WHAT SHOULD BE DONE AGAINST THE UNABATING WAVES OF TERROR AND POLITICAL REPRESSION IN ERITREA?

Tsegezab Gebregergis, London, October 19, 2005

As is the case, in the 1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian war, the military generals of Issaia’s Afeworki suffered huge and humiliating military defeat in the hands of the Ethiopian army. Since then the PFDJ regime has been unleashing waves of terror and unrelenting political repression in Eritrea in its vain attempt to quell the mounting political opposition to its tyrannical rule. The first victims of its political repression were the G-13, that is, a group of academics and cadres of the EPLF who issued in the year 2000 the unrelenting criticism directed against Issaias Afeworki in a document known as the Berlin Manifesto– name derived from the city in which the meeting was held to discuss the then unfolding Eritrean crisis. The second victim of its repressive politics was group of high-ranking Eritrean government officials and members of the ruling party known as the G-15. These are the group that openly declared their uncompromising opposition to the government and tried to bring to task the leader, Issaias Afeworki, in a party conference, which they demanded to be summoned urgently.

Since the PFDJ regime unleashed its political repression against the above mentioned groups and anybody associated with them, there has been a vast on going campaign to discredit, defame and blackmail all the regime political opponents at home and abroad, especially so to the G-13 and to the arrested G-15, those still at liberty in foreign countries and their supporters. Since the political repression in Eritrea under the PFDJ regime is mounting and it appears it would get only worst before it gets better. To date, the government has already imprisoned thousands of students, priests, and Christian groups belonging to different churches that resent the government’s interference in their religious affairs, and individual Eritreans suspected of being members of the different ELF groups and journalists opposed to its tyrannical rule and last but not least, protesting parents of the imprisoned students. So Eritrea under the repressive PFDJ rule has become a vast prison house of democrats and other prisoners of conscience.

What is more, in its attempt to pave the way for what could be mock trials and the eventual murder of its home based political opponents; the PFDJ government has been busy conducting an ongoing malicious vilification campaign. Yet in spite of its vilification campaign, peaceful struggle inside and outside Eritrea against the tyrannical Eritrean regime is mounting. Indeed, all sections of Eritrean society have clearly spoken that they do not trust the PFDJ regime or approve any of its undemocratic acts against its political opponents and that they want political change in Eritrea.

To be concrete, the G-13 and G-15 have clearly spoken they do not trust the PFDJ regime and want change; the student population have clearly spoken they do not trust the PFDJ regime and want change; the parents of those who are supplying their beloved sons and daughters in defence of Eritrea, have clearly spoken they do not trust the PFDJ regime and want change; the church leaders, especially so, the leaders of Catholic Church have clearly spoken, they too do not trust the PFDJ regime and want change and reconciliation; the different Eritrean opposition groups have clearly spoken, they do not trust the PFDJ regime and want change. In short, the Eritrean people are demanding a fundamental political change in Eritrea today.  Yet, instead of addressing to the cries and demands of the Eritrean people for political change, the regime is intensifying its repression against any one demanding for political sanity.

The question to be posed here is thus: How does one explain why the regime of Issaias Afeworki has utter contempt to the Eritrean people and take measures which takes Eritrea and its people into the abyss and one which sets the regime in direct confrontation with the entire Eritrean people? To understand and explain the nature and deeds of Issaias Afeworki and the bestial harsh measures he has been taking against his comrades-in-arms and the population at large, it is very important to invoke a classical example from the pages of recent history, which demonstrates how and why a power hungry ruler implicates his political opponents, even his close comrades-in-arms, in order in so doing to justify his premeditated action and insure his monopoly on political power.

Our classical historical example is that of Stalinist Soviet Russia. As was the case, Lenin had a stroke in March 1923. As a result, he never recovered to play active part in Soviet politics until his death in January 1924. Upon the death of Lenin, Stalin became the Secretary-General of the Soviet communist party and a member of the seven-man politburo; that is, a member of those who formulate government policies in Soviet Russia. Once he entered the corridors of power; Stalin soon began to build an unchallenged power base for himself. As part of his plot, he immediately began to place yes-men in key-positions; while at the same time potential opponents to his totalitarian regime were sent to distant parts of the country.  In the process, Stalin became increasingly detached from reality, isolated, suspicious of every one around him and intolerant to all kinds of criticism. Inevitably, at the height of his paranoia, in order to crush all opposition to his rule, Stalin concocted all kinds of pretexts and committed    heinous crime against his close comrades-in-arms. Indeed, Stalin butchered most if not all the great thinkers who helped create in October 1917 the first great socialist country in the world under framed-up charges. What a bestial leader!!!

Just as Stalin, Issaias Afeworki is fabricating lies and accusing his long time comrades-in–arms of treason, collaboration with the enemies of the Eritrean people and of regionalism. To be sure, these are accusations that do not hold water in an open court of law. Yet, as paranoid ruler as he is, Issaias Afeworki is submitting these white lies against his former comrades-in-arms in Eritrea today, in the same way Stalin, the murderer, did in Soviet Russia in the 1930’s, in order to eliminate physically all the brave Eritrean nationalists who made massive contribution for the birth of independent Eritrea in May 1991. Stalin was one of the cruellest and most sadistic dictators in history. So is Issaias Afeworki in Eritrea today.

The Eritrean people must get rid of this man and his accomplices before they drag Eritrea and its people into the darkness of political anarchy, incalculable grief and oceans of blood. However, in saying this, it must be made also absolutely clear that a government of wolves, hyenas, and jackals as represented by EDA cannot be a substitute or fill the coming political vacuum in Eritrea. The simple, but revealing truth is that religious zealots, and ethnic and secessionist groups led by opportunist and power-hungry elements that receive handouts from the Woyane-led government of Ethiopia, i.e., groups that are incapable of formulating comprehensive and long-term political programs for Eritrea could not be the substitutes or the saviors of Eritrea and its people. On the contrary, the very existence of such groups and organizations is not only hindering the creation of an alternative patriotic and secular organization but also prolonging the life of the tyrannical Eritrean regime.

Thus needless to state it, while our country Eritrea is passing through its most sensitive history, and huge crimes are being committed against the cream of Eritrean society and the country dragged into the darkness of political anarchy, Eritrean democrats* will not and could not be disinterested spectators. We must take practical measures against the prevailing dangers of disintegration of our country and workout a clear and comprehensive short and long-term political program of action under the leadership of visionary and genuinely democratic and non-compromising secularist leaders. In the meantime, we must be able also to move the struggle to a new and higher level and wage tit-for-tat struggle: to use the words of the courageous and rather unusually honest veteran EPLF fighter, Adhanom Gebremariam,* we must conduct “an-eye-for-an-eye and a tooth-for-tooth” struggle in order to speed-up the salvation of Eritrea and its people.

Thus to sum-up, without minimizing the bites of the poisonous Eritrean SNAKES that have made Addis Ababa as their political nest and while keeping track of them, the target and focus of our struggle at this juncture, however, should be against the Eritrean DRAGON nested in Asmara. We must cut the head of this dragon and the poisonous serpents around him. If we do so, freedom will then come naturally. Put differently, what I am saying is this: the heroic Eritrean forces that will succeed in cutting the head of the Eritrean Dragon will also smash the heads of the poisonous Eritrean snakes housed in Addis Ababa. That day will then herald the rebirth of Eritrea. We do know that day will come soon; what we do not know is when and whether or not the triumphant leader of the Second Liberation of Eritrea will appear from within Eritrea, enter Asmara by plane, driving a jeep, riding a camel, or on a horseback. That he or she is already born and struggling actively in the midst of the Eritrean people openly or otherwise, and that the Eritrean people will welcome him with open arms in their millions, and that Eritrea will be free from the wings, shackles and claws of the Dragon is, however, definite.

I hope, I will be around that fateful day to witness and participate when the gates of hell (the dungeons of the PFDJ) will be smashed to secure the liberation of the thousands of prisoners of conscience and framed-up charges. 

Footnote

·        I have read Adhanom Gebremariam’s recent interview intensely and with great interest. I could thus say now that assuming Adhanom is capable of mending his political positions which portrays him in a negative light, that is, some of his political flirtations with the Woyane regime, I have no-doubt whatsoever that Adhanom could still emerge as the much sought after national leader in Eritrea. I have no-doubt also whatsoever all Eritrean democrats will readily rally behind him. The question is thus: is Adhanom capable of striking the iron while it is hot?

·        As to myself, I have warned as early as 1992 in my little book “An Account of My Journey to Independent Eritrea and The Question of Democracy”, that Issaias Afeworki is the Saddam Hussein of Eritrea and that “Eritrea is being prepared as a play ground for one man and his cohorts”. I also warned “the EPLF-led government of Eritrea, no matter what mantel the leadership wears, will be intolerant and exclusive”(p.115). I thus concluded my views by saying:” Let the EPLF-led government of Eritrea prove me wrong, by creating a politically independent Eritrea, whereby there will be true democracy, peace, freedom and security” and that “as far as I was concerned my second exile has began”(p.ibid). I have expressed the above views in 1992, that is, at a time when Issaias Afeworki was viewed as a demi-god.