Year: 2017
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Eritrean Graffiti – A Tale of Life Under Tyranny
This article by Ahmed Raji “Events Monitor’ was originally published on Awate.com on September 6, 2003.. I look in the mirror and see a bunch of gray hair emerging – uninvited. A few months later it takes the form of a full-scale invasion. I am rather taken aback, for, even though I knew it would…
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A Stalemate Breaks Down in The Arabian Gulf
Generally, when there is a national conflict, the people follow. Their salvation can only come from wise friends—but only if the antagonists are willing to listen, and only if their friends are not inflaming their passions. Sadly, the confrontation in the Arabian Gulf is happening in the worst time when a friend both sides would…
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A Thorny Path: the Life of Woldeab Woldemariam, Eritrea’s Campaigning Visionary
There were very few actively engaged citizens who withstood the test of time and lived through Eritrea’s past struggles. One of them was an elder by the name of Woldeab Woldemariam who passed away on 15 May, 1995. This is his story. In 1997, when Mrs Hillary Clinton began her nine-hour visit of Eritrea, the…
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Eritrea Might Sever Diplomatic Ties with Qatar
In a press release issued by the Ministry of information yesterday, the Eritrean government supported the cutting of diplomatic ties by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with the State of Qatar. In what seemed a concerted decision, last week the four countries severed their diplomatic ties with Qatar in unison. Their…
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Isaias’ Never Ending Border Drama
Since the decision on the delimitation of the Border was delivered by The Eritrean Ethiopian Border Commission on 13 April 2002, Isaias Afwerki has been using the non-demarcation of the border as a pretext to tighten his grip on power. His anxious the resolution of the border conflict would leave him no excuse to continue…
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Archives: Reasons To Doubt Reliability of ICG’s Report
Today’s archive material is a Gedab News report from November 8, 2007. Since then, at least once every year, an imminent military confrontation between Eritrea and Ethiopia was expected based of reports and rumors. And since the last war stopped [in 2000], the two countries are still going through a no-war-no-peace situation, while the Eritreans…
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We Must Be Able to Look Like The Tigre
“We must be able to look like the Tigre…” Solomon Berhe, chief of the PFDJ chapter in Dallas, Texas. Since May 24, 1991 when Eritrea became independent, the anniversary became more and more polarizing with each passing year. While the supporters of the Eritrean ruling party framed the day as an occasion for propagandic celebrations, and attributing…
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Ethnic Federalism in Eritrea Is a Recipe for Disaster
Ethnic Federalism in Eritrea is a recipe for disaster. It is a call for putting Tigrinya nationality under one banner, united and powerful. It is a step closer towards what the Agazian movement is calling for, eventually, the creation of Tigrinya/Tigrayans dominated state with its extended borders. It is asking for replacing the current Tigrinyan…
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Eritrea’s Flawed Beginning in 1991: How It Contributed to What it is Today
(This paper was presented a year ago at a conference in Geneva entitled: “Eritrea at Silver Jubilee: Stocktaking on the Nation-Building Experience of a ‘Newly’ Independent African Country.” The writer now wished to share it with interested readers for further debate as to why Eritrea is in bad shape today and what is should do…
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Woldeab Woldemariam, a Visionary Eritrean Patriot, Biography
Now I know why a monument has been erected for Alexander Pushkin, the renowned Russian poet, in the heart of Asmara, while the country’s first independence campaigner, one who co-fathered Eritrea alongside Ibrahim Sultan and other nationalists of the 1940s, is brushed aside. Although my primary objective is to evoke a picture of Eritrea via the…
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Eritrean Businesses: Between Loyalists and Others
In recent months, the Eritrean government has been carrying out a heightened surveillance on the Eritrean commercial sector, and reports of spies working for the security departments is focused on merchants and traders suspected of transacting in cash, in violation of the government directive that requires them to deal in checks and not in cash. Since…
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Sudanese Destinies of Haile Selassie–the Story of A. Tayfur and his book
Introduction by the translator:This article is a detailed story of a book which, in its time, influenced the Eritrean National Movement in a deep negative way and caused schisms which kept developing, morphing and clustering until today. It details the story and the circumstances that led to the appearance of the book and the reactions…
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UAE Air Force Kills an Eritrean Fisherman and Wounds Six
Fighter planes belonging to the United Arab Emirates air force based in Assab, Eritrea, has killed Idris Redyo, and wounded six other fishermen.Only a trainee child in the boat escaped the UAE air force bullets. The fishermen’s boat was attacked in an area about eight kilometers off the fishing port of Eddi, close to the…
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Dear YPFDJ: Understanding PFDJ: Doublethink
Chapter 1: Double Think I have seen your pictures and most of you appear to be the age of my daughter. Clearly, it is impossible for me to be angry at you. What I will try to do is share information with you–do what you will with it. The information will focus on the value…
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Eritrea Suffering from Persistent Water Shortage
Residents of Asmara and other towns are still lining up in the streets alongside their famous blue water barrels. Once every week or ten-days, they wait for the water tankers with coupons in hand to get their rations that is distributed by the ruling party. Each home is considered a residence of one household only and…
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Archive: Ending Dialogue By Proxy
Seventeen years after it was signed, the Algiers Eritrea-Ethiopia peace accord remained elusive. Fifteen years after the Eritrean Ethiopian Border Commission ruling, the border is not yet demarcated. Five years ago, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi died. The professor who was the president of the EEBC, Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, died three months ago. Two months…
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Sanctions on Eritrea: Will They Or Won’t They?
1. It’s sanctions season, and the question is “will they or won’t they?” Will the UN Security Council (UNSC) extend sanctions on the State of Eritrea or will they lift it? We will have more information in June when the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) publishes its report and we will know for…
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Seventeen Years in Prison without Charge
The person profiled* in this edition is Haj Mohammed Ali Mahmoud, a citizen from the town of Gelluy, commonly pronounced as Geluj, in the Gash Barka area. Haj Mohammed was arrested in the year 2000 in Asmara, and there is no trace of him since he disappeared seventeen years ago. However, his family and relatives…
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The Death of Mihret Eyob as an Illustration
The Eritrean tragedy is not obscure to anyone who follows current events; there is an international awareness about the thousands of prisoners of conscience in the country. And Eritreans know that the awareness about their plight is a result of a dedicated and resilient struggle by people of goodwill, and Eritrean activists who made sure…
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ERITAS: PFDJ Sues Veldhoven Mayor at the UN
The Eritrean government has announced that it has sent formal, ground-breaking legal memorandum to the Office of the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Shiela Keetartuh to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UN-HRC) at the next meeting. The 22-paged memorandum’s main objective is to take the decisions of the Mayor of Veldhoven, Holland and the…