Eritrean News - assenna

My country is at the crossroads. Throw your person into the mess, feel it, and talk to yourself. Ask what life would be like for you as a human-being without political dissent and difference in views, freedom of expression and rule of law, religious beliefs and worship...life without freedom of choice, the very personal choice on how to live and die... how would you feel about life without dignity?

In commemoration of the ' Eritrean 9/11', September 18, 2001

My country had never been spared of enemies in its history; it had plenty of them, all too big for its size and too impious for its honesty. They were all cruel and malicious and had no hesitation to break its pillars and dilute its identity as a nation. It had seen apartheid style system that made the people second class citizens in their own land, faced the danger of partition half to the North and half to the South, and witnessed endless massacres executed under the banner - 'to kill the fish drain the sea.' My country hanged on the brink of extinction for so long.

Despite all the successive misdeeds, the course of her death had never been hushed. Its resilient fortitude surfaced the turmoil and bitterness. Its pain was not expressed in tears but was negated with elastic spirit. It could shout, but shot when shouting lost meaning. It finally exploded from the graveyard, stood up firm on its feet and walked tall on it. The price was too high for its size, yet, worth paying that it was for a good cause - the natural existence in freedom.

Now that Eritrea is face to face with unexpected enemy from within, the tears have begun to flow and the unique sprit has started to disappear. My people, who puzzled an oversized enemy, whether they were being fought by a mysterious land or a superstitious people, the very people that walked yesterday on the burning rocks of the mountains are living today in dilemma with a void heart. My people should be rewarded with peace and dignity, they never deserve this.

Let alone as a society, as a family, they dread to talk among each other to express their grief and collective pain. Their acquaintance with truth and the inability to express their wisdom have made them hostage of their conscience. The unfortunate confusion has obscured the back and front doors, so they can not see the way in and out. They are being discarded in a suffocated legroom with despair. They are deeply hurt about the promises of the past and less certain about the present and the future.

For my proud people, who are not used to die in silence, powerlessness to that extent is the mother of all evils; the reason of their helplessness is the mother of all enemies as well. That is why telling stories with regard to their pain itself has become worth no less than the actual freedom they yearn.

If you are a human being, it doesn�t matter whether a national or foreign, please talk to my people with your soul. It will certainly make them feel their pain is being shared and felt and will provide them the initial relief. Retrieving their hope alone will give them direction to find their true self and set them in motion.

This enterprise may not be easy. Talking to the victims is surely an act of condemnation to the crimes perpetuated against them. Thus, the criminals will not fade away from doubling their misdemeanours thinking that doing so would be a sign of weakness and a potential for their swift demise. For this reason, they will continue biting their own womb while continuing to make a noise closer to your ears. They will never leave you alone, like the confused beasts which are not so sure whether the holes of your ears are really part of your own organs or their shelter.

If you are a citizen, they will call you 'Woyanie'. if you are from Amnesty International, Human rights Watch or Journalists without Borders, they will call you 'CIA agent', deliberately forgetting that they had quoted your statement the day before on the headline, when it suited them to blame policy flaws of the US and the West. When you are a government body, they will call you 'neo-colonialist'.

But don't give up! Talk to the victims, at least, talk about them overlooking those criminals, for they are the worst enemy of their own people. You may be abhorred by the horrors but it takes courage to resist your disbelief. It is not a fairy-tale or a fiction based on the primitive histories of slavery and the horrendous tales of Nazi concentration comps. It is a real story of a real people; it is my people's story.

Talk to the 'G 15' the parliamentarians, ministers and ex-combatants who committed no crime other than serving the truth in the interest of the nation, nevertheless, detained in secret locations just for standing up for change and reform. Talk about the dozen journalists of the independent press who accompanied the veterans in the course of change but who are now their companions in the dungeons. Talk about the hundreds of Christians and Muslims, religious leaders and their followers who are being denied the right to worship and ended up in jail for only that 'crime'. Talk to the Eritrean youth who are fleeing forced conscription and endless military duty in the name of 'national service'. They had witnessed death first-hand in the Sahara Desert or Mediterranean Sea and slipped away marginally, just by chance, probably to tell the dreadful stories or to reconcile with life after miracles. Talk even to the orthodox patriarch supposed to reign for life and to last beyond the presidency but scrapped from rendering his spiritual responsibility, virtually under house arrest for obeying god and for showing courage to counsel the political establishment.

You will uncover yourself the outrageous sins of the illegitimate regime from the horse's mouth. The horrific stories of the innocent victims will wake you up in shock. Ill treatment, cruelty, torture, shootings and death are the central themes of my people�s story. At this moment, the victims may not have the same number as it were during the date of their captivity. For the time being, the secret is only how it happened and to whom. After all, that is the essence of the unparalleled secrecy controlling my nation.

My country is turned into the land of paradoxes. The blessed generation is cursed by the sins of the few. The bad reign while the good are discarded inside the drain. The good people have become symbols of death and remain without shadow like the name less ghosts, while the evil cause of their uncertain existence is dancing on the self made chair on top of my people, like a devil.

My country is at the crossroads. Throw your person into the mess, feel it, and talk to yourself. Ask what life would be like for you as a human-being without political dissent and difference in views, freedom of expression and rule of law, religious beliefs and worship...life without freedom of choice, the very personal choice on how to live and die... how would you feel about life without dignity?

My nation in its entirety is held hostage at gun point. Talk to my nation before it is too late. If she will die in your silence, your life will never be full for she would leave deep scares in your conscience. She is asking for help laying half on her flowing blood. Please help my country from the second death! After all, it is your country or a land of human-beings. Be courageous so that she can retain her audacity. Sprit and hope are its colour, its number and its power! Even a word can help. Rest assured, after the talk the walk for freedom will begin its first step, and her soul will be back into perpetual life once again!

Amanuel Eyasu
11/09/06