The Legal Struggle against PFDJ – Part-two

Sanction Watch:  An Orphaned Flag Afraid of the Wind. 
The Legal Struggle against PFDJ – Part-two

By Seyoum Tesfaye

From January 23 to 30, 2012 the 18 Ordinary Session Summit of the African Union took place in Addis Ababa with about 40 national leaders attending the historic gathering. Beyond the glory and glamor of the summit being held in the $200 million, Chinese donated and constructed, imposing new headquarter was the tragic fact that Eritrean had no representation. Its mercurial president was a no show.

The orphaned flag of the State of Eritrea tried to negotiate the fluctuating Addis Ababa wind knowing very well that it was left to fend for itself in the absence of a qualified representation inside the summit hall. Lonely, isolated and orphaned by its own leaders it could neither resonate a single note from the collective African freedom tune nor add its voice to the glory of Africa’s progress signified by the summit. Three generation worth of struggle to stand tall and be equally counted with all African nations was sabotaged by internal traitors.

In a tacit acknowledgement of the fact his regime has been profoundly rebuffed by the UNSC consecutively, condemned and censored by IGAD repeatedly, with no diplomatic space to maneuver Isaias personality could not entertain the very idea of his borrowed airplane touching down in Addis Ababa and be accorded his legally guaranteed right to attend the AU submit as the “leader” of Eritrea.

If you have truth on your side and if you are the legitimate representative  of your people, leave alone to the a highly anticipated  African Union  summit that functions within the standard of an internationally recognized diplomatic protocol, you will have the confidence to even venture to trenches of hell to represent your people’s interest. It you are a seasoned provocateur and if you have jettisoned all sense of doing the right thing you will stay away from an august gathering like that of the 18th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union. If you have been consistently throwing vitriolic dart at AU, IGAD and UN to quench your innate desire to disparage all those who disagree with your methods of resolving conflicts you can only harvest further isolation and containment at the cost of the inherent interest of the State of Eritrea. The orphaned flag is a graphic representation of this spectacular failure.

As deserved the AU, through its PSC (Peace and Security Council), did not only resoundingly upheld the UNSC resolutions but also made it abundantly clear that all AU member states must fully implement Resolution 1907 and 2023. After the conclusion of its 309 meeting, on January 25 2012, in Addis Ababa, the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) issued a nine (9) point communiqué.

Point 5 of the communiqué sates:

“Notes the continued threat by spoilers, which undermines the peace process in Somalia and in this regard, welcomes the steps taken by the UN Security Council by its adoption of resolution 2023 (2011), as a follow‐up of UN Security Council resolution 1907 (2009). Council underscores the need for the full implementation of these and other relevant resolutions. In this regard, Council calls on AU Member States to take adequate measures to fully implement the provisions of these resolutions ;” (emphasis original)

Never mind the usual refrain that US was forcing or unduly influencing IGAD to follow its dictate and the shameful declaration that the UN is an antiquated institution with no relevance in a global century, the PSC communiqué  further clarifies the understanding of the entire  AU towards  the Eritrean leadership. It does not take a advanced deductive reasoning to know that the unnamed spoiler that undermines the peace process in Somalia is none other than the regime in Asmara.

From the perspective of organizing ourselves to publicize the need for full implementation of the two sanctions globally and identifying the specific countries where we need to focus and domesticate the mobilizing, publicizing and lobbying tasks in the context of Africa this communiqué will be helpful to us.

In my last posting I stated:

“Between now and next December we have no other paramount responsibility than legally shutting down the vast PFDJ subterranean financial mafia network in Australia, Europe, Canada and USA as well as some parts of Africa.”

It is obvious that our primary responsibility is to legally shut down PFDJ/Eritrean embassies’ and underground consulates’ illegal activities as stipulated in the sanctions primarily in Australia, Europe, Canada and USA. But my suggestion also included “as well as some parts of Africa (emphasis added). The AU PSC Communiqué gives us the political and legal platform to strongly lobby the governments of Uganda, Kenya and Southern Sudan (members of IGAD) in a broader sense to contain and disrupt the illegal activities of the Eritrean regime inside their countries. To do this we need to “organize” compact and cohesive “Eritrean Sanction Implementation  Committees” (ESIC) in each countries to start systematically lobbying for the implantation of resolution 1907 and 2023 to the best possible degree within the context of each nation (more practical suggestions on how to do this in the near future).

The important thing is to domesticate the task: design it around the particularities of the countries where we live. Designing the campaign to fit our particular political environment is the key to making head ways. What works in the USA will probably not work in Uganda but knowing this and engineering our approach to fit the particularity is the key to helping the implementation process. While making an honest effort we should keep in mind that the incremental progress to implement 1907 and 2023 must lay a strong ground work for the third decisive UNSC resolution that will inevitably  come about in the near future (before the end of 2012).

Time to lay the brickwork for the legal challenge:  without systemically organized information we cannot make the ruling regime and official and unofficial agents legally accountable to the law. It is time to flip the script on the ruling party and its overseas collaborators and document their working ways as they have been doing to us with impunity.   

For now the number one task for those truly interested in doing everything legal to help the implementation of the sanctions is to identify the following key actors- enforcers of PFDJ policies and rules within our communities:

• The core leadership of PFDJ in every community we live in
• Get a correct listing of who is a member without wasting time on fellow traveller who have no practical role than just shoot their mouth
• The 2% task agents who collect and transmit the money to the embassy
• the Tassa (apology) form providers and agitators
• the so called Mekete/Rebuff Committee leadership and its local structure
• the suspected money carries (mules) who periodically drive from the localities to the embassies to deliver the cash collected through various  methods of fund raising ,
• Suspected business fronting for the regime and PFDJ that allow their legitimate accounts as temporary holding station for the PFDJ funds,
• the extended hands of the embassy in our community
• The unofficial Hawalas that transfer money to the various business and individual’s account in the Middle East fronting for PFDJ.
• etc.

In doing this we have to be absolutely sure that it is not our strong disagreement with their political support and love for the poisonous politics of PFDJ that will be our criteria for identifying the individuals as facilitators of the illegal agendas of the regime in the courtiers where we live.   

It is their Actions (from the perspective of extended observation) in violation of the law of the land and the international law that has to be the basis of identifying the possible agents of the regime.  We cannot do this with personal or political vendetta in mind. The issue is simple- using the law to contain and disrupt the entrenched illegal activities of the regime in Diaspora. We cannot do this with personal or political vengeance in mind. We have to presume they are innocent until they are proven guilty by the relevant government departments, authorities or the courts who should review the data we collect.

Without information we cannot be engaged in a nuanced legal struggle against a mafia regime. Up to now they had the luxury of intimidating our community at large and imposing the political will of the brutal regime on our communities directly and indirectly while they have taken citizenship in the countries of their residence and sworn to uphold the law. This game has to come to an end. They had a free ride up to now because we were partially timid or were contained by cultural modalities and restraints. We must get to know the law as well as they must get to know the law.

We have to turn each community into a liberated zone. We cannot wallow in a high voltage political rhetoric periodically spouted by self- appointed power broker’s bottomless machination when we have these kinds of formidable tasks in front of us. To those who invest an inordinate amount of time calculating the power matrix on of how to design the future Eritrean Parliament, when a rude and crude tyrant still leaves no stone unturned to sabotage our Community Associations, religious organizations, and the mind of our youth we must let them practice their refined hocus-pocus and well manicured subterfuge until they become the Chairperson of the Eritrean Upper House after Isaias is gone. Those simply motivated by the power calculus cannot understand this kind of task. Those who put the people first and do it for them will see the beauty in it.  

I hope we do not have to ask permission from Meskerem and his phantom allies to try to execute this necessary and immensely critical task.  Get to the task of clearing our community from the control of the PFDJ zombies. The wind is blowing in our favour let us take advantage of it.

Not a single Penny for PFDJ.

Disclaimer: This article represents my point of view and only my point of view.              

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