Eritrea in Crisis: the Immediate Challenge and Our United

ERITREA IN CRISIS: THE IMMEDIATE CHALLENGE AND OUR UNITED

RESPONSE TO IT!

Our Voice

“Our Destiny in Our Hands!”

Outline

Introduction

1. Tradition, Democracy and the Eritrean Experience 2. The Epicentre of Our Troubles: Isais Afwerki, His Royal Ancestry and Bad Faith 3. The Need for Root and Branch Change to Remove the Criminal Cabal in Asmara 4. The Building of Broad Unity to Encircle and Destroy the Dictatorship 5. The Need for an Armed Wing! 6. Where Do We start and How Do We Do It? 7. Technicality of Organizing the Mass Movement for Political Action 8. Immediate Tasks of the New Leaders of the Opposition

Conclusion: On Our Way to Asmara, or Will It Be so Easy?

Our Renewed Mission Statement: This far, and no more!! Our mission is to use every legitimate means at our disposal, including military force, to help remove the entire edifice of dictatorship in Eritrea at the earliest and establish democratic constitutional governance. The offices of the bandit regime at Adi Hallo and the entire dictator’s hiding places will be “targeted” as the oppressive system’s centre of gravity. To make all this possible, as a first step, we shall focus with urgency on setting up the proposed Eritrean Local Assemblies and the National Baito which will appoint the Chief Executive and his/her cabinet of experts. The chief executive will effectively spearhead our struggle for justice at a higher level and act as the legitimate representative of the Eritrean people.

Introduction

Our Voice is back with a really big question! Are we being overtaken by developments? In other words, are we being too late to influence and shape events inside Eritrea? Five recent events lend substance to our query.

(a) The granting of 200 million Euros to the dictator by the European Union thus giving the regime an added lease of life,

(b) The attempt by the dictator to break out of his encirclement by joining the Islamic Alliance (organized by the Saudis and the Qataris) against the Huthis in Yemen,

(c) Herman Cohen’s alarming statement reminding the Habeshas (both Eritreans and Ethiopians) that the Western Red Sea may soon be overtaken by the Arabs and the Sharia Law imposed on the region,

(d) The growing frustration in Ethiopia with the Isaias’s regime, and

(e) Andrew Korybro’s article: “Saudi Arabia and GCC are Expanding to Eritrea. Geopolitical Implications to Ethiopia”, Global Research, Nov. 18, 2015.

About a month ago, there was a general feeling that Isaias personnally and his regime were in their last legs. The picture is now different, and we have started to see a more active and emboldened Isaias Afwerki. Even his exaggerated and devilish moustache appears to be bigger.

No doubt, events have been moving faster than us and what we wished them to be. However, we believe that still have a window of opportunity which we must not miss. If we don’t act decisively now, things may change completely, and all our efforts might prove out of date and futile. Therefore, as the Latin aphorism goes: “Carpe diem!” Let’s seize the day and act!!

1. Tradition, Democracy and the Eritrean Experience

We need to start with a proper perspective of what underlies our psychology, our perception of ourselves, our expectations and what we do - and more importantly, what we think we can do or not. There is no space here to deal with this subject in full. We can only present a brief summary as a starting point. Traditionally, Eritrea has been a heterogeneous society with various ethnic, linguistic, social, religious, other cultural and political tendencies. In some parts of the country, there were baitos and the Higi Indaba that played important roles in the administration of the community. But, there were also the msleynes mostly appointed by far away rases and kings as their emissaries. Serfdom also existed in western Eritrea even up to the coming of the Italians. In fact, Eritrea was largely a battlefield of competing powers and allegiances that hardly saw any peace for prolonged periods.

This necessitated the emergence of strong personalities that held their grounds and defended themselves and their communities. Thus, the best attribute one could give to a person was, “Seb’ay beal sire!” rather than “what a knowledgeable wise man!” May be that is why the “leyti zideretom” (or night watchmen) were given the highest respect when Arba’ite Asmera was formed about 500 years ago to enable the people to defend themselves against bandits, kidnappers and looters. There were also the Bahta Segeneiti, Raisi Wolde-Michael Solomon, etc. This hero worship was Eritrean response to oppression, unfairness, cruelty and exploitation. In short, there has largely been adoration of the strong in the Eritrean culture. We believe that this is the key to understanding why Isaias Afwerki came to the Eritrean stage with so much swagger and some toughness and managed to get so much easy following and hero worship which he did not deserve. People

2 needed a strong defender, a saviour - and Isaias convinced them with so much cunning, skulduggery, harshness and brutal murder of his able competitors that he fitted the profile of the leader that people were craving for.

But, it was all a hoax, a make belief. The man was in essence a sadistic narcissist with a sense of entitlement who would do anything to suit himself - a man afflicted with extreme form of selfishness with no bounds, a scheming, pretentious, cruel, corrupt, thieving and self seeking rapist who converted the Massawa palace into a sex den to rape defenceless Eritrean young women in their teens procured for him from the trenches by his generals and colonels to ingratiate their master. This is the much adulated defender of the Eritrean people - the false Messiah, the man who turned a promising country into a nightmare - and brought the hard working, decent and long suffering people of Eritrea to their knees. No doubt, he is the nemesis of Eritrea and the Eritrean people’s - Enemy No. 1.

The Eritrean people should, therefore, learn from their experience and never believe what they hear from this man - and his opportunist colleagues who together constitute the criminal cabal in Asmara. All power should be in the hands of the people, and the people should decide what is best for them. This is our essential dispute with Medrek and all similar parties that believe in the top - down political process. We believe that legitimate political power is necessarily based on the grassroots. Political leaders have no legitimacy unless their power comes from the people, and not imposed from above. That is why we salute Amanuel Eyasu of www.assenna.com (the formidable fighter for justice) for his vigorous campaigns to promote grassroots democracy and the transfer of power to the people - away from the self-appointed leaders, some of whom with unsavoury past.

It is not that the people should elect their leaders to execute the will of the grassroots once and for all. Most importantly, the people should make sure that they retain their inherent power to appoint and dismiss their leaders according to their performance. Less than that is a recipe for disaster. Human beings are weak!! Unless there are democratic supervisory mechanisms to check on them, they have the tendency to misbehave grossly and try to benefit at the expense of society. V. Lenin said, “Trust is good, but control is better.” How true! There is no bound for the mischief and mass disaster that powerful individuals with no one to control them can bring about. This tendency has quite often resulted in defeat in battles, the loss of independence of countries, the death of millions and the end of civilizations. We can mention many examples for this as the likes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Poll-Pot of Cambodia who were grossly delusional mass murderers. But, at least, some of these had high ambitions for their people however unjustified. How about our own home grown adulated “liberator”? The extent of the grief this man has brought to the Eritrean people is beyond belief, and there is no need to rehearse it here yet again. In short, Enemy No. 1 has never had any good intentions for the Eritrean people. It seems that his most important mission has been to humiliate and destroy the country and its people.

In his recent radio interview in Vienna, Austria, Yemane Gebreab stated that the size of the population of Eritrea at present is about 3 million (not 6 million as is officially claimed). Isaias Afwerki is accountable for the missing 3 million people which Eritrea should at least have had by now. We have done our own research on the size of the Eritrean population at the moment. We have also studied the demographic structure of Eritrea during the time of the British, the Ethiopian rule and at the time of the referendum. We are also aware of the various secretive censuses carried out by the EPLF/HIGDEF since “independence” but whose outcomes have never been publically announced. In short, what we have found out has really shocked us. Nothing has been going right for Eritrea and Eritreans under this moustachioed bandit.

2. The Epicentre of Our Troubles: Isaias Afwerki, His Royal Ancestry and Bad Faith

Long ago when almost everyone was a Marxist or a quasi Marxist, it was believed that economic and social forces were the primary determinants of political change - positive or negative. Personal agents in history were given little importance. With the recent ascent of the field of political psychology, however, it is recognized (cf. G.V. Plekhanov) that occasionally individuals can have the power to shape history and make it go in a different direction than would be otherwise. This is certainly the case in Eritrea. The country unfortunately fell into the wrong hands using a false prospectus, massive misrepresentation of fact, outright lies, bribery, intimidation, kidnapping, murder, massive theft of state coffers, wedging ‘meaningless’ wars against neighbours with a deliberate intention to suspend the constitution and impose a state of emergency instead - in order to perpetuate the dictator’s power indefinitely, as he did with the so called National Service, which is disguised slavery. All these crazy ideas started in the sick mind of one evil man (Enemy No. 1) whose agenda runs contrary to the aspirations of our people - who deserve much better after what they had been through.

In psychotherapy, it is a common practice to put the case of a patient in the context of his/her family history and try to find therein some useful clues for the disorder. We are, therefore, forced to examine the family history of this crime prone dangerous patient who should have been kept in a mental asylum and not let loose on the world wish such devastating consequences. The man has been carefully and with so much deliberation hiding a lot of facts about himself and his family history from the public. We are now prepared to disclose the hidden secrets of this man after considerable research so that the Eritrean people will at least understand what has hit them and their neighbours - and why.

Our research is based on some important publications, one of which was written by an Ethiopian scholar, the late Dr. Dejazmatch Zewdie Gebresellassie, great grandson of Emperor Johannes IV. We have also asked a number of Isaias’ former friends and neighbours, especially about his drunken pronouncements. While in the field and when

4 pressed, Isaias was reported to have claimed that he was the son of “generals” and not commoners. None of the “generals” he was referring to actually lived in Eritrea but further south. Some of what he is reported to have been saying by his close colleagues about Eritreans in derogatory terms also suggest that he has no respect and even a sense of belonging to the Eritrean people - who worshiped him like a messiah and gave him their all.

Let us now piece all these details together and tell the story which Isaias Afwerki has been hiding from us all the time - which has been an overriding force and concern in his entire life and for which he has sacrificed the Eritrean people so badly and with so much cruelty.

In fact, his great grandfather, Ras Hagos Mircha of Tembien was the brother of Emperor Johannes IV (formerly, Dejach Kassa Mircha). Ras Hagos was a very conniving, manipulative, unreliable and emotionally unstable man, not entirely in good terms with his brother, Dej. Kasssa, who later became Emperor Yohannes IV. When Kassa Mircha was earlier imprisoned by Emperor Teodros on suspicion of plotting a rebellion, Hagos refused to ransom or act as a guarantor for his brother’s release. Even after Kassa Mircha came to the throne and he was striving to drive out the Italians from Eritrea, Ras Hagos was having secret dealings with the Itailan generals in Eritrea and the British in the Sudan - which he continued after his brother’s death. Hagos was also blinded with envy against Ras Alula because the latter was earlier favoured by Yohannes. The bitter rivalry and animosity between the two was exasperated by Alula’s awareness through his spies in Eritrea of Hagos’ secret dealings with the Italians.

After Emperor Johannes’ death in Metema, Menelik II was crowned king, despite the claims of the dead king’s family. The transfer of political power to Shoa left Ras Hagos and other Tigrean nobility with much disappointment. After the Battle of Adwa in 1896, Ras Mekonned was appointed as governor of Tgray. The new governor had a benign attitude towards the Italians and even secret contacts with them, as Ras Hagos did. The only notable figure who was publically vociferous against Italian occupation of Eritrea at the time was Ras Alula - who was even trying to mobilise the Tgrean nobility to crush and drive out the Italians from the new colony north of the Mereb River. Some say that in the midst of all this, Raps Hags was relieved of his post as the governor of Shire to be replaced by Ras Alula who was then in Adwa. The simmering rivalry, enmity and bitterness then came out to the open - and the two strong rivals fought a decisive battle in Shire on January 19, 1897. That day, Ras Hagos Mircha was defeated and killed. But, Ras Alula was also severely wounded in his leg in the battle and died two months later.

Ras Hagos was fully aware of the gathering clouds and how events might turn out against him and his family. Hagos had only one son, Dejazmatch Abraha Hagos, and was worried that in the midst of all the ill feeling and conflict, his enemies might kill his young son and leave him without a male heir. As a result, Hagos made arrangements with his Italian contacts in Eritrea to help his son move to Eritrea and settle there in peace. Abraha himself was probably complicit in the affair. Thus, before the Battle of Shire and the death of Ras

Hagos, Dejatch Abraha crossed over to Eritrea with his young bride and several of his soldiers. Abraha’s marriage to W/ro Etienesh (born around 1880), the eldest daughter of Ras Mengesha Yonannes, took place on July 10, 1896, just 4-5 months after the Battle of Adwa (March 1, 1896). Abraha and his young bride fled Tgray for dear life about six months before Ras Hagos’s death when Abraha was only about 22 years old. Dr Dejazmatch Zewdie Gebresellassie’s (in a posthumously published book) and Memhr Gebrekidan Desta’s (in his book Imbita Wererti. Addis Ababa: Mega Publishers, 2005 EC.) give detailed accounts of the villages that the new fugitive Abraha Hagos and his group passed through until they reached Tselot, just outside Asmara and settled there.

Re: the route of escape - Senafe, Tekonda, Segeneiti, Mai Habar, Nefasit, Asmera and finally Tselot.

It is known that two of Abraha Hagos’s sons were Afworki Abraha and Solomon Abraha. Afwerki Abraha is the father of the notorious dictator of Eritrea. The full name of Enemy No. 1 is, therefore, Isaias Afwerki Abraha Hagos Mircha!!

His family tree in Eritrea looks as follows:

Dejazmatch Abraha Hagos, the new resident of Tselot, had two sons with his bride, W/ro Etienesh Mengesha - (1) Dejazmatch Solomon Abraha, the Governor of Wello (1964), and (2) Ato Afwerki Abraha, ordinary state employee in Mekele, Tgray.

Ato Afwerki married W/ro Adanech Berhe, the daughter of W/ro Medhin Berad, sister of Fitewrari Kidane Mesel from Adwa.

Here are the descendants of Ato Afwerki Abraha and W/ro Adanech Berhe.

1. Ato Amare Afwerki 2. Ato Isaias Afwerki (by the way, Isaias writes his father’s name as “Afwerki”, in Tirgigna, not “Afewerki”, which sounds like Ge’ez and/or Amharic) - born in Asmara on February 2, 1946, was a student at Prince Makonnen Sec. School, Asmara, studied engineering up to second year at Addis Ababa University, joined the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in 1966, became a commissar (1966-1967), deputy divisional commander (1964-1980), became co-founder of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), was deputy general secretary (1977-1978), secretary general and Commander-in-Chief (1978-1994), “president”, commander-in-chief and head of the “Eritrean People’s Front for Democracy and justice” since 1994 - and “president for life”. Married to W/ro Saba Haile of Shimezana, Eritrea 3. Ato Amanuel Afwerki 4. Ato Ermias Afwerki 5. Ato Yonas Afwerki 6. W/ro Tsigereda Afwerki 7. W/ro Ariam Afwerki.

We must make is absolutely clear that we are not claiming that all the details we have provided above are 100% accurate. All we are saying is that this is what we have found out from our research so far about this man. Further research is needed by professional historians to make more in-depth and wider investigation on the subject - which will take time. We believe that there is more to come out. Bzuh zeynfelton kingmito zeynkieln zitehab’e gud alo. Kulu gizye’u haliyu kiwetsie iyu. Tray idme yihabena!! For now, we believe that we have the core of the story right, and this is enough to guide our approach, strategy and tactics in our revived struggle to abolish one of the worst tyrannies in world history.

Secondly, it should be understood that we are not raising the issue of Isaias’s ancestry in any way because it is linked to Tgray. Please do not go up and down on this issue without understanding what we are saying and our purpose for it. In fact, whether the dictator’s ancestry is from Tembien, Timboktu or anywhere else in the world would not have mattered at all. Actually, there is ample evidence to suggest that the large majority of the Eritrean population has some ancestry mainly from Tgray and Amhara and also from the Sudan and Saudi Arabia or Yemen (re: Rashaida) - and more recently from the Oromo as well.

Therefore, unless we want to “cut our noses to spite our faces”, as they say, we can’t blame Isaias Afwerki in any way for having recent ancestry from Tgray or anywhere else outside Eritrea - because that is the nature of most Eritreans, if any. (Please read our earlier article in Assenna.com on “Who is an Eritrean?”)

The only problem is that his having links with an important royal family seems to have gone to his head - and made him think that he has a divine right to rule and be obeyed willy-nilly. We have not been told, but unto himself, he is already the king of Eritrea. We are too trusting to properly understand his pronouncements. But, he has already told us that he is a king - for he has no intention of leaving office until he dies. Even then, there will be a successor, he thinks, whom he has been grooming for office - i.e., his son, Abraha(m) - please remember the name of Ras Hagos’ son who was the founder of the new family dynasty in Eritrea - so Isaias seems to believe anyway. Eritreans seem to have largely failed to put 2 and 2 together and say 4.

What is actually particularly amazing is that this self appointed delusional messiah seems to think that he has the possibility of ruling even Ethiopia - once again restoring his family to its former glory. Of course, on the face of it, this looks completely absurd and far-fetched. But, to a person of his type who is drunk half of the day, the unreal may seem to be real. Otherwise how are we to explain that when he had an upper hand in Ethiopia in the early 1990s (soon after the hard won independence was achieved) and had free access to Ethiopian resources, he was talking about establishing a confederation with Ethiopia and even possibly unity - but in his own terms? The message of possible future unity between Ethiopia and Eritrea (under his leadership, although he does not say it openly) was also what he was telling Molla Asgedom and his group - and is no doubt presently telling all the

Ethiopian opposition groups based in Eritrea - including Ginbot 7. The question is: would Isaias allow anybody else but him to have an upper hand if Eritrea and Ethiopia were to work out some kind of close cooperation, confederation, or unity? The answer is clear. Please do not forget Isaias Afwerki’s mindset of entitlement to power.

This mad man has visceral hatred against Ethiopia and the Ethiopians even more than the resentment his grandfather had when he left Ethiopia for Tselot, Eritrea under the Italians. He seems to still have a grudge to settle with the Ethiopians for the death of his great grandfather (Ras Hagos), the exile of his grandfather (Abraha) and the perceived usurpation of the crown from his family by Menelik. But, he still wants to be in his dreams the overall leader of Ethiopia - if there is a chance. The unfortunate thing is that he has embroiled the Eritrean people in a vendetta against the Ethiopians which many Eritreans don’t share at all.

3. The Need for a Root and Branch Change to Remove the Criminal Cabal in Asmara

Medrek and many of the other political groups in the Eritrean opposition still think that the easiest and most viable way to bring about change in Eritrea is to follow the top-down model of political organization. But, they have been at it for many years without any noticeable achievement. In the first place, they don’t really agree among themselves despite their public pronouncements to work together. The struggle for political power has blinded them, and it has become an overriding concern for them, even above the interests of the Eritrean people. We believe that this is self defeating - and eventually no one (not even themselves) will benefit from it. Anyway, we believe that even if they manage to oust the present dictator, they will replace him with dictatorship of their own - not much different from the last one.

Medrek, which apparently is now the most financially resourced Eritrean opposition group, also contains a number of unsavoury personalities in its leadership who were schooled and even conditioned by the dictator himself for decades to serve him in any way he thought them fit. Some of them kept on serving him long after the unjust and cruel imprisonment of their colleagues, the ministers, generally known as G-15. Would one trust such personalities who seem to be devoid of any shame or integrity?

To entice the public, they claim that they have contacts inside Eritrea which they can use. Frankly, the contacts they claim to have may be some disgruntled generals or colonels. Unfortunately, we have little hope for such people to do the decent thing even if there is an opportunity. They probably do not even understand the notion of democracy, and they will try to use the top-down approach to change matters in their own way. Power must come from the bottom. No more another Isaias!! Our situation requires a root and branch change – and this is what we intend to deliver with the help of every Eritrean who believes in justice and people’s power. Our determined facilitation will see to it.

4. Building a Broad Unity to Encircle and Destroy the Dictatorship

The present regime in Eritrea is really stupid, naive and weak - especially intellectually. Sometimes, it is even hard to believe: the mistakes are so basic and so glaring!! Clearly, the regime is sustained not by its own strength but by our weakness and disunity. Otherwise, the regime is bankrupt of ideas. It has no adequate finance (despite the gold from Bisha, and the hidden millions of dollars in offshore banks for the dictator’s greed). The number of his loyal soldiers is dwindling by the day. His Soviet era weapons are obviously outdated, the good thinkers and planners in his government are not listened to, the staff moral couldn’t be any lower, and that is true to any government department and has consequently eroded their loyalty and commitment to the regime. In short, it is an empty regime in every way – but it survives from day to day on a life support system. That is how bad things are.

The situation is ripe for change, but at the moment who will give it the last and final pushes?

This is where we think we can help. Our Voice and its other colleagues, with whom it has been in discussion, are willing to take the responsibility of coordinating the building of a united front against tyranny. We want to bring together all the civic and social organizations, interested personalities and groups, political parties (if they choose to actively take part in the democratic process), community organizations, religious groups, elders and youth groups – everyone who is willing to contribute to our joint grassroots movements and to expedite the formation of the Eritrean Local Assemblies and the Hagerawi Baito.

In the meantime, we shall start discussing with the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments to seek access to the Eritreans who live in their territories to form their own local assemblies and higher bodies that will link up with the worldwide Eritrean grassroots movement for democratic change.

5. The need for a Military Wing

As we explained before in our previous articles, the establishment of an armed wing that will come directly under the command of the Chief Executive and the cabinet appointed by and responsible to the Hagerawi Baito will be established as a vital part of our struggle. The armed wing will have four tasks.

a. Carrying out surgical operations to stop certain moves by the regime which are anti- people, such as demolishing houses. It may also involve dealing with some persons who have proved themselves to be anti people with their excessive corruption, cruelty and unfairness as agents of the regime. The armed wing may also have to deal with the offices of the dictator at Adi Hallo and other places as legitimate targets. If the dictator is caught therein, he should be brought to justice but not be

physically harmed in any way. (However, his bushy moustache should be immediately removed and preserved for museum display later on.) b. A clandestine mechanism will be created in which people (from the army, the various government ministries and ordinary citizens) who want to leave the regime can get help and protection from the people’s armed wing to leave the country in peace or stay in the liberated areas which will be established within Eritrea. c. The notorious officials of the regime who torment the people should be put on notice that they are at risk. They should be given three warnings to stop their misdeeds through their own relatives. d. Defending the new administration when it reaches Asmara and other parts of the country e. Distribution of leaflets and other propaganda items inside Asmara and other places.

The military wing that will be formed will not seek to knock out the Eritrean Defence Forces to seize political power. We believe that the rank and file of the Eritrean Army, excluding high ranking generals and some colonels, would be sympathetic to our course. If given the right opportunity, we believe that they will cross over to our side. Thus adequate preparations will have to be made to accommodate them. These are only ideas we are suggesting for public discussion. The final decision will be made by the yet to be formed Hagerawi Baito and the Office of the Chief Executive.

6. Where to Start and How to Do It?

Whether we like it or not, the only way to resolve the Eritrean crisis is to return power to the people. The Eritrean people are highly intelligent, as the Italians found out to their peril when they started having dealings with the people after their landing in the area. Unfortunately, the Eritrean people have been abused, humiliated and deprived of their rights for far too long. They were not even allowed to wear shoes by the Italians. Most importantly, to manifest the cruel strategy of dehumanizing the people, the colonial masters deprived the Eritreans the right to know. They were allowed only to attend school up to grade 4 - where the four functions of maths were being taught, along with the Italian language, which enable them to translate for those who didn’t care to learn Tigrinya, Tigre or any of the other Eritrean languages.

We can’t now wait until we establish ten universities, or even one. We should count on the traditional intelligence of the Eritrean and his/her sense of fairness.

In all these, we need to stress the message of hope – that tomorrow will be a better day if we do the right things. In short, our first task is to empower the people by convincing them that they are the true owners of their destiny and that they can set themselves free. Actually, although people talk usually about the number of prisons all over Eritrea and the number of prisoners therein, the main prison that Eritreans suffer from and which has paralysed them from taking action against the dictatorship is the prison within - fear, the

10 self doubt, the confusion, the hopelessness and humiliation perpetrated on them by the dictatorship for over five decades. These are the first lines of the dictatorship’s trenches which we need to attack, occupy, reform and set our people free from.

7. Technicality of Organizing the Mass Movement for Political Action

The key idea here is that the people are the true masters of their destiny and should be allowed to decide for themselves even if they make mistakes here and there. When people make mistakes, they directly suffer from the consequences - and immediately tend to learn from the painful experience. Conversely, dictators shield themselves from the consequences of their mistakes and sacrifice the people instead. Thus, they hardly learn from their experience.

As part and parcel of the people, the professors, the doctors, researchers, specialists in various fields, visionaries and money men can also be of help as providers of important inputs to the people’s movement. But, they should never be allowed to function without sufficient control and supervision by the elected representatives of the people. The key phrase is still Grassroots based democracy and control above all else - our destiny in our hands at all times!!

How is the mass movement to be organised into an effective political force that can control itself and this environment to bring about the desired change?

As we mentioned above, the first task is to empower our people by freeing them from the prison within. We have to properly explain to the people what went wrong in the past and what is going on at present not because of Divine retribution but due to the misdeeds of those who had power over us. It is our duty to try to understand, set ourselves free and refuse to be used by our oppressors who have cruelly treated us as subhuman. What can a dictator do when the people collectively say: “No! This far, but no more!!” Any dictator can’t use force against an entire population. What they do is try to divide the people by giving favour to some and not others, by lying and pretending, by deceiving people using endless music, dance shows and fashion shows, by presenting glamorous young winners in athletics, etc. Or the trick could involve clips from ancient films showing the heroism of tegadelti in years gone by - who are now mostly either dead or infirm as a result of the unfair treatment they got from the regime. The other malicious tactic of the regime is incitement of unjustifiable and bogus hatred and wars against close neighbours. We need to bring all these factors to the attention of the people and enable them to see through the dangerous manipulative moves of the regime and how this is linked to the continuation of the people’s misery.

Once the people are set free from their internal prison, they should be shown some simple but achievable steps they can take to empower themselves to bring back their destiny into

11 their own hands. This will pave the way for the abolition of the dictatorship and the ushering in of a democratic dispensation.

All this can’t be achieved without group work. We urge all committed Eritreans who want to see genuine change in their own lives and the lives of other Eritreans to take the initiative to spread the ideas we have presented in small informal meetings with their friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances. In fact, it does not even have to look like a meeting. You may visit a friend at home or meet him/her in a cafe. The conversation may start with an ordinary subject like the weather or someone you both know. Down the line, you may ask the person whether he has heard what happened in Eritrea or any part of our region. That will pave the way towards discussing the state of affairs in Eritrea. The tragedy of Eritreans in the Middle East and the Mediterranean almost invariably is bound to attract attention. Then, the question of why this has happened may arise followed by who is to blame and what our personal responsibilities are to find a solution to the problem.

Many people will say that what you are saying is actually true but that they are not politicians and that they have enough problems of their own. They should then be asked whether they would like to see the end of the present nightmare – the death and suffering of Eritreans around the world, inside Eritrean and outside. The person will most likely say: “Of course, Yes!” We should then carefully navigate the person through a number of thinking processes in which he/she will feel that unless it is going to take much of his time or money, he/she is willing to help. Our effort is primarily to persuade the person to attend another informal meeting that will discuss similar topics with a group of other people most of whom he may be familiar with. The meeting need not take more than 30 minutes – unless everyone wants to continue the discussion.

All those present should be made aware of the importance of the meeting - that the end result is to stop the suffering of the Eritrean people and that the meeting being helps is part of an international grassroots movement that is spreading across the world. This way, the convener of this meeting may convince 3-5 people to attend another bigger meeting in which other conveners and their group members will meet. If there is unity of purpose and the participants in the meeting agree, then an Eritrean Local Assembly may be formed without electing their leaders yet. Then, all the local Eritrean members of the community may be told via leaflets, e-mail, twitter, text, phone call, etc. of the general meeting that will take place at such and such a place, date and time. In that meeting, officers of the Eritrean Local Assembly will be elected after all the electorates have signed the Memorandum of Understanding - which is available as already discussed in our previous articles. The assembly should also elect two other officers that will represent them in a higher body. Alternatively, they may delegate the five member governing body of the Eritrean Local Assembly to delegate two people among them for the higher regional body.

Anyway, the minimum number of people required to form an Eritrean Local Assembly is only just 5. Even if nobody else comes but only 5 people after a meeting is officially called, we should be prepared to go ahead with the meeting and form our Eritrean Local Assembly. Those who are slow can join us at a later stage. We now have an urgent task to do, and we can’t wait any longer. Events in our country and our region are building up - and we must make sure that we establish the necessary democratic political structures to play an important role in shaping the destiny of our country positively.

As soon as the Eritrean Local Assemblies (ELAs) are formed, delegates must be sent from the grassroots to higher organs of representation i.e., Eritrean Regional Assemblies, Country Wide Assemblies and Continental Assemblies – and finally, the Hagerawi Baito at global level.

(a) We believe that if we pull together with dedication, we can accomplish the entire task of forming the ELAs and the regional, country-wide and continental bodies and the Hagerawi Baito in less than three months. (b) The first wave of elections need not be perfect. We shall be happy with just a credible although not totally perfect outcome of representation. (c) There will be proportional representation throughout, and the ELAs will have the right of recall. Therefore, any representative who misbehaves or tries to divert the course of the movement away from its aim will be recalled by that representative’s ELA. (d) All the voting procedures and voting outcomes at all levels will be properly documented, and everyone who participates in the voting will be required to read and sign the Memorandum of Understanding stating acceptance of the principles on which the voting is based. (e) All the documentation available will be open to public scrutiny by internal auditors and external bodies or individuals, if they so wish. This is the only way we can prove our legitimacy as representatives of the Eritrean people.

The formation of the National Baito and the cabinet will be a watershed in Eritrean politics. That very act will considerably shift political authority to the people away from the illegitimate regime in Asmera that has no justification to stay in power. The chief executive and his/her cabinet appointed by the Hagerawi Baito will henceforth be the legitimate representatives of the Eritrean people. The chief executive will also speak on behalf of the Eritrean people and position himself/herself as the spokesman of the Nation and alternative state of Eritrea.

8. Immediate Tasks of the New Leaders

a. Immediately notify the UN, international organisations and governments of the changed situation and the new role assigned by the Eritrean people. b. Try to thoroughly understand the situation (local and international) and forge new alliances and strengthen old ones. c. Establishment of a press office with various publications and a powerful radio station and online and satellite TV to reach Eritrea and Eritreans all over the world. d. Use every means possible to create links with opposition individuals and groups within Eritrea and establish clandestine pockets of resistance in key areas. e. Establishment of a well resourced research arm f. Establishment of a military wing with a capable commander with experience g. Organising cultural shows h. Having a diplomatic office with representatives in key parts of the world i. Mobilization of financial resources from various sources: contributions from Eritreans, fees from services provided (e.g. ID cards or testifying that the person is of Eritrean origin), donations from various sources, including friendly governments and other institutions, claiming in court the money stashed away by the bandit regime in Eritrea, etc. j. Units of the armed wing inside Eritrea establishing contact with some personnel in the Eritrean Defence Force, preferably young junior officers and planning joint tasks - gradually co-opting sections of the Eritrean Army into the armed wing of the opposition.

Conclusion: On Our Way to Asmara, or Will It be so easy?

We believe that if we do the right things with dedication, we may be in Asmara much sooner than we expect. To pave the way towards this end, we are now in the process of organizing a global Eritrean conference of facilitators to establish a provisional coordinating committee to assist and link up all the Eritrean grassroots movements all over the world. This has been found to be crucial (and the missing link) in helping the grassroots to quickly take the initiative and form the Eritrean Local Assemblies (ELAs), the Hagerawi Baito and the Office of the Chief Executive to spearhead our struggle, abolish dictatorship in Eritrea and establish therein a Democratic Constitutional Governance. Eritrea and the Eritrean people will live, thrive and prosper!

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