VoD – Thursday, July 08, 2004

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to welcome you to Voice of Delina, the station where community matters hold center stage. My name is [Milena Bereket] and I will be your host for this evening.

This evening we will present you with a topic which every Eritrean knows of and has a strong effect in our communities. Yes, our theme for this evening is “War and the Effects of War.”

The reason for today’s topic is rather simple – we, in our communities, tend to react to any conflict in the motherland. Therefore, that makes is a must to discuss the topic. I hope you will enjoy it.

Examining war begins with very general questions: What is war? How can it be defined? And what causes war? Moreover, what are the relationships between Eritrea and war?

Let’s look at the definition of war first: Cicero defines war broadly as "a contention by force"; others say that war is the continuation of politics by violent means … in other words, when politics fails then war ensues. And the Oxford Dictionary expands the definition to include "any active hostility or struggle between living beings; a conflict between opposing forces or principles."

Eritrea has lived under wartime conditions for decades. I think that sort of life has changed the predisposition of our people. I am sure that applies to our neighboring countries as well. Anyway, it seems our attitudes towards matters of war and peace is somewhat different, perhaps worrying. First of all, Eritrea has never known real peace except during the 1991-1998 time frame. Now, considering the absence of peace, that is to say, the extended exposure to decades of war, do you think that has given rise to a shift in the ways our people think of war? Well, hold the thought. We will come back to this subject, but first let’s listen to the News.

News in Brief

Good evening. My name is Meron Mesfin … here is this evening’s News’s in Brief.

News Headlines for this evening are:

• Voice of Delina contacts Ms Almaz Hale to talk about her upcoming book.
• For the first times, African Union addresses human rights abuses involving member states.
• A Bishop from Zimbabwe criticizes African leaders for not doing enough.
• Head of the UN peacekeeping mission says number of incidents has been reduced in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Yesterday, Voice of Delina talked to Ms Almaz of the Amaz Hale Show about the book she is writing for children. She revealed that the book will be published under the title of “A Special Gift for Rahel.” The story revolves around a little girl who arrived in the US at the age of eight. The book will have also have pictures in it.

Ms Hale said that the events in the book are based on authentic experiences and she, in her words, ‘has added her own experiences at various junctures during numerous narrations.” She said the book is in its final stages and did not disclose its publishing date.

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At the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, the crisis in Sudan is getting a lot of attention. Discussion about Sudan's Darfur crisis shows African leaders, from the pressure they are getting from Westerns donors, are beginning to talk about unmentionable subjects such as human rights abuses involving member states.

AU Commission chairman Mr Alpha Oumar Konare is trying to drum up support among the AU's 53 member governments for his attempts to show a skeptical outside world that Africa is ready to ditch despotism, corruption and war in return for increased Western investment. There is no information whether member states have talked about the disturbing human rights record of the Eritrean government.

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According to a BBC report, a Bishop from Zimbabwe who is an outspoken critic of President Robert Mugabe, has accused Africa's leaders of ignoring the crisis in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular. Bishop Ncube said Africa's leaders had also not done enough in DR Congo. Many observers are hoping that African Bishops will be as courageous as Bishop Ncube when it comes to human rights abuse in Africa.

Eritrean religious leaders clearly lack that acumen to criticize the government in its dismal human rights record.

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In a statement released by the UN, British General Robert Gordon, head of the UN peacekeeping mission Eritrea and Ethiopia said that the number of incidents in the region has been reduced, as has the military rhetoric." Gordon's remarks were made at a meeting of the Military Coordination Commission (MCC) in Nairobi last Monday.

Some 4,200 UN peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone established on Eritrean territory along the border with Ethiopia, at an annual cost of 200 million dollars. Attempts to mark out the border have been suspended indefinitely following Ethiopia's rejection of the commission's findings.

That is the end of this evening’s News.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s go back to our theme for this evening which is “War and the Effects of War.”

Allow me to refer to the Culture of violence in the Horn of Africa rather daringly. Some of you may not agree with me but I think it is safe to say that the culture of violence pervades our society by glorifying war rather than educating for peace, nonviolence, and international cooperation. Having suffered the ill effects of war for so long, one would expect Eritreans now seem to automatically shun all things that might lead to war. Perhaps I am not looking hard enough but unfortunately, I do not see that.

Let me recite words of a song I knew long ago:

Goin' to lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside,

Down by the riverside,

Goin' to lay down my sword and shield,

Down by the riverside,

And study war no more.

Ladies and gentlemen, don’t you think that the time may have come for every Eritrean to take a careful look at what he/she is prepared to pay for peace? I do really think we should start to look into what we are willing to sacrifice in order to avoid war more seriously.

My objective in this discussion is just to search for an alignment in thought. You know that war is looming once again in the Horn of Africa. And I think it is time to pool the wisdom of an underground of intelligence while we still have time. I do this in the belief that we can facilitate the development of a campaign which will challenge the common notion that war is a viable and sometimes even preferable way of preventing or coping with inter-state conflict.

Now I've been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is

Why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train

Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again.

A war between Eritrea and Ethiopia will devastate the lives of thousands of families.

Security in the Horn of Africa will not be increased by destroying people and their livelihoods nor by spreading fear, hatred and sorrow.

They say: "One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one."

Let’s get the message of "No More War" into the public domain, and hope that by spreading this song we will affect the public mood.

Oh, come let us sing

There's still hope this night

That when dawn breaks

We will wake up all right

Let our voices ring

And our spirits soar

That when the sun rises

We'll have no more war

Why can’t we involve the wise, our elders and our mothers during war deliberations? They will do a good job because they possess considerable expertise in conflict resolutions. At least they know the youth are the ones who are exploited and victimized in violent conflict situations.

In order to combat the culture of violence that pervades our society, the coming generation deserves a radically different education -- educate for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy!

Let me conclude this evening’s broadcast with the following thought: Peace education needs to be made compulsory at all levels of the education system.

Ciao! Peace and Respect!