Mary Dines, the Eritrean Maria Teresa, Has Passed Away

An extreme sadness overwhelmed me when a founding member, an old guard, of the Eritrean Relief Association in the United Kingdom (ERA-UK) told me of the death of Mary Dines.

It was hard to take it knowing Mary closely, working with her in one office for many years witnessing her courage and commitment for freedom, justice and human rights.

Upon hearing her death my mind went back to the day I first met her at her office, War on Want. The year was   1977 a moment in time when the three ERA-UK full time volunteer workers Berhane Gebrehiwot, who later became the head; Girmai Mebrahtu and I were in the process of introducing ERA to many charity organizations in the United Kingdom. But it is at War on Want that ERA-UK found its niche.  Mary Dines, the then executive director, did not take time to understand the pains and suffering of the people of Eritrea in the hands of the Ethiopian army who were carrying out indiscriminate bombing of villages destroying properties, killings people and animals and also imprisoning and torturing the youth suspected of supporting the armed resistance. Mary gave ERA-UK an office premises with all the facilities including help in writing various projects for funding. It is from War-on-Want that ERA-UK managed to link up with all those charity organisations such as Oxfam, Christian Aid, and Cafod that funded many development projects in the areas controlled by the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF). 

After her return from her visit to the EPLF base area she left   War on Want and with the help of David Astor ex-owner of Sunday Times formed an organisation called “Rights and Justice (R&J)”. ERA moved out of War on Want and joined Mary’s new office. It means all office expenses such as rent and utilities were covered by R &J.  That move had enabled Mary to work for Eritrea full time.  At first we could not fully understand why a person sacrifices all her/his time to support a struggle in developing countries away from their home. For example, it would have been unthinkable to see Richard the son of a rich man David Astor to go to the liberated areas to give some of his time to lend a hand in the field. Like anybody else he lived rough in the field and he used to carry water on his shoulder from a long distance to where the food is prepared.  Such people have internalized the value of freedom and social justice and human rights and so they have a lot of sympathy for people struggling for the same objective.  It is by sharing the values of justice and freedom that the Eritreans in Diaspora managed to get material, diplomatic and political support to ERA and EPLF. Today PFDJ has lost all such friends simply because it can not relate to any body which upholds democratic values except with repressive regimes such as Colonel Gaddafi or with some Middle East leaders who wanted to use Eritrea for their own ulterior motives. But PFDJ never admits this facts instead day in day out it demonizes USA and the West in order to confuse the people of Eritrea.  They have succeeded in that when limited sanctioned is made many supporters in the Diaspora never ask why sanctioned is imposed. They repeat what PFDJ said that USA is against Eritrea. The Diaspora supporters go to the extend of petitioning to lift the sanction and keeps a blind eye to the forced labour that gave rise to the influx of huge number of refugees from Eritrea. At least the Diaspora supporters could have asked the PFDJ to stop the forced labour and bring  all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to  court.

When ERA became financially strong and became the favourite of many charity organisations Mary extended her work to help asylum seekers from various countries. She helped the   Kurds, Tamils, Afghanis, Ethiopians (Tigreans, Oromos, etc.) as well as Eritreans to get asylum in the UK.  She had an incredible energy that miraculously enabled her to serve all these groups. She together with Doctor Solomon Inquai of Relief Society of Tigray (REST), the late Abdulmegid Hussien of the then Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP) and Mohamed Hassan of Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) were producing a newsletter on the background history of Ethiopia and its various struggles. Thus they have managed to create awareness on the British public.

Mary’s Obituary:

On the day of the funeral which took place at St. Marylebone Crematorium in East Finchley on 29th June 2011 at 3 PM a friend of her the main and eloquent speaker and coordinator of the event said “Justice was the cause of Mary’s life.” She summed up her work. Mary was a pioneer in her work she was a veteran staff of   “Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants” an NGO that did a lot to help immigrants and refugees for decades. From the details the speaker gave, Mary was indeed a humanitarian champion.

After that Ms. Seble Ephrem secretary of today’s ERA-UK gave a talk in recognition of Mary’s work for the people of Eritrea. It was a good talk. The Ambassador Tesfamichael Gerahtu and colleagues were there. Today ERA-UK seems to exist in name only. Many Eritrean Refugees in the UK have mental health problems, they need support in job training, employment and access to benefits but ERA-UK is not there for them. The simple reason is that it is not independent of PFDJ and it keeps a blind eye to the gross human rights violation perpetrated by PFDJ. However I am happy to see that Mary’s coffin was clad with the Eritrean flag. And it is good of them to come to pay their tribute and respect.

Mary symbolizes all the sympathy and support the people of Eritrea has received from international community. Mary Dines is bigger than life; she is the Maria Teresa of the people of Eritrea.   

When the music “We shall over come one day.” was played I felt a profound inspiration that one day the people of Eritrea will also overcome the oppression perpetuated by PFDJ.  There will come a day when the rule of law, respect of human rights will prevails in Eritrea. It is only then that the Eritrean Youth, the future of Eritrea, would be able to transform their broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility and exploit their potential for work, education, prosperity and happiness. But to expedite change for democracy the youth should not internalize the system that is oppressing them and do nothing they have to wake up to the challenge and get active. It is they that eventually pay a pivotal role in defining the destiny of Eritrea.

Mary Dines and War on Want support for Eritrea goes deeper than charity work:
 
 War On Want not only was concerned about funding projects to alleviate poverty but also go deep into the underlying cause of poverty, colonialism and the need to decolonize.

Mary Dines had close working relationship with many politicians particularly with   labour Party. She introduced ERA with the member of the Liberal Party Lord Eric Aubury who became honorary chairman of ERA. He was the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on human rights.

It has to be remembered that in 1981 the Executive Committee of the Labour party has passed a resolution in support of the right of the Eritrean People to self determination and the EPLF. A discussion paper was prepared by the famous Africanist and author Basil Davidson.   A door was opened to get political and diplomatic support from social democratic parties in the West, Europe, Canada, Australia and other places where democratic rule reigns.

It is because many academicians, historians, journalist, humanitarians and human rights activists had publicised the just cause of Eritrea and the nature of the struggle being popular that a substantial aid had been pouring to ERA-UK and EPLF. When John Snow the eloquent newscaster covered the revolutionary school in ITN he was approached by the tycoon Paul Getty to connect him with ERA-UK. Paul Getty funded many projects essential for the children. John snow had a soft heart for Eritrea. There were many visitors to the liberated areas who wrote many books. Baroness Glenyes Kinnock wrote pictorial book “War and Peace”. Ex-Labour Party & shadow minister Dr. Stuart Holland and James Firebrace wrote, “Eritrea: Never Knell Down”. David Pool, “Eritrea the Longest War in Africa”.   Mary Dines, with ERA organized the first International Symposium in London in January 1979. A book edited by Basil Davidson, Lionel Cliffe and Bereket Habte Sellassie was published.

And this was taking place while the EPLF ideology of self-reliant was working well with success.

Self-reliance misrepresented:

Self-reliant is not to shut one country from the outside world particularly the rich countries. Self-reliant is to exploit national resources particularly human resources and use aid and direct foreign investment to fill important gaps in the economy.

Take a good example of the pharmaceutical factory in the base area of EPLF. The EPLF was producing over 300 kinds of tablets in the field. There was no shortage of medicines in the field. The EPLF has the biggest underground hospital. The bare-foot doctors were known of visiting civilians in their villages, and used to go after the nomads and give medical help.  There were many factories and workshops, garages etc. Many Eritrean experts joined the field and were running them and training was inbuilt. Thus EPLF had become a mini-state. However all the raw materials were being brought from the outside entirely by aid. Today Self-Reliant is misrepresented by PFDJ. Through TV-saying they are self-reliant and need no outside help. This is a political game a justification to kick out aid agencies from Eritrea so there will be no foreigners to give eyewitness account of the gross human rights violations taking place in Eritrea. Forced labour that denies the youth to exploit their potential for paid work, higher studies, creativity and happiness has become self-reliance. This is a gross misrepresentation of self-reliance.

First of all Eritrea is not self-sufficient in food; it is a poor country and can not do without aid and loans. Actually PFDJ gets substantial aid and loans and it is only for the consumption of TV-ERE to hoodwink the Eritrean public that it sings about self reliance.  Aid has been a collective demand of all developing countries since the 60s. It   gave rise to the OECD – countries to dedicate 1% of their GDP to give to the developing countries which is still the case although the rich countries have to fully meet as yet.

It is not only PFDJ that misuse the concept of Self-reliant but also Yosief Gebrehiwet – who wholesale condemn self-reliant believing that PFDJ do adhere to what it  is saying about developing the economy without any help from the outside.  Self-reliance has its merits and must not be condemned wholesale.

In the Ceremony the presence of many Eritreans was conspicuous:

What satisfied me is that there were many Eritreans. Some of the founding members – the authentic member of ERA-UK- who are the vehicle in the   work of channelling million of pounds worth of aid to Eritrea during the struggling days were also present to pay tribute to Mary and to give condolence to the family her son Oliver Dines and also her daughter Judith who was close with us. Oliver gave an account of Mary family life, her care and her passion.

 When I meet Judith at the entrance of the Hall, we buried in each others arms and I could not talk as my eyes were full of tears.  Judith said “It must be hard for you Petros”. She said Mary’s illness was short; she did not suffer for a long time. She briefed me about her condition before she died. For me Mary Dines is a precious mother and the mother of many other peoples who knows her.

The Legacy of Mary Dines

Mary has left us a legacy to care for the victims of human rights violation and for the poor. It is this legacy that inspired me to be a member of a new humanitarian organisation named Eritrean Refugees Support Association in the United Kingdom (ERSA-UK).

There is little knowledge and understanding in the UK about the Eritrean Refugees and asylum seekers traumatic experiences on their journey as well as the social and economic disadvantages they face in the country they settle down.
Many have difficult to access training in basic skills leading to a higher education. Many men and women have mental health problems. Their educational achievement is low. There is lack of English knowledge. ERSA-UK will carry or commission further studies to identify and highlight their basic needs and address some of the problems.

ERSA-UK will also try to raise money and materials to help the refugees in the refugees’ camps in Ethiopia and the Sudan.

Photo: Khartoum 1984: Class being held at paraplegic centre for Eritrean war wounded, run by ERA. War on Want has campaigned for its maintenance as well.