Eritrea And Its Unusual Embassies: Part 4

Washington DC: In With A Whimper, Out With A Whimper

In mid-March 2011, Ghirmai “Santim” Ghebremariam, who became Eritrea’s ambassador to the United States on September 12, 2006, was given ten days to pack up and leave the country.  Ghirmai “Santim” excels in the ruling party’s definition of “ambassador”, which is to say he made for a terrible diplomat.    In 5 years, he made absolutely no headway in improving relations between the US administration and its institutions and the regime he serves; but he dutifully reported the activities of Eritrean-Americans to his bosses in much the same way he reported on the activities of expatriate Eritreans when he was stationed in the UK.  At the moment, Eritrea has no relationship with the US at the embassy level: the respective embassies in each country are represented by their charge d’affaires.

The Eritrean embassy in Washington DC is being headed by Berhane Gebrihiwet Solomon, an old hand in the security apparatus of the PFDJ.  He worked at the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS, the precursor to the Y-PFDJ) when it was chaired by Mohyeddin Shengeb,  who has left the PFDJ for greener pastures.  NUEYS was a breeding ground for the next generation of party loyalists and enforcers and Berhane is expected to rise no higher than the traditional party apparatchik role he is comfortable in: polarizing Eritrean communities further, but making zero progress in representing the interests of Eritrea to the host country.

Tripoli: Feared Missing

Abdulrazak Mohammed Mussa, the first secretary of the Eritrean embassy in Libya, abandoned the PFDJ regime last year. Since then, he had been continously harrased by the PFDJ and he had been living a fearful life, especially when the PFDJ sent two hit men to kidnap him or finish him off, if Libya will refused to deport him to Eritrea.  But since the rebellion in Libya started, there is no information on his whereabouts and he is feared missing.

Related News:

Eritrea And Its Unusual Embassies: Part 1
Eritrea And Its Unusual Embassies: Part 2
Eritrea And Its Unusual Embassies: Part 3