Unfiltered Notes: Eritrea at a Crossroads – The people and a disgraced regime

T. Stephanos
testifanos@gmail.com

If Eritrea is to have a better future, the regime that has been actively dimming that future has to go. I love Aklilu Zere’s writings but this article (http://www.ehrea.org/birth.php) from 2003 in particular, still rings in my head. It paints a clear picture of how Isaias and his murderous ways have been continuously destroying lives for almost 40 years. As Aklilu aptly puts it "Why would a mad man change his behavior if every time he takes an action nothing happens to him?" Isaias is in New York now for UN’s 66th session facing demonstrators, both for and against – and the against is particularly significant. Organized by Eritrean Youth for Change and other brave Eritreans, this is probably the first time on American soil he will be hearing a different music directly. We are at a crossroads.

Since the regime has confiscated all of Eritrea’s resources, it has the means to make louder noises compared to the opposition – good material for its propaganda machine. But the voices of reason are also getting steadier and louder giving one hope that Eritrea could be next in line to topple another brutal dictator as the brave people of the Arab world have been doing. Could this be our own Rosa Parks moment, finally tipping the balance in favor of people power?

Following are two true stories to illustrate the two competing value systems in play – one based on mutual respect, listening and problem solving and the other on embezzlements, lawlessness and destruction. The first story, from a recent family gathering, is as inspiring as the second is depressing. Hopefully, the first one will prevail.

Bashay Zerai was a prominent member of his village’s baito (court). Through dialog, he and his friends regularly settled village matters under the proverbial daEro tree. One day Bashai Zerai hired an orphan boy to tend to his cattle. The boy, mesmerized by the baito discussions failed to attend to his duties and the cattle he was supposed to shepherd grazed someone’s wheat field. Understandably, there was one unhappy villager who reported the incident to Bashai Zeral. In a temporary loss of temper, Bashai Zerai hit the boy as elders often did to reprimand the young. Bashai Zerai’s good friend was not pleased when he heard this.

After deliberations of the next day’s cases were completed and people were getting ready to go home, Bashai Zerai’s friend made an announcement that they are not done for the day yet. Surprised, everyone settled down. He said "Bashai Zerai, everyone knows you are my good friend. And as your good friend it is my duty to point out something that is troubling me. You hit a boy who has no mother or father yesterday. That is not good. I know you very well and I am sure how you reacted does not please you either. As your good friend I just want to let you know that".

To which Bashai Zerai replied "HaqKa, Hmaq meAlti wEile", meaning you are right, it was unbecoming of me to behave so. The next day, Bashai Zerai went to Asmara to buy new cloths for the boy as an expression of genuine apology.

The story has many layers of beauty. It is indicative of the intrinsic kindness people have towards each other, their readiness to feel the pain of others and do something about it. The story also shows the true meaning of friendship – one pointing errors when they occur as a good friend should and the other heartily accepting responsibility because real friendship is just so. And finally closing the matter, with a specific action that leaves no doubt that words and deeds are in complete harmony.

Contrasting this value system, we now have Eritreans flying from all over to welcome a murderer (re-read Aklilu’s above mentioned article if still in doubt), which leads to the second story.

My wife and I were at a friend’s house where friends of friends were also present. As is often the case, Eritrean affairs started dominating the conversation. I thought I had heard all the vulgarity spewed by the regime’s supporters until someone (not my friend) said the reason why DuruE and his colleagues are imprisoned is because Isaias cares about them so much, he had to put them away to protect them from an angry public that would kill them for the treason they committed against the nation. Wow!

I guess it matters little to this crowd that many of the disappeared have died in prison already. Family members were not allowed to visit them when they were alive nor claim their bodies for proper burial. Having been stripped of all human dignity in life and in death, where do they see the caring?

Isaias has made sure democracy is dead in Eritrea as long as he remains in power and routinely ridicules democracies that are not perfect ("there is no democracy anywhere"). The one who has nothing to offer is laughably declaring those who cannot deliver 100% as failures. How would you feel if your friend or your child told you "I failed ALL my exams but no worries. Not all of my classmates got all A’s either?" Strangely, his worshipers somehow swallow this whole failing to see the irony even as they are actively squandering their own democratic rights to glorify tyranny -- essentially cursing their own free lives in the West and condemning their own people in Eritrea to continued indignities of oppression and poverty.

Some 2400 years ago, Pericles, paying homage to Athenian culture of his time, said the real disgrace of poverty is not in owning to the fact but in declining to struggle against it. Only in Eritrea’s case, the disgrace is deepened by a regime that has actively promotes poverty through slave labor under the guise of "national service" and by killing all forms of personal freedom.

So, are we -- as a society -- going to choose the values Bashai Zerai and his friends lived by or that of a regime that has outdone its predecessors in the distribution of misery? Click here to read an excellent article by "Bana from Asmara" with poignant points on what those who still support the regime can do to redeem their humanity. There is still hope for many. For some, there is really nothing that can be said or done. They will die with the disgraced regime – not unlike those who blindly followed Hitler, Idi Amin, Gaddafi, and countless dictators that history is, unfortunately, full of.

Unfiltered Notes: Blood Gold -- Western mining companies enabling tyranny in Eritrea

T. Stephanos
testifanos@gmail.com

With dreams for a better future all but shattered, Eritreans have been fleeing their country in droves giving Eritrea the unenviable distinction of becoming one of the world’s biggest prisons and exporters of refugees (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/17/eritrea-human-rights). The regime’s terrorism against its own people spares no one. Peacefully demonstrating disabled veterans were brutally mowed down in the early 1990s. The cold and calculated message conveyed by Eritrea’s dictator, Isaias Afworki, at the time was if he can be that barbaric to disabled veterans who made Eritrea’s independence possible, then anyone who dares to ask for freedom and justice will fare no better.

Thousands of courageous Eritreans who dared have disappeared since. And those under 50 are condemned to a life of slave labor under an endless national service program -- supposedly designed to safeguard Eritrea’s security. To get it out of the way so they can get on with the rest of their lives, young people willingly signed up for the program when it was first announced with an 18-month limit in 1994. Sixteen years later, denied of all forms of personal freedom to lead normal lives, they find themselves trapped and betrayed.

Not surprisingly, those who can are leaving to "anywhere but here" facing harsh deserts and high seas in the process. And that is after surviving the regime’s shoot-to-kill policy. 335 Eritreans who braved the Sahara desert drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while attempting to cross to Italy on March 22, 2011 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/lampedusa-african-migrants-feared-dead). Hundreds more perished in Egypt’s Sinai desert trying to reach Israel. Incapable of feeling the pain of his own people, Isaias and his blind followers routinely mock these victims as people going on a picnic.


Western Companies - Lifeline to Tyranny
Western mining companies, mainly Canadian (Nevsun) and Australian (Chalice Gold), now prop up Eritrea’s tyranny further extending the misfortune of the people. Given the current situation in the Arab world, a Western firm would be widely ridiculed if it openly praised Gaddafi or Assad. Sadly, praising Eritrea’s dictatorship brings no such shame.

Mr. Clifton Davis, The CEO of Canada’s Nevsun Resources Ltd (NSU-TSX), says "there is no government corruption in Eritrea (http://www.capitaleritrea.com/business/nevsuns-ceo-makes-the-cover-of-resource-world/). This is morally and factually wrong. To give Mr. Davis the benefit of the doubt, maybe he does not realize Isaias already owns all the resources of the country and doesn’t have to ask him for bribes directly. But contrary to Mr. Davis’s assertion, government corruption is so pervasive the regime has ruled the country opaquely without a budget for the last 20 years. Courageous Eritreans who demanded accountability and transparency about their country’s affairs and its finances have all disappeared -- many presumed dead after years of no news of their whereabouts (http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/eritrea-prisoners-conscience-held-decade-must-be-released-2011-09-19). Corruption at the top is flagrant running the gamut of embezzlements, contraband trade, human trafficking and rampant sexual abuses of young women.

It can be said with almost 100% certainty that Nevsun is using slave labor in Eritrea today. And how does this happen? The regime, through the many companies it owns, assigns itself to be a subcontractor for foreign firms like Nevsun and collects full worker salaries that appear reasonable by ILO standards from them. It then pays the poor Eritreans it has subjugated to slavery under the guise of national service, 400 Nacfa per month -- the equivalent of less than $10 USD at current real market rates.

What can $10 per month buy you? A young family of four, if it has the luxury of three meals a day, and bread is all the family had every single day, the 400 Nacfa will not even last 10 days. That is with nothing left for vegetables, eggs, milk, shelter or other basic necessities. And how do people survive in this severely mismanaged country? The lucky ones have relatives outside who can support them. Those who don’t, suffer all the indignities of poverty including begging.

As hopeful as Eritrea’s gold rush may sound at first glance, very little if any, is expected to trickle down to the people. As it has been doing with Eritrea’s meager resources during the last 20 years, the regime will squander the gold revenues too – to fund internal and external terrorism. Luckily, some now understand the true nature of the regime and the UN has sanctioned it as a sponsor of (external) terrorism. To Eritreans under its direct control, however -- especially those under 50 – infliction of fear and terror have always been its ever present trademarks.


What Eritreans hope Canada and Australia would do

Although Eritreans bear the primary responsibility of deposing the oppressive regime, they also need moral and material support from the world at large. The UN is doing its part to tame the rogue regime partially. Similarly, the Canadian and Australian governments can play a decisive role to support the Eritrean people in their struggle for freedom and justice. A couple of months ago, England was able to free four of its citizens the Eritrean regime imprisoned for six months. The UK’s threat to declare the 2% embezzlement tax the regime imposes on Eritreans abroad illegal was all it took for the regime’s bombastic posturing to fizzle out. If Canada and Australia use the same threat and make it stick, Eritreans victimized by this criminal regime will be forever grateful. The press of the free world can also help by keeping officers of Western companies and their PR departments to be truthful by challenging them when they make outrageous statements that are offensive to the people victimized by unelected regimes they happen to be partnering with. Dictators are horrible creatures. Glorifying them with positive attributes they don’t possess, as Mr. Davis did, only adds insult to injury.

Eritreans do understand Nevsun and the other mining companies are in the business of making money and should be rewarded for the risks they take in their endeavors. The shady character it is partnering with in Eritrea increases the risk even more. In fact, Nevsun itself was a victim of the regime’s erratic leader when it was kicked out from Eritrea in 2004(http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2007/10/Pages/Nevsun-Flies-on-Bisha-Go-Ahead.aspx) that shareholders need to be keenly aware of. Second, it is possible but unlikely Nevsun can accelerate recovery of all expected profits before the regime falls to minimize the risk. If not, it would not be unreasonable to imagine a future Eritrea that feels no obligation to fully honor contracts that enabled this regime to inflict so much misery. That day of reckoning could arrive suddenly as it did in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Syria and Yemen should be next and Eritrea, hopefully, not far behind.

To accelerate the arrival of that day, the Eritrean opposition and civic organizations must create much stronger alliances than before. Some have started puncturing the regime’s bombastic propaganda machine as some brave activists did in London recently during a meeting organized by the regime’s ambassador there. Isaias is now in New York for UN’s 66th session and to rally his worshipers who have, so far, failed to feel the pain and the crushing poverty their own people are subjected to. It is time Isaias and his puppets faced the same music their cowardly peers in the Arab World got loud and clear -- thanks to the inspiring iron will of the Arab people. And little by little, this regime will be no more brightening Eritrea’s future