Belgium Task-Force Making the Case of Eritrea Visible:

They could be anyone, some may belong to any religious or ethnic denominations; they may be from this or that region in Eritrea; they may be human right activists; they may or may not be attached to any political or civic society groups. What is important is that they are individuals with noble intentions and each represents his or herself. They represent no body and they don’t have too. They are obeying to what their own conscience commands them to do. Their conscience is not to keep quiet when the people of Eritrea are subjected to extreme repression but to act in a constructive way.

At this moment in time the issue is not about personalities, the issue is who speaks loud and become the voice of the voiceless. Recently Professor Kitjel Tronvoll gave a seminar on the gross violation of Human Rights in Eritrea under the title of “The Lasting Struggle for freedom in Eritrea”. No one has asked him to do so and he doesn’t represent anybody except himself. But he championed the cause of the oppressed people of Eritrea who had known and loved them for a long time now.

However all actions require bold initiative, hard work, commitment and above all, negotiation skills and good understanding of international politics. The beauty of the Belgium Task-Force is that it has displayed such characteristics.

The Task-Force has opened a Gate:

The Task Force went to Belgium with a mission. The mission is to engage the EU and USA in a dialogue concerning the welfare of the people of Eritrea. There is a burning issue here; the influx of refugees is so huge they are becoming a burden not only to Ethiopia and the Sudan but also to the international community. Thousands are in jail in Libya, in Egypt, in Malta and in many countries in Europe. Their only crime is to enter those countries illegally in order to rescue themselves from forced labour. Hundreds die crossing the sea from Libya to Italy. In Italy the refugees does not get any state help; they suffer from homelessness and basic necessities.

Under the Cotonu agreement the EU and African countries have a partnership agreement to work towards democracy, the rule of law and respect of human rights in Africa; in return, the EU would provide critical development aid. This agreement has been persistently violated by the Eritrean Government/PFDJ. In spite of that the EU, by trying to engage the Eritrean Government, was in violation of Cotonu agreement itself.

The task force represented issues which happened to be the promotion of justice, democracy and human rights in Eritrea and in support of Eritrean refugees. They opened a gate through which all political, civic organization and individuals pass through and engage the EU and USA.

The critics of the Belgium Task-force got it wrong?

To talk and criticize the composition of the Task-force is a luxury that the people of Eritrea ill afford. Do the critics understand that it is against the interests of the oppressed people to undermine any initiative that voices their plight? For years the opposition parties were talking among themselves around unity of the opposition but they got no where. It is common to hear people say, “The opposition are useless they showed no tangible action as to be able to earn support.” Any support is not given in a silver plate and must be earned through various activities. As the saying goes “Action is to organisation as oxygen is to individuals”.

On the other hand the Task-force, by taking the case to EU and USA, has made the case of Eritrea visible. Their action is liberating from apathy and helplessness which is in abundance in the Diaspora socio-political, humanitarian and human rights landscape.

The legacy of the Task-Force:

Hopefully the success of the conference will stimulate many people to do something. Some people I know has started to get together to raise funds or collect items to ship them to the Refugee camps in the Sudan or Ethiopia. They were founding member of Eritrean Relief Association in the United Kingdom. One of them said. “After all it was we the ordinary people who started to collect clothing and medicine and ship them to the liberated areas of Eritrea. It was we who gave life to the Eritrean Relief Association which was a life blood to the EPLF and the IDP (Internally displaced people) under its care. There is no reason why 2 or 3 Eritreans in London, or in Copenhagen or in Amsterdam get together start collecting clothes, medicines and modes for women and go to red cross or other international NG0’s and ask them to provide storages and money for transport.”

A little bit about the members of the task-force and panellists:

The individuals that compose the Task-Force and panellists have rich track-record of activities, they are no nonsense. Elsa Chirum has an authentic picture of the refugees’ experiences, with its crushing poverty and the dangers of illegal migration. She had played a pivotal role of giving a voice and visibility to the anonymous masses that slips through borders to find a better life.

Selam Kidane (Release Eritrea) is a human rights activist and an excellent commentator in the Internet; Yoel Yosief and Tsedal Yohanes have played a role in the area of human rights as well. I have nothing to say about Doctor Bereket, Gaim Kibreab and Dan Connell; they themselves are institutions who managed to put their wealth of knowledge into books for enlightenment to be shared by anybody. Dawit Mesfun was a member of the G-13 and was active in human rights activities. He is now writing a book of which I am not at liberty to name its title.

Mehret Geresus was a member of Eritrean Development Foundation (EDF) in USA, an organisation that meant to support many projects in independent Eritrea. She had put together a project that would enable access to computer learning to a wider section of the population and left USA to live in Eritrea. But like many she came back frustrated. She is the one who helped to open the first office of EPLF-DP in Washington.

Abdurrahman Said and Doctor Daniel are young and energetic. They are the rising sun in the Eritrean politico social landscape hitherto dominated by the out-dated old generation. Suleiman who is the Chairman of CDRiE is an outstanding chairman. He is calm and accommodating. These people who belong to the new generation seemed to respond to the popular call to participate in the struggle for democratic change and shape the destiny of Eritrea. However they need the wisdom and advice of the old generation like Doc. Bereket and Kassahun Chekole who are the people of all seasons. Awate.com implied that Kassahun Chekole played a big role in selecting the members of the task-force. That may or may not be the case but in reality Kassahun Checole has always been an initiator, he is a social entrepreneur of world class. Why do you think Kasahun and family ended up building a printing empire in America from nothing? It is to provide access to all books written by Africans on Africa that would not get printed in the main stream western publishing conglomerates, but above all to print all that is written about the just cause of Eritrea. Kassahun is a respected figure among African intellectuals. After independence he was refused to build his own and was forced to build a modern printing press “Sabur” in partnership with PFDJ.

He lost it; it was simply appropriated when he signed the G-13 letter to President Isaias. His book shop in Asmara was also closed. Right after independence he was one of the organizers of a conference titled “against all odds” in Asmara. A conference geared to help the Government adopt economic, social and political policies that would transform the shattered economy and society of Eritrea.

Taking full advantage of the Brussels Conference:

The task-force has opened the gate of engagement with EU and USA. As a result it will make easier for any organisation or individuals to lobby political, diplomatic and humanitarian support for the people of Eritrea.

During the long years of the Eritrean struggle many Eritreans in Diaspora have done similar activities, right and left they became the ambassadors of the people of Eritrea. I remember in 1979 the international committee of the labour party had extended the EPLF in London an invitation to its congress. There was no EPLF office only ERA’s of which I was working full time. One of those who pushed the invitation was the then press officer of the Labour Party, Martin Plaut, today a director at the BBC. Martin was the first person to attend founding congress of Eritrean workers in Sahel. Berhane Gebrehiwot, who was the Chairman of ERA-UK, and me attended the Congress which was in the sea side town of Blackpool.

On the first night of the congress there was an international reception hosted by the Prime Minister. As soon as we showed our invitation cards and entered the reception hall we found ourselves in an entirely embarrassing situation. Everyone was dressed in black evening suit and was glamorous except us. Berhane had casual dress. I was the odd one. I had field jacket, which was a fashion and a revolutionary symbol of the time, I was bearded. I looked as if I came straight from the field except that I did not have a Kalashnikov. I told Berhane, to forget about promoting the case of Eritrea instead indulge in free drinks and exquisite food which we wouldn’t even see like that once we are back in London. We picked glasses of red wine and started chatting between each other trying hard to ignore where we were.

All of a sudden a man came and said “good evening gentlemen, well come to our congress. “ He was the Prime Minister, Sir James Callahan. Out of curiosity he came to know who these strange figures were. We said “we are from Eritrea, representing the EPLF a front fighting against the occupation of Eritrea by Ethiopia.” We were on fire and insisted on talking more until the office secretary, Jenny little, interfered and apologize that the PM had many guests to attend to. He must have realized that we were young and inexperienced when we try to pump the history of the armed struggle in a reception. He just said talk to the Foreign Minister as he pointed for us the Minister, David Owen. Soon many High Commissioners and Ambassadors from Africa came to greet us. It turned out to be the most interesting night.

Our engagement with the Labour party reached high level when representatives from the UK mass association and ERA started to have several meeting with members of the National executive committee and their advisor the historian Basil Davidson, who wrote about the fall of Afabet in 1987 as Dien Bien Puo of Africa. In 1981, as the result of many times of consultation, the labour party passed a resolution in support of the right of self-determination of Eritrea and to extend every possible material and diplomatic help. The labour party invited a delegation to tour labour party constituencies in Scotland, England and Wales. The delegation was led by Erimias Debesai, member of the Central Committee of the EPLF and head of European mission who is now a prisoner of conscience, languishing in prison in Eritrea. Many transport fleets (adetat) of the EPLF and the 1 million US dollar drilling rig were purchased by an NGO consortium organized by the Charity Organisation War on want closely related to the Labour Party. The drilling rig that was chosen by Kibreab Berhane (olio) a drilling expert who worked for many years in the oilfields in Iran and Yemen. Gleyness Kinnock went to the field later on as a chairwoman of Charity Organisation. Since then she had a big heart for the people of Eritrea. She wrote personal letter to President Isaias to release all the prisoners of conscience mentioning Ermias Debesai (Papayo) who was known to her very well. The British Labour Party resolutions have helped Eritreans in Australia to use it in lobbying NG0s and politicians and they managed to get substantial aid as a result. The resolution facilitated easy recognition by Socialist International. The resolution of the labour party has served the mass associations, the Eritrean Relief Association and the EPLF as a reference and a golden gate entry to all progressive parties, charity organisations and individuals. In those times Governments in Europe were dominated by Social Democratic Parties. After some time the Socialism Party of France led by President Mitterrand passed similar resolution in support of the right of self-determination of Eritrea.

Looking at it retrospectively I realized that all was not well. There was a systematic way of undermining a lot of inputs from independent intellectuals. The achievements of individuals or groups have always been camouflaged under the name of “EPLF mass association”. Nevertheless, what was important in that moment in time was that the Diaspora had played a fantastic role in making the Eritrean struggle visible all over the world. As the saying goes, “history repeats itself”, two people Dr. Bereket and Dan Connell had presented papers at the first International symposium on Eritrea in London in 1979 exposing the crimes of Ethiopia to the people of Eritrea. Today during the Belgium conference the same people have presented papers exposing the PFDJ. Of course a sad story would follow later. At the eve of independence we had seen the unmaking of the mass association and paralysing the dynamic Eritrean Relief Associations. At its highest ERA had more than 15 branches and support committees composed of professionals such as medical doctors the world over? After independence those popular institutions would have been the pillars of democracy had they not been strangled to pave the way for brute dictatorship in Eritrea.

Perils ahead in the long journey of building democracy in Eritrea:

Those who resented the Task-forced for not including them don’t seem to realize that the beginning of the struggle for democracy is to begin to practice democracy themselves. And also to know and understand for whom democracy is. They put themselves at the centre of the Belgium conference instead of the people of Eritrea. They were furious that they were not invited or represented at the conference and they made this central to their criticism of the task force. They spoke the language of control and power. They would not understand that individuals or groups can become the voice of the voiceless without their blessing or participation. They don’t seem to understand that they are there to help in getting rid of the repressive system and replace it by democratic system that gives power to the people.

This phenomenon came after the extraordinary bubble of political correctness promoted by Awate.com. Awate.com has undermined the present challenges presented to the entire people by the PFDJ and chose to focus on the secondary contradiction prevailed in the Eritrean society.

The critics have focussed on the inclusion exclusion dichotomy rather the benefit the conference gives to the people of Eritrea. Even Amanuel Iyasu of Asena seemed to fall into this trap by making exclusion central to his entire interviews with Abdurrahman Said the spokesperson of the Task-Force. He was repeatedly interrupting Abdurrahman when he was trying to highlight the bigger picture of the conference and the time he personally spent in the lobbying activities which was more than a year and half. Abdurrahman was surprisingly cool, articulate and engaging, a quality of a successful PR (Public Relations). He was firm and unequivocal in his stand that it is their democratic right to organize the Task-force in a way they feel is manageable. I wondered whether Amanuel was also resentful for not being invited himself.

There was no complication in the mission of the task-force. One fundamental point they advocated for was that the EU and USA should not channel development aid through the PFDJ because it is the PFDJ that is oppressing the people. If that continues it is like propping up repressive regimes like the cold war days.

No doubt about it, it could have been better if EDA was included in the Task-Force. Although it is an open secret of the incompetence of EDA, it remains to be an alliance of many organisations. But if they did not participate it is not a big deal; they did not initiate it after all. In all struggles where there are many organisations there is bound to be competitions as one group tries to excel the others and no one can do anything about it. Actually it is not wrong for Tewolde Gebresellasie the Chairman of EDA (Eritrean Democratic Alliance) to file criticism and engage the Task-Force for future cooperation but to write to EU is shameful.

The way forward:

From the on going cyber debate, the role of the political parties and the civic societies in building democratic Eritrea ought to be examined critically.

There is a train of thought emerging from the Awate.com debate of highlanders versus lowlanders that advocates for fair share in the corridors of power in Eritrea and in land property. It is true that the Tigrinya speakers have been dominant and the need to balance is apparent. This trend was reflected in all many articles concerning the conference. However more often than not balancing or some form of social engineering from above does not serve the interest of the marginalized people at the grass root level rather it serves the interest of those individuals who would want to use it as a path to acquire power. See the criticism of the Kunama movement leader by the youth who went in exile in America in Asena.com? And go through the experience of Somalia after the fall of Said Barre.

The best approach is to empower the people by helping to raise their level of consciousness and promoting the culture of democracy. The empowerment of the people is critical to achieving genuine democracy in any country. Once again thank you Task Force for making the plight of the Eritrean people visible.

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