Year: 2012
-
Special Rapporteur On Eritrea: The Cause and The Likely Outcome
Repeating the same indifference it showed to the UN arms monitoring group resulting in two Security Council sanctions, the Eritrean regime has ignored repeated entreaties by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which has resulted in the UN naming a Special Rapporteur on Eritrea. The decision was taken on July 5th by the 47th-member UNHRC.…
-
The Bshftu Fountain Of Youth
Originally Debre Zeit was called Bshftu after the name of a lake in the town. The last time I was there, I was having lunch at the balcony of the Ras Hotel when I saw an indigenous religious rituals on the other side of Lake Bshftu, and accidentally I got involved in a chat with…
-
Eritrean Think Tank – And The Need For Purification Of The Intellect
We are in big trouble! At first shot, this may look like stating the obvious. But, I am referring to something probably much more serious than you think. It hits directly at the centre. It raises questions about the very existence of Eritrea as a nation and the survival of its people. I believe that we…
-
A Hen Goes To The Dentist: Eritrea’s Ambassador Visits The Knesset
Eritrea’s ambassador to Israel, Tesfamariam Tekeste Debbas, was invited by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to testify about the presence of tens of thousands of Eritreans in Israel. The Eritreans, mostly youth, have escaped the dictatorship that the regime the ambassador serves has created in Eritrea: indefinite conscription, labor camps, and massive violations of human rights.…
-
awate.com v. PFDJ
1. On January 4, 2008, Sophia Tesfamariam, an Eritrean-American who has written many hit pieces against anyone whom she, or the tyrannical Eritrean regime she supports, identify as “enemy of Eritrea”, wrote an article that we consider excessive even by her standards. 2. The article, which was published in americanchroncile.com (in addition to the usual…
-
Eritrea: Where The Victims Are Villains
I am livid – absolutely livid, in fact!! The reason for my anger has to do mainly with the last three comments made by S. Temelso, Y. Kahsai and A. Hidrat in response to my article of June 30, 2012 (www.awate.com) in which the Eritrean people are labeled as cowards, self centered opportunists and runaways…
-
Youth Rebellion: Limitations, Challenges, Opportunities And Expectations
Uprising & opportunities The last two years has seen an increased awareness, readiness and action oriented tasks involving a growing number of Eritrean youth in the Diaspora. Increased use of social media such as facebook and paltalk, inspiration from the Arab spring and the tragic fate of many asylum seekers in Sinai has given this…
-
The Eritrean Holocaust: Sweet Revenge of the Old Fox
Long ago in our youth, when we were intoxicated with Marxist thinking, we were made to believe that the masses were the true drivers of history and not individual leaders. The latter were seen not as ordinary mortals but as the hand, the very embodiment of history, of society, of nature, of God himself. Therefore,…
-
The Eritrean Holocaust — And How To Stop It
Preface This is a serious attempt to first describe and explain the present situation in Eritrea and the nature of its political leadership. It then tries to suggest some simple but effective solutions which may have far reaching consequences for the future of the country and the region within a short time, not years. In…
-
Eritrea: A Dissection Of The Opposition
The current Eritrean opposition organisations are offshoots of the mainstream politics of either the ELF or the EPLF; both organisations had a distinct political experience, stemming from different social and cultural background that contributed in creating separate trends that greatly impacted the course of the Eritrean history and general developments of the past and present…
-
US: Eritrea Among World’s Worst In Human Trafficking
This month, the US State Department issued its annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” and Eritrea is classified as Tier-3 (the worst of the worst). Tier-3 countries are, according to the State Department, countries “whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s [Trafficking Victims Protection Act] minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to…
-
Eritrean Coalition: Proposal For Creating A New Reality
Introduction: The following proposal has been prepared after countless consultations with many Eritrean activists who were also thinking of similar initiatives. The proposal was prepared with national concerns and legitimate issues that fall within the sphere of civil action; and it has avoided issues that are supposed to be the concern of political parties and…
-
Ethiopia: Be Wary Of Senior-Junior Partnerships
Ethiopia has hosted the Eritrean opposition political parties since 1999 when the Alliance of Eritrean National Forces (AENF) the precursor to the present Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) was formed. Then, as now, the EDA was made up of exiled Eritrean organizations who were based in Sudan, Europe and Ethiopia and many had, for many reasons,…
-
Eritrea-Ethiopia Cold War Heats Up, But War Drums Silent
In contrast to their 1998-2000 “border war,” where intermittent but deadly clashes were preceded by long taunts, the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments seem to have adopted, for different reasons, a policy of resuming their military clashes silently, while re-aligning each other’s exiled opposition. In the last week of April the Eritrean regime conducted a massive…
-
The Case Of Stateless Arabs With Eritrean Passports
Ten years ago, in early 2001, the Eritrean Embassy in Kuwait advertised the availability of Eritrean passports. The targeted group for the sales of passports were a sector of Kuwait residents known as Bedoun (Arabic for “without”) who do not have papers to prove their country of origin or citizenship. Now, ten years later, many…
-
Eritrea: US State Department Country Report On Human Rights
The US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has issued yet another devastating report on the Isaias Afwerki administration. Below is the executive summary as well as a link to the entire report at the State Department website. Executive Summary The Government of Eritrea is an authoritarian regime under the control…
-
An Eulogy Of Naizghi Kflu: A Translation
This morning I read an eulogy of Naizghi Kflu’s published at Meskerem.net in Tigrinya and it moved me so much and overwhelmed me with sorrow and indignation. I applaud the people who prepared the eulogy; they succeeded in capturing the true sentiments of the overwhelming majority of us. There are certain things that transcend politics…
-
A Glimmer of Hope: Review Of EYSC’s Conference
In an upscale roar, our youth (EYC-EYSC) made a three-days event that went to history books. The demonstration that called for the end of dictatorship in front the Eritrean embassy, and the two-day messages, debates and the passing of action oriented visions were the signatures of the events. The enthusiasm and the burning spirit can…
-
A Wretched Eritrean In Qatar: Reportage
This is a rather long reportage on my recent trip to Qatar and I will tell you my impressions of the state, and particularly its politics and diplomacy; my impressions of what it takes to have an impact with Al Jazeera; the situation of Eritreans who live there; and maybe tell you about whatever happened…
-
The Referendum: A Matter Of Perspective
I was reading the excellent article by Mr. Mesfin Araya on the trajectory of the Eritrean nationalism when of all the points he raised, a point that had always struck me as odd, the one about the referendum, was the one the least talked about and least analyzed by any of the Eritrean intellectuals or…