The emotional uproar against the Brussels Conference whose epicenter has been at the Awate circles is not cooling down anytime soon. The Webmaster himself is leading the search to connect the dots on the conspiratorial theory of the “Tigrigna Project” that includes EDP, EPM, GASH SETIT, EPP and the Civic Societies they lately added to the list as “satellites” to paint the participants of Brussels with names that have nothing to do with the objective of the gathering. Was it that bad really to lose their bearing over it by calling the conference Idaga derhu? No reasonable person would sink that low to find tasteless names. This is nothing more than a story of a cat that jumped a few times to reach the hanging grapes and when it couldn’t, it said “the grapes are sour anyway” and left. BC would be described differently if the wailing individuals were there. The outcome would be the same however.

My reason for writing this piece is not to respond to the degenerate articles posted on the Eritrean websites. Those of us who are constantly attacked are not under any illusion that the detractors’ team will somehow grow out of its behavior and come to its senses. A fact most of you may not be aware of is that all the howling against the Brussels conferees was not really about them. Other than a few individuals like Abdurahman Sayed who declined the offer of the “Nefalale Team,” the campaign has been simmering for quite some time now. The number one in their enemy list is EPP and its leadership. Even though defending the Party may be within my right, at this stage that is already behind me. One would rather defend them from the embarrassment they brought to themselves by their own deeds.

For The Record

ELF-RC then, now EPP tried or negotiated with a good number of opposition organizations repeatedly for close co-operation at the minimum and for eventual unification where possible. That is undeniable fact. With the exception of EDP, negotiations with the rest of the Jebha off shoots led nowhere. They showed no signs of willingness even to pursue the stalled meetings much less achieving anything that could lead to unity. Therefore the accusation that EPP jumped fence to unite with the off shoots of Shabia (EDP EPM) is factually dishonest and holds no water. Besides this is not knew with EPP. Jebha Abay paid in sweat and blood to materialize unity with Shabia because she knew what would Eritrea disunited look like after independence. Now, how true that vision was you go figure out. By the way what is wrong with uniting with any Eritrean groups that stood against the rogue government? What more test should they pass?

The moment the talks between EPP, EDP got traction, raging campaign against them spread like a brush fire. A lot of poison was spread around to foil the talks. No one can for sure know what was being said in the dark of night nor should it be of any value. Nevertheless, the Awate clan or the Lowlanders wannabes took the leadership in trashing everything the parties did and stood for. They treated them as if they locked in their next meeting in Asmara with the PFDJ without including the rest of the organizations. They did not hesitate to call them traitors, irrelevant, mob, you name it they said it. Should it bother us? Seeing a handful clique of cadre switching loyalty to the weakened dictator for the sake of undermining us and doing the job he is good at, you bet that bothers us.

My appeal to the Awate camp: wouldn’t it be better to work together and change any suspicious projects to a new Eritrean Project? How hard is it not to lump opposition members with PFDJ? And with this mentality how serious are you to deliver our people from the predicament they are in? In my view, this is the twin side of the corrupt political culture I mentioned in my previous piece that gave us Isayas and his henchmen - women too. If there is no will to get out of the inverse culture what is the guarantee we may not put in power the same brute when the present is gone? Sadly there is no guarantee.

For the same elements that have been working their hearts out to divide us into the Lowlanders and Highlanders or bluntly speaking between Christians and Muslims, their exclusion from the Brussels Conference came to them as a shock. They either must be consistent and keep advocating for division and confusion of the people or give up on their unholy mission and come back home. Together we can even push a mountain let alone fixing what is broken. If not, why expect to sit along with the individuals they openly consider as partners of the enemy? Let’s cut the chase and understand the bottom line of the Awate group. Do they want the “Tigrignas” to steer clear of the opposition arena and wait for them to bring change? If that is the answer, I say Tsehay aribuna. And the reason is: that which we are unable to achieve together, we cannot achieve it divided.

Let me say this fellow reader: If the representative of EPM, EDP, EPP was not invited at the conference, you wouldn’t have heard all that bluffing directed to EU and to particular individuals targeted by the whiners. Yes, they would still be complaining but not with that degree of madness and intensity. Why all this outrage? They thought the Brussels Conference bypassed them from the perceived power grab negotiations and calculations. When a positive thing developed they angrily reacted for they had no role in it. Yet it is ok to react or criticize about what you disagree with. Call it teaching or learning diplomacy, unjustifiable snubbing is not a prudent way of airing your displeasure. Those who pretended to praise or defend Brother Tewolde’s letter to EU are doing that for political expediency only. Normally the Awate pretenders would not pick him up God forbid if they saw him lying on the street. I know who would run to rescue him regardless of his political point of view. A friend who is not honest enough to correct his friend’s mistakes is not true to his friend and to himself. So please stop the charade.

There is a valid reason why the Awate pampered side is always reactive. 1) The skilled cyber warriors of the clan mislead them by their tantalizing writings of empty promises. 2) They have been busy sifting through the Eritrean organizations to find out who is with what political organization. Who is from the Lowlands, from the Highlands or from the Midlands. 3) What is the composition of a certain party; how many are there in a given political group who do not belong there; 4) Chasing illusionary conspiracy theories to use them as tools to divide us. 5) Dumping divisive articles on the websites under recycled pen names to escape accountability. Unlike the bizarre perception of the Awate protégés, Eritreans of all stripes hold the regime responsible for its crimes and strive to throw it out. According to A. Salim’s twisted belief, those who refused to be dragged into his Serbian-like narrow nationalism will end up in the dust-bin of history. May be that will happen when history is read upside down by the nationalist zealots.

Let me give you a graphic example of the warriors’ mentality. The EPP is an excellent case study in this regard. When we deconstruct its membership composition, we find Muslims from the Lowlands and Muslims from the Highlands; we find Christians from the Lowlands and Christians from the Highlands, the exact image of Jebha during the armed struggle if you will. Guess what, the anthropologists at awate assigned the Party to Seraye province for the sole purpose of creating cracks among the party members. They called the Lowland Christians, satellites, traitors; and the Muslims from wherever they may be, insignificant seekers of left over power from the Tigrignas. Ladies and gentle men help me out there; I am at a total loss. I can understand during the armed struggle we were in the two camps of Jebha and Shabia to drive the Dergue out and gain independence. That happened. Unfortunately the lawless junta took over the country. Again we are in two camps today between those who support and oppose the junta. Where do they get that kakameni idea that some of us are in partnership with PFDJ??

One wonders what do they call the Christians with them. We may be curious to find out their tolerance capacity to the religion dominated politics. Obviously we don’t see them as traitors or satellites; we consider them as freedom fighters from the angle of their choice. In any event, my purpose is to unveil the hypocrisy of those who know no limit, no shame and no consideration for the well being of our country now and in the future. Unfortunately they are drowned in short-term feel good gains. The sum total of this reckless conduct is not helping anyone but the dictator himself. The good news is that these characters are in the minority. Our people will slowly and surely figure out who is playing foul with their cause. If it is their choice, like Ustaz Jaber said, they can work together but why give unsolicited service to Isayas?

In a related development an article was posted on some website by Fesseha Nair reacting angrily on the Brussels gathering. His anger was pointed at different people for different reasons. I decided to critique his piece on the following. I am quoting him verbatim: “It is crystal clear, the participants of the Brussels conference were from one segment of the Eritrean people. What would this segment said if the other segment has organized a big conference in Jeddah under in cooperation with the Saudi kingdom, Wa! Lomi ke Aslam teakibom! “

What he deliberately forgot to know is that Brussels is a political capital of EU not a religious Mecca of Europe. Aslam teakibom or Cristian teakibom will not damage the relationship of the two societies unless the motive is harmful. What creates a divide is the drum-beat to use that for one’s own selfish end. Even conferences in Saudi Arabia are not always necessarily religious. But then again like martyr Seyum Harestay once said in Seattle to an indecent caller on the radio, “entay emo kibleki memherki aloki.” In English: what can I say to you, you have your own teacher referring to her leader, Isaias, who is not an exemplary person to his followers. Similarly our brother who is in the camp of those who polarize our society at every occasion perhaps felt the need to conform to the culture.

Here is a collision that takes place in his piece again because of lack of information: “In his second point, he mentioned on, “Transitional Plan” what is this transitional plan? What kind of Transitional plan has the EPP. EDP and EPM that the EDA not know? The EDA ask Wolde about this transitional plan and capacity building on democratic values?” Brother, before jumping on to pejorative questioning of the Chairman’s motive, EDA leadership was handed the same plan long before Brussels which is not yet acted upon. So, blame EDA leaders not those who developed it.

Another misrepresentation in the same piece: “As Mr. Abdurahman said in his interview with Assena, the criteria the conference set is the capacity of individuals and organizations. We have invited Wolde Ammar because he is the only competent in the opposition political organization who can present the EU and US policy makers.” I happen to have heard the interview. What Abdurahman said was “ There may be better individuals than him, like him or less than him. Nevertheless we chose him because he is the person we trusted who could deliver the message with skill and truthfulness.” Our brother may have a problem with the choice and it is evident from his demeanor. However misquoting or embellishing what was said is unacceptable.

More of his unwarranted attack that tempted me to go over was: “Poor Abdurahman! He couldn’t know the difference between a firm and state.” Is this a joke or a raw language thrown at him without any regard? I am not sure what it is. What is sure is when emotions are uncontrolled such behavior becomes dominant in our discourse. In the real world we do not belittle others at will simply because we can put words on the screen. Apparently where shame is dead I believe self- restraint is also dead.

His final few lines were also quite interesting: “Dan Connell has integrity and courage to accommodate all forces in the opposition camp but Wolde! I was very sad to hear from you such words in front of foreigners. Wolde” what happened with you, are you Wolde that I know in 1967 distributing pamphlets of the Eritrean Revolution before the Eritrean polis in Asmara.” Here is the flaw in his assessment: Dan Connell sees the opposition from the perspective of the sin he committed against ELF by blindly supporting EPLF. I attended his meeting in New York where he promised not to support one organization in exclusion of the other anymore. In which case late is better than never and he should be encouraged to continue speaking for our people. But in Wolde’s case, after giving a detailed general picture of the opposition and the dire situation of our people that the writer omitted on purpose, it’s naive to expect him not to mention about the group he directly represented. Nonetheless, accusing him of lack of integrity and courage is throwing red meat for consumption of his enemies. Period. Within the last two weeks alone four people called me to ask me if he ( Fessaha Nair ) has a serious problem with Wolde. My answer was, call him and find out.