Eritrea: Reflection on the case of Meseret Bahlbi v Mirjam Van Reisen

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” 
Martin Luther King Jr.

In a few days time we will hear the verdict of the case of Meseret Bahlbi v Mirjam Van Reisen… personally I think the case is already a four fold victory for justice in Eritrea with or without the verdict and I am certain the verdict will be an icing on the cake.

You see the case is actually a by-product of an abject absurdity that was being perpetrated by pfdj supporters in the Netherlands that was nipped in the bud by vigilant pro justice Eritreans and friends of Eritrea.

At the peak of the overwhelming Eritrean exodus last year when the whole world was asking why Eritreans were migrating at a rate that was higher than devastated Syria and the inquiry was actually zeroing in on pfdj and its throttling control of everything Eritrean, supporters of dictatorship in Eritrea were falling over themselves to sell the world the lie that: the multitude of young people leaving Eritrea in their thousands per month were infact in search of a mere better pasture and not fleeing political, social and economic nightmare engineered by the regime in Eritrea. Leading on that front from the Netherlands media was Meseret Bahlibi the then chair of ypfdj.

Indeed Meseret and compatriots were hand picked by the political advisor to President Issias and were trained in historic town of Nakfa, at pfdj’s school for cadres, their ‘gradation’, unlike that of graduates from the former university of Asmara, was attended by the president himself.  They are trained and supported to perform duties, as Meseret was performing at the forefront of Dutch media, in their respective adopted homes[1],[2]. They were an extension of what Eritreans were time and again told was ‘the long arm of pfdj’. Anyone who has spoken against pfdj has experienced what is meant by ‘the long arm’… Mekete (resistance) is about using anything they could reach (including family members) and try to dissuade, intimidate, slander and even try to criminalise fellow Eritreans and friends of Eritrea[3]. That is something that one becomes accustomed to and even rises above, however when these very people turn up as ‘professionals’ appearing in various capacities, in the services developed to support refugees and asylum seekers the absurdities are above what should be tolerated as part and parcel of the nature of Eritrean politics. It is unethical and a very dangerous practice that contravenes the rights to protection enshrined under the refugee convention.

Rightly this was raised and addressed by services in the Netherlands asylum system. No one who supports pfdj and/or is associated with anyone who supports pfdj is to be employed by immigration services as an interpreter in asylum cases and therefore long before this case came to court, the policy change had occurred and the absurdity corrected and therein was victory number one….

Meseret accuses Mirjam Van Reisen of slandering him by claiming that his activities for ypfdj extend to passing information to pfdj, we shall see what the court makes of that, but as for me the attempt to make us believe that pfdj and ypfdj are independent organisations and that ypfdj don’t share information about the people that are working to undermine pfdj’s continued grip in power is a rather refreshing news. If as purported by Madote.com[4] ypfdj in the Netherlands is an independent organisation that is registered as such and is totally independent of PFDJ and of the Dutch government for funding, then I think ypfdj Holland should account for how EVERYONE that comes to address their gathering happens to be from PFDJ including the presidential advisor, all the ambassadors from Europe and further and other party functionaries… these are unanswered questions however I think the potentials in opening ypfdj finances and operation to such scrutiny is a victory on its own.

That Meseret repeatedly lamented about the nature of media reporting on the very medias that he was complaining about is also a vivid victory for media independence and I hope Meseret and Co will see that they have benefited from the freedom of expression they are entitled to here in Europe. I do hope that they will appreciate that the rest of their fellow Eritreans deserve the same right to have independent media to complain and lament about… for now I celebrate the fact that they got to experience the benefits of the very freedom that is denied to countless of our compatriots.

Finally I am so glad Meseret decided to bring the ‘the long arm of pfdj’ to the longer arm of the law… because here in the court of law pfdj and Mirjam enjoyed the same rights… their day in court was before an independent and appropriately trained judge… each was represented by an advocate of their choice and each was accompanied and supported by a court-house full of friends and families… at the end of the session they were both free to give their respective views to the media and they each safely left to their respective abodes… now if this isn’t fairness at its best I don’t know what is! I couldn’t help wondering what was going on through Meseret’s mind… knowing that in Nakfa where he and his compatriots danced celebrating pfdj, countless Eritreans fought to make Eritrea a land of such fairness and many of them have been betrayed and disappeared into dungeons known and unknown… they are Eritreans like him and human beings like Mirjam and yet they are denied the fairness that Meseret and Mirjam were accorded, in Amsterdam’s Central Court, at the close of January 2016.

With or without the forthcoming ruling Meseret Bahlbi has become part of a breath-taking victory for the very fairness of justice before a court of law that is denied to countless Eritreans being incarcerated by the very organisation whose principles he ‘subscribes to’… the very organisation that trained him… the very organisation that Mirijam accused him of belonging to…