Reflections on Addis Seminar Part III

“Somebody must trespass on the taboos of modern nationalism, in the interests of human reason. Business can't. Diplomacy won't. It has to be people like us.”  Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana


In my previous articles Addis Reflections on Addis Reflections on The Addis Ababa Seminar I & II I have tried to quash some of the innuendos about The Addis Ababa Seminar (05-10 September 2011) and The Ethiopian Government. In this part I will continue to challenge some of the baseless accusations I hear from the opposition camp & the silent majority. These allegations stem either from uninformed mind or from a wicked intellect. Because these accusations are being repeated without any factual argument or evidence. Conspiracy theories are like hard drugs for some. The remaining part of their lives, irrespective of its quality, depends on them; a method of survival.

When I read some conspiracy theories about the Addis Seminar one story comes into my mind. Two guys were walking and in the distance they saw an animal but couldn’t discern whether it was a goat or an eagle. They argued on and on until the animal flew. The one who was contending that the animal was eagle threw his hand in the air and said in a relief: “look, you have got the evidence, it is an eagle because it is flying”. The one “who never kneels down” replied: “it doesn’t matter whether it flies or not, I have told you it is a goat and it is a goat”

In my aforementioned pervious articles I have made it abundantly clear that there was no hidden agenda and that the participants were not representing the Eritrean people. They represented themselves and that is their democratic right. They don’t need to ask a permission from this or that group. Indeed you don’t need to occupy the position of PFDJ (Isaias Afeworki c.s.) to be possessed by a totalitarian mentality. We should first fight against our own obsolete thinking.

Isaias Afeworki and his cohorts don’t represent the Eritrean people. The Eritrean people haven’t had any chance to elect their own representatives. So everyone who contends to represent the Eritrean people is either in a state of self-delusion or is doing that representation by coercion. I already have invalidated the issue of hidden agenda and hidden plans.

Yet some people are repeating their conspiracy theories without tabling any evidence.

“Ethiopia Creates Ethnic & Religious Parties To Weaken Eritrea”
I have heard this allegation many times. I haven’t seen any evidence, though. A repetition doesn’t make a lie a truth. Almost 98 percent of the current political parties that reside in Ethiopia are formed either in Eritrea or in The Sudan. The Eritrean National Alliance, the predecessor of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), is formed in 1999 in The Sudan. Members of ENA were: Eritrean Democratic Resistance Movement, Eritrean Islamic Salvation Movement, Eritrea Kunamas Democratic Movement, Eritrean Liberation Front, Eritrean Liberation Front National Congress, Eritrean Liberation Front – Revolution Council, Eritrean People's Congress, Eritrean Revolutionary Democratic Front, Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Eritrea and Ato [Mr] Ali Muhammad Sayyid Berhatu.

Almost 99 percent of the current leaders of the religious / ethnic divided Eritrean political parties are the products of the field, Eritrean liberation struggle period. They became warriors before the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF ) was fantasized. Some of the Eritreans  - who become intermittently members of civic societies and political parties-  who are spreading this innuendos were members of the Alliance and have played a pivotal role in founding federalist and religious parties. That is their right, but where does the allegation comes that Ethiopia is creating religious and political parties to weaken  Eritrea?  This is nonsense to say the least. Those who have been repeating these allegations should come up with concrete evidence instead of confusing the Eritrean public. As an addendum to this subject, the desease of division within the Eritrean opposition parties and civic societies has been happening far from the Horn of Africa: inside Germany (Frankfurt, Kassel), Sweden, others parts of Europe and the USA. Are we going to blame this on the Ethiopians?

The Badme Rope
Many of us, including those intellectuals (it means just thinkers, who devour knowledge including outside their field and who produce new and challenging ideas; time permeating I might write an article on this subject…) seemed to be taken hostage by this trick of Isaias Afeworki.

The whole Badme saga is the creation of Isaias Afeworki. Without informing the Eritrean public, without raising this issue within the Eritrean Parliament (do we have one?), he threw Eritrea into the bloodiest war in its short history as an independent state. The catastrophe in human, material, psychological lose is enormous, especially for Eritrea. The consequence of this senseless war is still haunting our people inside and outside Eritrea, and also the Ethiopian people are still suffering from that war.

 Isaias Afeworki’s arrogance that  challenged even God, has brought upon Eritrea a curse! God only knows when this will end.  
Those Eritreans who called on Isaias to solve the conflict with Ethiopia through dialogue and diplomacy were dubbed “temberkekti”, losers and disappeared in the dungeons of Isaias.

Despite all the bravado’s of Isaias and his generals, Ethiopia won the war and dictated the Algiers Agreement according to its wish. The Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) was placed not along the border between the two countries but 25 kilometers inside uncontested sovereign Eritrean territory.  The Eritrea Ethiopian Claims Commission (EECC) has forced Eritrea to pay more than Ethiopia…The list is very long. Isaias never accounted for his Badme adventure and he is still using it to keep the Eritrean people hostage: a people without constitution, without parliament, without any independent media, without freedom of religion, without… For how long? The choice should be ours. We should not allow Isaias to keep us hostage using the crisis he himself has created.

Ethiopia has stated time and again that it has accepted the EEBC-decision of April 2002 but that it wants to demarcate the border through dialogue. Isaias doesn’t want any dialogue with “the kedemti”, servants of the West. Many of us who alongside Isaias sing only Badme forget that the border between the two nations is 1000 kilometers long and that many Eritrean territory is awarded to Ethiopia according the Arpil 2002 EEBC-decision. Ethiopia doesn’t want to give Badme as a trophy to Isaias.

We have three choices:

1. We can force Ethiopia to demarcate Badme without any dialogue with Eritrea. As Eritreans who are fighting for Rule of Law in our country, we don’t have the means to do that. Even Isaias who has been subjugating the whole Eritrea-minus-Badme is not in a position to do that. Had he the military power, then he would have ejected the Ethiopians from Badme long time ago…
2. We can allow Isaias to hold us hostage using Badme and tell the Ethiopians: we don’t want to talk to you or visit Ethiopia until you demarcate the border. Do whatever you want with the hundreds of thousands of Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin. To my opinion, this attitude is a heavenly gift for Isaias c.s on a silver plate. The Ethiopians might lose something but Eritrea and Eritreans will lose most.
3. Or we can liberate ourselves from this rope called Badme by refocusing our energy to  Eritrea minus Badme: 99 percent of Eritrea is under the occupation of one man: Isaias Afeworki.  We have registered that Badme is a sovereign Eritrean territory and that Ethiopia has accepted the EEBC-decision of April 2002.

Entering Into Dailogue With Ethiopia Will Weaken The Opposition
The opposition was weak before it entered Ethiopia and it is still weak after it moved to Ethiopia; after The Sudan closed all the offices of the opposition. Do we want them to come to The Netherlands and wage their struggle from here using supersonic aircrafts?  They are weak because we in the Diaspora are strong only in criticizing them, in talking only about their weaknesses, in watching from distance and telling them: “we are better than you” without providing any alternative!

Some of us think that Eritreans would flock to the opposition once the opposition departs from Ethiopia. This is naked self-delusion. When were, you and all the Eritreans when the opposition was in The Sudan? What about those civic societies and political parties that either have abandoned Ethiopia or perceive Ethiopia as “the place of the enemy!”?
Have you got much more Eritreans behind you than those opposition groups inside Ethiopia? We know there are opposition parties that are vehemently opposed against going to Ethiopia but we don’t see any increase in their supporters.

I have never seen in history a revolution or a change that is put in motion by masses. To remain close at home even the revolutions in Eritrea (ELF, then EPLF) Ethiopia (TPLF, EPRP, EPRDF) started with small committed members, vanguards, if you will. Then, when change started to come, the masses follow; including those who seemingly supported the dictators.

If The Boarder is Demarcated Eritreans Will Rise Up Against Isaias
This is a wishful thinking without any guarantee. One can evenly argue that giving Badme to Isaias at this juncture will only help him to drink more champagnes of arrogance. He will tell to his critics: “look temberkekti (losers), I have returned Badme back through force.” Badme might add to the myth of Isaias’ invincibility amongst his supporters. The majority of Eritreans would end up in a structural fear. Every time they ask a question, his supporters will shout at them:  “how dare you to criticize and to question our hero? He liberated Eritrea and he has returned back Badme from the Weyane!”

Every sane person should ask why Isaias is not willing to enter into dialogue with the Ethiopians based on the April 2002 EEBC-decision? Does Isaias want to demarcate the border and heal the catastrophe he himself had caused? My friends, let us not fool ourselves anymore with “the inspections of Isaias of this and that farmland” and with the “Besha Gold Mines”. We should ask ourselves the real questions of our economy. What have we earned the last 15 years with our 1000 kilometer seashore and our two ports? Just across the border with Eritrea more than 85 million market is at the disposal of Eritreans but due to foolish policy of Isaias 15 years of opportunity have been lost!

Ethiopia is investing a lot of money in Djibouti and just recently Ethiopia, China and Somaliland has signed a trilateral agreement to expand the port of Berbera.   

The Ethiopians won’t wait on us till we bring change in Eritrea from our luxurious lives in the West! The saying “Muhur Tebelatsay” (The educated thinks only about his/her own interests) is not without substance. Throwing an article here and there, giving an interview to this or that website, visiting conferences and writing books, however important, won’t bring relieve to the suffering of our people. Isaias won’t go away only through that kind of exercise, through paltalk and face-books. Only fools wait history to repeat itself in the same way. Facebook brought change in motion in Tunis, Egypt but Eritrea is not Egypt.

Change Will Come Only From Inside
This is also a wishful thinking that is not always substantiated with historical facts! Change can come from inside and that is the best if attainable. But change can also come from outside with evenly positive results. Take the example of Uganda and Tanzania. In 1979 while I was in The Sudan, Tanzanian forces invaded Uganda and united the different political factions under Uganda National Liberation Front. Idi Amin fled and after many trying years Uganda started to regain its dignity. Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (Congo) was overthrown with the help of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers! Don’t forget the first country Laurent Kabila visited after the liberation of Congo was Eritrea!

Please don’t shoot at me: I am not saying Ethiopia should invade Eritrea! I  am only trying to argue that change does not need to come only from inside, especially in countries under stifling totalitarian regimes like that of ours, change with the help of outside could be the only alternative. Outside help doesn’t need to be arms and bombs! You don’t have to agree as long as you come up with solid alternatives. 

The choice is ours.

We never thought that after liberation, Ethiopia would go as far as Tesseney, Barentu and other Eritrean areas. All that was the arrogance of Isaias. We warned different Eritrean scholars at that time to advice their leader to withdraw from Badme and save Eritrea from disaster. Many arrogantly labeled us as “weyane” and “CIA-agents”. The outcome is history.

Again nobody can decide on how Ethiopians should defend their country. The Ethiopians should not be held responsible for the  blunders of Eritrea and the weaknesses of our opposition. If Isaias provokes neighboring countries by holding the Eritrean nations and its peoples hostage, then it is odd to blame the neighboring countries (read Ethiopia) from your luxury live in the West.

Isaias and his cohorts have only one goal: the destruction of the “Weyane regime in Addis”. Large parts of Eritrean resources are squandered on this project, that is harmful for Eritrea, Ethiopians and the region. It is upto the Ethiopians how to respond to this threats.

The big question is: what can we Eritreans do to minimize the damage for Eritreans inside Eritrea and inside Ethiopia? Do we have a vision/mission, strategy and plan of action?

Only criticizing the opposition in Addis, criticizing the Ethiopian Government, criticizing the Hagerawi Waela won’t bring us further.

“Only Eritreans Are Good To Mentor Others (The Ethiopians /TPLF”
The arrogance of us Eritreans is not limited to Isaias Afeworki alone. Many have been complaining because the Ethiopian Minister of Communication Affairs, Minister Bereket Simon has spent a week long with us Eritreans, during the Addis Seminar.
According to some, this shows that the seminar was not free and under Ethiopian control.

If they mean it was not a seminar against the Ethiopian Government, then they are right! We were not gathered there to criticize the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, the alleged human rights violations inside Ogaden or in Tigray. The agenda of the seminar was totally something else.

The Seminar chose two of its own moderators in a democratic and free election. Minister Bereket Simon was a kind of key note speaker and a very wise leader. All those who couldn’t have made it, missed a first class intellectual lecture on different topics. I would go everywhere to listen to this guy and to the soft-spoken General Mesfin Amare. If you know dirty things about these guys (crimes, hidden ageda’s against the Eritrean people), then it is up to you to come to the fore and share them with us. But from what I have observed, I am delighted to have these people as neighbors, families and partners.

When it comes to the TPLF, Eritreans don’t get tired from repeating that the TPLF was founded, mentored and trained by EPLF, say Eritreans! But we are too good, too smart, too Italians trained to be mentored by TPLF, the Weyanes. “We have planted them in Addis and we will uproot them from Addis” is a well known saying by PFDJ-diehards and many Eritreans. Do you know the war song: “menyom menye…?” It goes something like this…”who are these people who speak our language (who is speaking whose language?), warsay let me tell you the truth: “they have been students till Shire, they have been students till Shiwa”

We have made them what they are! We are little of God who created them. Even some within the opposition are not free from this mentality.
 
We don’t hear any complaints when Eritreans are gathered in different Western cities and lectured by foreigners (some of them with an ngo or a book about our region); but Ethiopians and especially Tigrayans shouldn’t lecture us. I know many who have been complaining about the Addis Seminar have been to different meetings in the West organized by different organizations with vague agenda and indistinguishable funders. All these is acceptable except Addis Ababa.  

Ethiopia Is Not A Democratic Country
What about if a blind eye refuses any support from a squint-eyed person? Ethiopia is not a democratic country, Ethiopia is violating human right in this or that area, some even complain that Ethiopia invaded Somalia and many other excuses to avoid Ethiopia.

The seminar was not meant to defend Ethiopia. The seminar was meant to find ways how to help Eritrea and Eritreans.

The “undemocratic Ethiopia” has been helping our people through many ways. This started before the independence of our country. The TPLF fought with us and sacrificed their precious lives for us. Indeed we also have fought with them beyond Addis Abeba.
After independence they were the first one to recognize our independence. They had even a defense-pact with an independent Eritrean nation! Ethiopia is not asking us to make the country more democratic. Ethiopia is asking in what way it can enhance its support.

The choice is ours. Time might come where we will dream about this period of choice.

While travelling to Addis, I read an article on Meskerem.net by Dr. Yohannes Zerimariam, until recently the foreign office representative of the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF): http://www.meskerem.net/LEAVE%20MY%20PEOPLE%20ALONE2.pdf First I thought either it is written by someone with the same name or it is a hoax. I waited until the good Dr. Yohannes Zerimariam would write a reaction, distancing himself from such an article that is below his niveau, his level.  

Instead of telling Isaias to leave the Eritrean people alone, he is telling the wrong Pharaoh,  the Ethiopian Government: “let my people go”. I thought that you and your colleagues within  the Eritrean political and civic movements , willingly went to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government didn’t force you to come to Ethiopia; did they? Furthermore you know full well that Ethiopia is home to tens of thousands (maybe hundreds!) of Eritreans & Ethiopians of Eritrea origin. Ethiopia is also a sanctuary to tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees. According to the Head of Immigration and Refugees Office in Ethiopia there are, as of present, 64,582 registered Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia.  Just recently BBC reported, citing journalists in the region  , that still Eritrean refugees are crossing the Ethiopian border at a rate of 900 per month. Even 300 per month is too much!  

Dr. Yohannes is accusing the aforementioned Ethiopians as arrogant. That might be his experience but that is not mine. Personal feelings should not play pivotal role in national policies.  With all due respect to my brother Dr. Yohannes and other compatriots, singling out historical happenings out of context to justify your conspiracy theories is not constructive. Let us not please adore historical figures, whether from Tigray, Eritrea (different ones, even like Awate), other parts of Ethiopia selectively. Let us leave that to independent historians and let us read all and not only propaganda materials. The same with the use of “Mahber Andnet” or “The Unionists”.  May be they were not fools as many of us think. Professor Bereket Habteselassie is being attacked for saying that we have many things in common with Ethiopians: historically, culturally, lineage, the same religion, ancestry.

One can accept these truths and still defend the political independence of Eritrea! What we, especially the kebessa Eritreans should do is that we belong to the same ethnic group as the Tigrawot. They are our family, we are one! ELF and EPLF fought a bloody war against each other but they are still family. Nobody shouts when I say the Beni-Amir in the Sudan and in Eritrea belong to the same ethnic group. But if say that about Tigray and Kebbessa Eritreans, people became hysterical.  I hope to write an article on this.   

You wrote somewhere in your article the following statement:

“Therefore, the moment has come to say thank you but no thank you. Leave our people alone. Keep your sticky fingers out of our business. It might take us some time but we will take care of the tyrant in our country and start rebuilding our nation. We will need all the help we can get to achieve this, but not at the cost of our sovereignty and dignity.” http://www.meskerem.net/LEAVE%20MY%20PEOPLE%20ALONE2.pdf

My brother, this statement could have been made by Isaias Afeworki. Who do you think will be harmed by these kind of attitudes? “Keep your sticky fingers out of our business” . Whatever happened to the language of diplomacy one expects from learned and seasoned politicians like you?

“The Vast Majority of Ato Solomon Haile”
Please read Vast Majority of Ato Solomon Haile on Meskerem and verify the facts.   Could somebody summarize for me in few paragraphs what Ato Solomon Haile is saying?

The Addis Seminar doesn’t have the support of the “vast majority of Eritrean intellectuals”. Who said that the seminar had the support of the “vast majority of Eritrean intellectuals”? What do you mean with “vast majority”?

He further states in his article: “Now, the decision to hold the seminar was Ethiopian government’s own. It initiated it; it set up the agenda; it covered the cost of travel and logistics; it picked the invitees. This scheme demonstrates in many ways that it is not a new one. It has been in the making for years by Ethiopian government, in a dangerous bid to shape the Eritrean opposition by slicing it into
irrelevant and incapable groups and achieving its own agenda in Eritrea.”

You and your cohorts didn’t invite us and that is the reason why we went to Addis Ababa. This is not something secret; that is why you know that the Ethiopian Government has invited us. You are accusing the Ethiopian Government of “slicing the Eritrean opposition into irrelevant & incapable groups.” When were the Eritrean opposition groups united and capable? They were much more or evenly divided before they came to Ethiopia!

Could you please tell us what this “hidden agenda of the Ethiopians” is in Eritrea?

Your article is full of innuendos without substance. As I told the other write the other day, I couldn’t find your telephone number to ask you a permission before I went to Addis Ababa.

You have the full right to disagree with me and I will defend your democratic right to do that. Please do it based on arguments so that we can sharpen each other. I might be totally wrong; please convince me based on arguments.  

You write somewhere the following statement “When it kept the agenda secret, it was nothing out of the ordinary. When it sent out its special emissary Mr. Simon Bereket to chair the meeting/seminars, it was not an advancement of collaboration but a total expansion of ownership over the Eritrean opposition. The political implication of this is obvious: that Meles regime is dangerously entrenched in its belligerent policies against Eritrea anywhere anytime within its reach and plunge Eritrea into bloodshed, and I am not sure if the seminar uncovered such policy intricacies. The political implication of this is obvious: that Meles regime is dangerously entrenched in its belligerent policies against Eritrea anywhere anytime within its reach and plunge Eritrea into bloodshed, and I am not sure if the seminar uncovered such policy intricacies.”

My brother we haven’t uncovered “such policy intricacies” because you were not with us. All the seminar participants were nuts at the mercy of the Ethiopians. My friend, please read and re-read your article. Please take your readers seriously and come up with facts.
I can’t make a head or tail out of the above paragraph and most of your article, which is full of conspiracy and paranoia. No facts but a lot of innuendos. The sad thing is you are not the only one.

…to be continued

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Footnotes

[1] The TPLF (Woyane) is the main dominant party within  the current Ethiopian ruling coalition EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front).  

[2] http://www.waltainfo.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27936&Itemid=52

[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14779344

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