Alert: Fear of Deportation of the Eritrean Football Team!

“I am an Eritrean citizen who is closely following the case of the Eritrean foot ball national team players who defected to Kenya on seek of refuge on the date of December 13, 2009. These players are now …… [It] is not safe for the foot ball players for they are being hunted by the Kenyan police in cooperation with the Eritrean embassy in Nairobi Kenya. As Eritreans, we are asking for the UNHCR to do something about this and consider the safety of these players. If not at this historic moment in time it will be very difficult and disgraceful for the innocent football players to be victims of the hunting Kenyan police and the government of Eritrea.”

This is a call to Eritreans all over the world to make the loudest noise possible to make sure that the disaster that happened to refugees in Egypt and Libya should never happen again: (a) Lets inundate Kenyan embassies all over the world with our messages of protest. (b) Let’s also make sure that the Nairobi hears from us from wherever we are. (c) Let’s call the nearest UNHCR office from our area of residence. (d) Let’s also agitate as many humanitarian groups as we can. For too long a time, we have let our brothers and sisters down at their hour of need. Never again!

Asmarino Arabic Pages Starting Next Week

We are glad to inform our Arabic-speaking audience that, finally, Asmarino.com is ready to start its Arabic Pages section no later than next week.
 
As you might have noticed the sign “Arabic Pages – Coming Soon” has been in Asmarino.com’s front page for quite some time. We understand that “coming soon” has not been soon enough. Hopefully, you will forgive us for holding you in suspense for such a long time.
 
Given that our staff works on voluntary basis, it is only understandable that it took some time to find dedicated and competent individuals who will soon be entirely at your service.

Happy 12th Year Anniversary, Asmarino!

But the war, and the crisis in its aftermath, radically altered this three-pronged approach. First, the community-oriented feature of the website, although not totally abandoned, came to suffer as a result of the deep fracture within the Eritrean community that took place after the war. Second, Eritrea itself became off limits; and the dream of joining the Eritrean people in building the nation was indefinitely deferred. And third, as a result of the poisoned climate that came to prevail after the war, the idea of a greater community in the Horn and East Africa was abandoned. Instead, as is the case with most Eritreans, the political, humanitarian and existential crisis in Eritrea came to dominate the dialog in Asmarino – a debate that is still raging on.

Announcement to Our Audience

We would like to apologize to our readers and contributing writers for the few days of service interruption in our website.  

The problem has been a technical one, caused by numerous denial of service attacks coordinated by those who feel threatened by the service that Asmarino provides in enlightening and emboldening our people to rise up against the brutal rule of the Isaias regime. They have been hoping that Asmarino wouldn’t come back, and the fact that it has returned with more tools in its arsenal than before has alarmed them and, consequently, they are doing everything they can to shut it up. And this is not the first time this has happened, and every time they have been doing that, we have come out more determined than ever to carry out our mission – a mission that will not end until we see the last days of the Isaias regime. 

Eritrea: Focus on the Bigger Agenda

At this juncture it is not the regime that is delaying the change we badly need. It is our inability to unite across the board, focus on the bigger picture and stop worrying about who gets the credit that is hampering us. We need to stop taking ourselves so seriously. The salvation of our people is the sole agenda. We must find ways to serve this agenda. Everything else is an exercise in futility.

The privilege of standing up in defense of our people must be the reward. Doing our share to alleviate their massive suffering will reinforce our humanity and reinvigorate our very soul. If we are looking for purpose here it is: Eritrea and Eritreans need our full support-not tomorrow or next year. Today- Now!

Letter from the Editor

As you can see, the launching of asmarino.com website, in its full capacity, is in its preliminary stage. As we keep serving our readers, we will keep adding and improving on it. The Tigrigna and Arabic pages will be launched soon. We would like to offer our sincere apology to all our readers who have been patiently and eagerly waiting for the launching day as announced by us, which we were forced to delay for a couple more days for technical reasons.