it cannot escape from the catastrophic effects of drought and famine.

2) According to Olivia Ward, Foreign Affairs Reporter, Toronto Stat, Saturday, August 6, 2011) she reported, “UN has warned  that that famine has struck three more areas of Somali, Oxfam said the humanitarian crisis across East Africa is growing faster than aid efforts can keep pace. More than 500,000 children are at risk of starvation, while the numbers of people affected are expected to rise to 15 million.”  Of course, Eritrea is included in this proper assessment. Organizations like FAO, UNICEF and other indicate that the region is suffering from the worst famine in 60 years.

3) Nearly 1,000 Eritreans arrived at a refugee camp in northern Ethiopia in July alone, officials said. For example, recently we hear it from the horse’s mouth, if you will.  Alem is a farmer’s wife who has overcome the odds of rape by soldiers and braved the mines at the border to escape hunger with her five children to be in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. The world focuses in famine in Somalia, Eritrea suffers in silence. Imagine she had not seen her former husband for more than 10 years since he was enlisted in the border army.

It is heart rending when the 40-year-old woman said, “It was a matter of life and death.” “The government bleeds farmers dry to feed the army. My husband is enlisted in the army and I haven’t heard from him for 10 years. I couldn’t wait any longer, not while my children were starving” (Luc Van Kemenade, July 30, 2011).

4) There are other indications that show the existence of drought, food shortages and famine in Eritrea. Again, we are going to hear from the horse’s mouth recently, if you will.  According to Luc Van Kemenade (July 30, 2011), “Last year when the government claimed a bumper harvest,  the influx of refugees usually slowed down dramatically during the rainy seasons, from mid-June to mid-September, because the flowing rivers deny access and farmers are busy preparing for the harvest. But this year, refugees are able to cross the ankle-deep or dry rivers by foot at most places. And many farmers are not waiting for rains to come this year. The main reason for Eritreans fleeing the country is the lack of food.

5) The nation’s food supplies are exhausted. The government is now rationing each family to only 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of grain each month because rains have failed. President Isaias Afworki, in his public pronouncements has said people should ration their meals just as his former ideological mentors did in the past. The authorities has run out of stock and are trying to import wheat from Sudan paying with mining revenues. Is this what “Self-reliance policy is amounting to? So much for the “Self-reliance” policy!

6) In addition, Luc Van Kemenade (July 30, 2011) said, “The food prices have spiralled and refugees from Southern Eritrea and their families haven’t been able to buy food from the government for the last three months. If the rains continue to fail, large parts of the country could be hungry in October, when farmers are supposed to harvest most of the staple crops.”

7) Many strong young men and women with children are braving the land mines to walk for days across the border to Ethiopia. If the drought continues, young children and the elderly will be in trouble since there is no escape for them (Associated Press, July 30, 2011).

8) One of the concrete evidence for the existence of food shortages and famine is the lining for bread in the city and the increase of beggars in the streets, just as it happened in Ethiopia during the past famines.

9) The UN World Food Program (WFP) says it hasn’t distributed any food in Eritrea since 2005, nor has it received requests from the government for food assistance. The regime did not allow this important UN organization to come to the country to distribute the needed food to the hungry.

10) Another indication of the impact for the existence of famine is the  UN, Red Cross and other agencies have appealed to the Eritrean government to conduct a joint-assessment as the impact of the drought crisis continue to worsen in neighbourhood Somalia and Ethiopia. The Eritrean government did not cooperate for such important data gathering activities to happen to facilitate planning for food and other humanitarian assistance.

What the present Eritrean leaders should do to avert famine catastrophe

There are sensible and common sense approaches and practical steps that a government can take to avert the looming famine catastrophes in the country. It first requires the political will of the Eritrean leaders to take at heart the mitigation of drought, food shortages, and famine catastrophes as a national priority at this very time. The ball is in their court. I will try to list those mitigation steps for the benefit of the leaders and indicate what they should and need to do to avert famine catastrophes:

1) The Eritrean leaders have the audacity to say that there is no drought, food shortages and famine in Eritrea at present. They will be proven wrong when they face the imminent reality. As they say, “You can hide, but you can’t run.” Instead of flip flopping, they need to tell it like it is by saying honestly and backing it with evidences that there is drought, food shortages, and famine in Eritrea at present!

2) By becoming transparent, the leaders will open the goodwill of the international community to come to the help of the people and to take steps to shore up the massive suffering and displacement as well as deaths that will result from the drought, food shortages and famine.. In that way, they will unleash successful international relief to the hungry just as it is in progress in the neighbouring countries of the Horn Africa that are affected by drought and famine.

3) To this effect, the government should provide data on the humanitarian needs of its own people. It should not prevent the free flow of information to UN agencies and international humanitarian organizations that can help avert catastrophe and address the issue of hunger and food shortages.

4) In this connection, the UN, Red Cross and other agencies have appealed to the Eritrean government to conduct joint-assessment of the drought, food shortages and famine in the country as the impact of the drought crisis continues to worsen in neighbouring Somalia and Ethiopia. The government should graciously cooperate for such important data gathering activities to happen to facilitate the planning of food and other humanitarian assistance.

5) The government should immediately allow the important UN organization called World Food Program (WFP) to come to the country to distribute the needed food to the hungry in order to avert massive suffering, death and unnecessary displacements. This is a sensible thing to do!

6) It is a known fact that the government would not like to hear other drastic political, economic and social development approaches they have to take. This is because they are blinded by selfishness to continue to stay in power, which they had illegitimately usurped this power from the people, in the first place. They do not want to face the truth and the present reality! Nevertheless, it needs to be mentioned if the leaders want to rethink twice if their “Self-reliance” policy is workable or not in this day and age.
In a nutshell, I would try to articulate in the following few paragraphs the dismal situation.

The nation and the people of Eritrea have found themselves in due to the leaders’ senseless and impractical “Self-reliance” policies and principles they have been following for the last 20 years after independence. I will recommend some drastic measures that need to be taken to alleviate the sufferings of the people of Eritrea.

Most of the time, to solve the short-term and the long-term problems of a nation, we need to deal with the root causes first and foremost. At present, the economies, politics, and social life are monopolized by the state and by a single party called PFDJ (People’s Front for Democracy and Justice). I don’t want to say the translation of the acronym PFDJ. It  makes me cringe. This is because there is no democracy and justice in Eritrea today and also for the last 20 years. The acronym is a misnomer and does not translate to what is happening on the ground.  The PFDJ regime is just bluffing at the Eritrean people. In other words, as I said, the regime has usurped the power from the people. Only the Eritrean people through the exercise of their democratic rights can decide who represents them.

There is no rule of law in the country because the ratified constitution was suspended by the PFDJ regime and put on the shelf to gather dust and be forgotten. There is rampant human rights abuse and imprisonment. There is no respect of freedom of press, religion, organization and movement. Instead the regime rules by dictatorial and draconian decrees in an arbitrary manner. They have allowed no room for opposition parties to operate inside the country. It is one-man and one-party dictatorial rule. Democratically speaking, this is an unacceptable approach of governance in this day and age.

The Eritrean “renegade” President Isaias Afworki should reform his arrogant policies and principles and lift his dictatorial grip on the people of Eritrea. The late popular President Reagan of the United States during the final phase of the Cold War Era appealed to Mr. Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union at that time by saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!” We know what happened after that pronouncement. The domino effect after that was phenomenal. The cold War was suddenly halted. East European counties and the two countries of Africa, namely Ethiopia and Eritrea benefited from that domino effect.

In the same way, the Eritrean people are also crying, "Mr. Isaias Afworki, disband your ugly ‘Self-reliance’ policy!”  “Self-reliance” policy is a bankrupt, out-dated, and worn-out policy. It is not workable. The PDFJ regime should stop the ruthless Mao-style and Pot-Loc-style policies of Cultural Revolution which is enslaving the farmers, demoralizing, demotivating and alienating the Eritrean youth. By implementing such policies, President Isaias is taking the Eritrean people back to the 20th Century instead of moving them to progress towards the 21st century.

The “Reliance-policy” did not help the Chinese nor the Cambodians and the North Koreans. These Chinese has chosen for many years up to now, “The Leap Forward Policy” to use the Chinese term, if you will. As a result, they opened up and implemented market-driven economy which made China an economic-giant in the present global economy state of affairs. China is on the road to prosperity. Who knows what will happen in China in the future? The massive economic development might translate into sympathetic democratic governance and eventually allow the possibility of the “Bamboo Curtain” to fall.

If “Self-reliance” policy did not work for the Chinese, who were former ideological mentors of the Eritrean leaders, how does one expect the same policy will work for Eritrea? It is impractical and unworkable in this international global economy when inter-relationships and economic cooperation with neighbouring countries is absolutely necessity by creating the environment of regional peace.

President Isaias Afworki is no economist. The opportunistic economic advisors surrounding him either they are inept or they are afraid to tell him about the modern economic systems, a subject he does not want to hear. This is because he is sticking to his guns and ideologies with his backward policies and principles. As I said earlier, the President needs first to reform himself and his policies to lead Eritrea in the modern system of political, economic and social development.

Eritrea is now a killing filed like Cambodia’s Pot Loc with multitudes of above ground and underground prisons spread across the country. Thousands of prisoners of conscience, Christians and their leaders, religious Islamic Eritreans and journalists are languishing and dying in these prisons and killing fields and forced labour camps.

There is no viable education policy in the county to educate the youth. The only university that flourishing in Eritrea is closed and its professors are disbanded. There is no higher institution to educate the young minds to prepare them for the future leadership of Eritrea.

Eritrea is reputed to have one of the largest standing army in Africa waiting in the border for more than 11 years for an imaginary border war to come.  The building of massive army and war mongering is merely to perpetuate the continuation of the power and authority of Isaias Afworki in Eritrea. Eritrea is a nation that can’t feed its people much less a massive army. As a result of the army standing in the border for 11 years and is not able to be fed properly, it may be demoralized and be ineffective to fight wars either imaginary one or otherwise. That is why the PFDJ regime needs to give the drought, the shortage of foods, and thee famine a priority. In this connection, the regime should release the absentee farmers who are enlisted in the border army to be with their families and help them during the time of the famine. As I have enunciated above, the regime has to admit there is famine in Eritrea and not pretend to hide it and must open up to UN agencies and the international humanitarian organizations to plan and prepare to feed the hungry.

Close to 20,000 Eritreans have died during 1998-2000 senseless border wars between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Ethiopia had lost close to 80,000 who died in the war. The Eritrean people are not prepared to support another war to sacrifice their children and husbands. Enough is enough! It does not make any sense to keep on war mongering and preparing for war. The Eritrean people are war weary and they only want peace and proper economic development that can create jobs and prosperity. Monopolized economic and social development (i.e. its purpose is only to serve one-party regime) does not create jobs that are urgently needed in Eritrea at this time.

In addition, to add fuel to the fire which is already existing, Eritrea continues to be a pariah nation due to senseless regional policies followed by President Isaias Afworki. His reckless approach is to destabilize the regional peace and to discourage regional economic development and cooperation... The President is funding and supporting Al Shabaab, a terrorist Islamist group in Somalia and also financing armed groups in Sudan and Djibouti. This a fact established by the UN Monitoring Group report (over 400 pages long). As a result, the nation is geopolitically and diplomatically isolated. On top of the UN sanctions already imposed on Eritrean leaders previously, a UN economic sanction is on the horizon in not too distant future. This possible UN action is making the President very nervous.

The only way out for the Eritrean leaders probably is for them to start to be transparent and start to cooperate with the international global community and East African Region countries to promote regional peace and economic cooperation. They are also expected to bring democratic governance and rule of law to the people Eritrea. The ball is in their court!

7) Last but not least, there is another problem created by the supporters of the PFDJ regime among the Diaspora Eritreans. The agony of the people of Eritrea is further exasperated by the mind boggling ignorance of the Diaspora community. The Diaspora Eritreans need to stop the never ending festivals of dancing, drinking and eating (partying called Guaila). Instead, they should start to raise funds for the drought and famine to supplement the contributions of humanitarian organizations that will be engaged as the famine disasters are exposed and become very evident as it is manifested in the neighbouring countries such as Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. The funds raised should be handed to the helping agencies since the government will misuse the funds if it is diverted to them.

The Diaspora Eritrean community should understand that the Eritrean people will be in the same tragedy as those in the neighbouring countries. This is because the drought pattern is similar to that experienced by the neighbouring countries.  Raising national flag and uttering party slogans such as Awet Nehafash! (Translated ``Victory to the masses ``) will not feed the masses. The masses need food not useless one-party mantra. The Diaspora East Africans are organizing their act to raise funds for the famine manifested in the Horn of Africa for the food that is needed for the hungry. The Diaspora Eritreans should learn from them.

Sombre warning to the present Eritrean repressive leaders

Do the Eritrean leaders want to sleep in denial of the existence of famine in Eritrea? Do they want to repeat history again like the past bad leaders of Ethiopia and the totalitarian leaders of North Korea, Mao’s China, and Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia? Or immediately take the right actions to mitigate and prevent the devastating results of famine? The ball is in their court. The leaders have to open the country to the international community to save lives of the people of Eritrea. Otherwise, failing to do this, they will face the wrath of the international communities for their crimes against humanity. The repressive regime can no longer ignore this sombre warning! The nation can no longer continue to be a pariah nation.  Time is running out!

Dr. Berhane Abraha, August 18, 2011

{jcomments off}