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Eritrea Media Watch

Eritrea: What Has Democracy Got to Do with It? (The Democracy Project)

Disparate as these two groups may seem, what is important to us is their commonality: both are so obsessed with the hereafter – with life after Isaias – that they pay little attention to the here and now – how to get rid of the regime and deliver the people from the existential threat they are living under. Both are so preoccupied with preparations for the takeover that the task of regime change is relegated to the bottom of their wish list. We can then see the religious turn the “cause” has taken, as it has always been in the ghedli era. What happens on the ground, as any religious zealot would tell you, is only as good as it prepares one for the hereafter; aside from that, on its own, it has little value. Similarly, what is happening on the ground in Eritrea now has little relevance to these groups if they cannot use it for purposes of the hereafter. As in any religious cause, the “Eritrea” that these groups are trying to save can only exist by deferring it indefinitely. So, in the final end, it is not exactly democracy that they are beholden to, but the fact that the democracy project keeps deferring the realization of the “cause” – that is, the collapse of the Isaias regime – for fear that if it happens right now it might not deliver what they want.

Unfiltered Notes: MLK’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

“In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.”

How can Eritrean society be transformed if diapora Eritreans choose to curse the very freedoms they enjoy in the West by aligning themselves with a regime whose key trademarks are vicious cruelty against its own people and absolute denial of freedom to all? Repeating “meKete” like a zombie is being a mere thermometer, going with the flow, parroting things just to be part of the crowd. Where is the courage in that? The courage is in being the thermostat, and to stop blaming victims and glorifying criminals.

Eritrea: Sanctions, mergers and alliances - Q&A with EDA’s Bashir Ishaq

ANNOUNCEMENT OF ESTABLISHMENT OF ERITREAN LAW SOCIETY

We, a group of Eritrean lawyers, professionals and academicians from across all over the world, are pleased to publicly announce the establishment of an “Eritrean Law Society”.  The Eritrean Law Society is a nonprofit organization registered in the state of Virginia and California with the aim of achieving, among others things, the following objectives:

Democracy is a Verb

The overall question that I am supposed to address in my brief presentation is: What is the role of the Youth in the struggle to democratize a given country (in this case Eritrea) under a brutal dictatorship?

The role of the youth succinctly put is to be a positive agent of change. Not any change but positive change. To the point: the youth has to be an agent of democratization in the context of a circumstance when a nation is “living” under a brutal dictatorship.

I want from the very beginning to make it clear that I am talking about democratization and not dealing with the narrow but critical issue of simply getting rid of the brutal tyrant de jour.

The UNSC’s Sanctions on Eritrea Revisited

Strangely enough, some in the opposition are captivated by this tricky prospective lifting of the sanctions that so much so they opted to oppose the arms embargo sanction (more of this later). It does not make sense to me. I believe we have to cross the bridge of liberty first, instead of unnecessarily wracking our brains of what will transpire in a post PFDJ. If we are fortunate enough to arrive at our destination of freedom, then we tackle the lifting of the arms embargo sanctions from our back, when such mundane issues stare us straight in the face. For now, the lifting of the arms embargo sanction, sometime in the future, should be the least of our worries, since we do not even know how the PFDJ will behave when the time of reckoning arrives. For all I know, the PFDJ, when cornered and consistent with its past behavior, may shamefacedly comply with all the UNSC’s directives and requirements; in the final analysis, all its bravados and boastings may amount to nothing.

Eritrea, Libya conspiring to deport refugees, group says

In a statement sent to Sudan Tribune, the group accused Libyan authorities of violating, abusing and torturing Eritrean refugees, and threatening to deport them to Eritrea.

The conditions of some 700 Eritrean refugees held in Libyan prisons, many of which are women and children, have, in recent days, deteriorated, the watchdog said. Also it pointed out that their situation has further worsen after "Libyan authorities have given access to Eritrean embassy officials to these prisons, who threatened the detainees of forced deportation to Eritrea."