Who is the enemy?

Brace yourselves as you read this article, I am going to throw several old shoes at President Issaias and his stooges, as was done to Bush last year, one shoe at time. There is an old prayer that goes something like: “Oh God I ask you to protect me from those who pretend they are my friends but who constantly think evil of me, as for my real enemies don’t bother, I will take care of them myself”. A real friend thinks the best for your interest. A real friend shows compassion when you are hurting and wants to help you get out of trouble. A real friend is a friend in need and a friend indeed. An enemy however, is one who thinks the worst and one who likes to break your spirit, who wants to enslave you, disrespects you and constantly trashes you. If you let him he will use, abuse and discard you.

Let me throw my left “shoe” at President Issaias. This shoe is for those who suffered and are suffering due to his dirty politics. Issaias is like a “son” who becomes a drug addict, and in doing so, he thinks he is getting even with his abusive “father”. However, the real looser is the “son” himself. One of the major focuses of the Issaias regime has been to ensure the Eritrean people are constantly thinking of the “enemy” and always looking out for the “enemy” as if the “enemy” is making a trip to Eritrea now. The regime acts like, if you make the people nervous enough about the outside “enemies” unity is assured, self-sacrifice will be available and even if people see that their government is abusing them, PFDJ things that the people will accept the abuse rather than be raided by the “enemies”. That is why Eritrea has the second largest army in the world based on a per-capita of its population; second only to N. Korea. He acts just like Kim Jong Il of N. Korea. Or like M. Khadafy of Libya, before he got whacked by President R. Reagan. Many times the Issaias regime has told us we cannot discuss democracy in Eritrea while we have a common enemy. We cannot talk about constitution while the “Badime” issue is unresolved. It is a confusing antithesis, to be told Eritreans do not deserve respect and democracy unless and until we resolve our external problems. The Issaias regime has chosen to be at odds with UN, AU and USA because of the Badime issue. Issaias has befriended with other dictators not because he agrees ideologically, or to gain some benefits, but for the sake of throwing tantrums at the West. All these decisions have created so much poor results, and have gone against the interests of Eritreans that the “enemies” are laughing at the regime. Ethiopia now thinks that the way Eritrea is going it will self-destruct and therefore, they don’t even need to raise a finger. Eritrean government has become the enemy of its own people. If self-destruction is assured then why should Ethiopia waste its human and financial resources? They would rather look good diplomatically when they talk “peace”.

Why do I say GOE has become the enemy of its own people? We only need to look at the results of the PFDJ decisions over the last 18 years. You will notice, When the Issaias regime makes bad decisions that results against the interests of the people, they don’t seem to care and they never correct their mistakes. Let me throw my second shoe …

The second shoe is dedicated for GOE’s misuse of Eritrean resources. When the PFDJ closed (killed) the two ports of Asab and Massawa, who lost the most? Did this turn into the best interest of Eritreans? With peace, these two ports could have become the free ports of the Middle East and East Africa and could have brought revenues that could have covered the country’s budget. I believe the GOE had the ability to negotiate and broker peace for the best interest of Eritreans, but they could not do it, they failed in charisma and in diplomacy 101. This is one of the failed policies or decisions of the Isaias regime.

This third shoe is for those Eritrean entrepreneurs who were denied to trade in their own countries by overwhelming restrictions put on them by the government of Eritrea (GOE). When the GOE mistrusted Eritrean merchants and decided to limit most of the private enterprises and run businesses on its own, the Eritrean people interests were compromised. The merchants who gave up on their own government, moved to other African countries and the Middle East while most Eritreans remained unemployed. I believe businesses in the hands of the people would produce better results than the government running them. (As a side note: some of the highest employers in Ethiopia are “Diaspora businesses”). These are people who reside outside Ethiopia and who are invited to do businesses in Ethiopia. Diaspora Ethiopians are invited, assisted and encouraged to invest their money in Ethiopia. And they invest by the millions. And the results are positively mind boggling.

This fourth shoe is to remember those who are languishing in prison and those who died in jail due to the inhumane treatment by the GOE. What shall we say about the mean spirited and cruel punishment the GOE inflicts on its citizens? Let me dwell on this a bit! I am not saying we should not have a prison system in Eritrea, but what I am advocating however, is that every prisoner should have “a day at court”. But PFDJ’s prison system is there to inflict pain, to starve, to neglect medical attention to those who are sick and it is so inhumane the results speak for themselves. Prisoners are dying as a result of poor human conditions, torture and starvation. According to the constitution that was ratified by the people in 1997 people are supposed to be governed by a rule of law. Those people who are in prison deserve a review of their cases, a fair trial and application of the rule of law. In Eritrea we are dealing with a shameless government who does not think twice to disrupt a wedding and take the guests, the bride and the bridegroom to jail. Their sins: the guests were singing and the priest (pastor) was preaching. (There is one day in our lives that we call “the happiest day” and that is our wedding day). Eritrean authorities get sadistic pleasure when disrupting such happy events; they don’t even think for a better timing.

As an illustration, let me bring these issues to a family level. Read the following journalistic story and answer the questions at the bottom of the report.

April 2009, AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian man confessed to stabbing to death his pregnant sister and mutilating her body to protect the family honor, said Jordanian authorities on Sunday.

The 28-year-old married woman was five months pregnant and stabbed repeatedly in the face, neck, abdomen and back as well as being hacked up with a meat cleaver, according to government pathologist Awad al-Tarawneh.

Police familiar with the case said the woman had moved back in with her family after an argument with her husband six months earlier. The brother believed that she had then started seeing other men.

The incident, the ninth such case this year and the second this month, took place in the village of Basira, in the conservative Bedouin heartland of southern Jordan.

Some members of government have also urged judges to consider honor killings equal to other homicides and punishable by up to 15 years in prison. But many in the judiciary still hand down lenient punishments of half of that or less.

If a brother murders his sister as an “honor” killing, is he acting in the best interest of the family and would the best interest of the family be served? Who is the enemy here, the brother who killed his sister with good intentions or the sister who fell in love with another man or men? What has the family benefited by killing the sister and the unborn child? This metaphor can directly be used for Isaias and his followers. If you think your are serving the country by murdering your own citizens you are totally wrong. Instead you are killing yourself every day. If your citizens are not respected by you, then the world will trash you. It is a universal law. Respect and honor begets respect and honor, otherwise you deserve what you give.

If this so called “brother” who killed his sister and the unborn baby thinks he has done good to his family and his society, then he is a psychopath,( according to the dictionary a psychopath is a person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse). Other examples of psychopath would be those who work for GOE and can go to Eritrean prisons and torture, and then they can go home and sleep. Another example, would be those who inflict pain and torture by different forms of cruel, inhumane mechanisms. Tying individuals in “Helicopter form”, keeping prisoners in “containers”, or exposing people to extreme heat, or denying food and water and starving the body, all are acts of psychopaths’. They seem to get sadistic pleasure from seeing their own citizens suffer. These cruel animals are like the Rwandan Hutus, in the name of Hutu Power, who killed thousands of their own Rwandan Tutsi’s in 1994. Judge it for yourselves, who is the enemy the psychopaths or the prisoners?

As I write this article former U.S. President Clinton just visited North Korea as a private citizen. His mission was to negotiate the release of two American Journalists, who were held by the N. Koreans this year. What a contrast Mr. Issaias, the dictator however, put the journalists (his own citizens) in jail in September 2001, and they have been suffering ever since without any due process of law. One country (the U.S.) values its citizens and are willing to do whatever it takes to guarantee them freedom, while GOE brutalizes and victimizes its own citizens. Shame!

Those who have become instrumental to this dictatorial regime, and those who are aiding and abating to bring great sufferings on the Eritrean people, are the enemies of the people. By following the atrocities of the totalitarian dictator Issaias and his military juntas or generals, they will go down in history just like those past colonizers who brought sufferings to Eritreans. I believe the Eritrean people will one day rise up and demand justice and justice shall be served.

Who is the enemy? The enemies of Eritrea are those who came up with a system that enslaves Eritreans instead of assuring freedom in their own country. The enemies of Eritrea are those who have created a discouraging environment, where Eritreans long to flee their own country and become refugees of other countries, instead of encouraging and creating and environment where Diaspora Eritreans would want to go back and help build their own country. The enemies are those few Eritrean leaders who have rebelled from their own people and are ruling using their military might. The enemies of Eritrea are those traitors who reside in Diaspora (many live in a civilized democratic countries), and have the audacity, to advocate and justify for an atrocious totalitarian military government of Eritrea. In Eritrea we have two classes of people, the totalitarian dictatorship and followers (minority), and the masses who live under constant harassment (majority). Don’t buy and fall for the divisions that PFDJ and others advocate, that of “lowlanders” and “highlanders”, which are code names for “Muslims” and “Christians”. I beg to differ, our divisions are only two classes, and those are: the oppressors, or those who rebelled from their people or the totalitarian system and the oppressed, or the people who are daily victimized. Eritreans understand what is good and what is bad for them, they know their enemies very well. A day will come when PFDJ and the traitors will have to account and answer for the atrocities they are committing.