Dear DC Organizing Committee of May 2013 Event

Dear DC Organizing Committee of May 2013 Event

I am happy that the DC organizing committee finally seems to be on a roll and on right path. Aside from initial mishap with some confusing poster from EYSNS, it looks like you have your house in order and I like what I see and I thank you for all the efforts you are doing so far.

I am writing this letter to kindly request you reconsider the planning for the up-coming May event.

1) As you know the Sinai situation has finally got traction, media and international attention. This coming May event give us an opportunity to capitalize on it and raise the level of attention about Sinai by doing demonstration (demo) not just in front Sudan but also in front of Egypt Embassies. This will help our humanitarian effort, highlight and elevate the Eritrean refugees’ plight and resonate with our people inside Eritrea. It has been said that USA government has done everything against Isaias regime short of taking of removing the regime by force. Therefore, it is no use to do demo at neither White House nor State Dept. Instead, many have been calling to do demo in front Qatar Embassy because Qatar has been the chief supporter of Isaias regime. The recent visit by dictator Isaias to Qatar is a good hint and by doing demo against Qatar will create buzz among our people, give our effort political relevance and expose the PFDJ dealings.

2) However, I am very concerned about this May 2013 event being downsized from a 3 day weekend program to a 2 day weekend program unlike the past years. Why? I only see programs scheduled for Friday and Saturday. What happened to Sunday? I am very disappointed that this organizing committee knowingly or unintentionally has changed the long standing tradition of organizing a three day weekend public program in DC as it has been done in the past years.

In addition, my experience of the past events in DC not only tells me that two days are too little to do much, let alone to have a meaningful and challenging discussions, presentations and leisure time for music show. Even by far the most organized EYSC historical event that happened last year which run for three days had this dilemma. The EGS driven public event that happened few years back too was a three day program and had the same dilemma. The organizing committee should have taken the advantage of Monday May 27th, which is a national holiday in USA and extended this upcoming public event to a long weekend, and not shorten it.

I expect this organizing committee to aim high and big, and I am sure everyone will do that too. But I personally could not find any rationale why the organizing committee gave itself a 2 day mandate and planned short. Eritrea as a nation and we as a people are in crisis and the current state of opposition camp is in disarray; and hence we have many outstanding issues to talk about. Therefore, we definitely need all the time we can get to assess, address and to better organize ourselves for the future. I am sure financing may be challenging, but we have done it last year. So why not this year? All the committee need is to secure a meeting hole for an extended day.

I consider May 24th is a historical national day and May 25th and 26th weekend days following the historical national are also relevant and important dates, and as such they should be handled with care and appropriate planning. I wish we treat these three days as sacred days to really practice UNITY IN DIVERSITY which we all preach all your year long. I wish we make this weekend a weekend to reconcile and tackle the core issues. A weekend for cooperation, collaboration, to plan and organize for future, a weekend to challenge ourselves to do what we have not done before, to do extraordinary things that gives hope to our voiceless people.

However, it is very distressful to know that some organizations have already planned organizing their own side events, conferences, meetings and music show for Sunday May 26th 2013. It makes me wonder if this organizing committee has become a victim of conflict of interest, unable to resist to the competing interest forces, succumbed to the pressure to cut short the public program so that organizations could run their own respective programs on Sunday. The fact that the committee cut short the public program to a 2 days event and suddenly changed the long standing tradition in DC may give the wrong impression on the organizing committee's seriousness and may also give the appearance that organizing committee has willfully given other organizations to do their own programming on Sunday under pretext of leaving Sunday an open day.

Don't take me wrong, I have no problem with the organizations and I am aware that these organizations do have every right to do whatever they want. I am only raising this issue out of concern for our common interest and cause. I strongly feel having to run two or more set of events at the same weekend and in the same city; one public event by organizing committee and other events by organizations will have the potential not only to weaken the theme of main event and our message of unity, but will also divert and divide people’s attention and resources away from the main event. In my opinion the arrangement of two or more set of events by this organizing committee and organizations respectively not only will be counterintuitive but also will have serious ramifications. The communications of this organizing committee will be in collusion with the Sunday related different communications by different organizations. This will inundate us, create confusion, dilute our image of unity and consequently will overshadow the demonstration and the main public event. Moreover, it will also be unfair for the majority of those specially unaffiliated who invest a lot and travel long to make their pilgrimage to spend the weekend in Washington DC.

Finally, I hate to bring this example but if the YPFDJ in London conference spent the weekend together for the wrong reasons then why can’t we include organizations to spend the weekend together for the right reasons? I am very mindful how hard it is for you but this year will not be the last time we face this challenge of competing interest and conflict of interest so don't pass on the challenge to others, deal with it, nail it down and set workable solution and tradition. Let's make the weekend of May 24th,, 25th and 26th “May Unity Weekend” which we all enjoy and spend together under one roof and please do everything possible not to change the long standing culture in DC. Call me a dreamer but as saying goes if there is a will there is a way so I trust you can do it. I trust you would give my letter the serious consideration it deserves. I wish you the best of luck and thank you.

Sincerely Yours,

Daniel Tewelde

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