By Fetsum Abraham

Sahil: ” The solution is to finish the tyrant mad dog Isayas and his son just like the Libyans did to his friend Gadafi and his sons.”

Me: This is a verdict based on “guilty by association” injustice. The son of the president is an innocent Eritrean until proven guilty.

HABTE: “Fitsum please forget about the empty bravado, we have witnessed enough during the 1998-2000 war with Ethiopia when all the diaspora in vacation in Eritrea with their kids where running all over the Embassies to get out safe with there kids,and who is going to die for the country, you guessed it our poor fellow citizens who are left behind is this what you want to see again?”

Me: There was no “bravado” in my refection and what you wrote about the Eritreans during the war contains some facts but I also know the Erirean struggle for independence was full of your terminology and patriotism. I do not want to see what you asked.

Berhane: “dud you dont know what you are talking about.the name of TPLF leadership is a matter of puplic record every body knows them.as your claim aboy sebhat nega comeback this group that group is simply trash rabish do something uesfull idiot.”

Me: Tell us if you know better and if “everybody knows them”, can I assume I do too? The rest is your interpretation and subjective judgment; therefore, deal with it.

“Wedi Sheqa, Please stay focused on your own people so that they do not become source of income for the Egyptian organ harvesters. You reckon TPLF is ”in graveyard”? This is far from the truth. TPLF has done a grand job for Ethiopia; what has EPLF that you supported done for Eritrea?”

Me: Brother, first, the EPLF that I supported liberated Eritrea. “your people” is for narrow nationalists boxed in their ethnicity, not for universal activists who care for all-inclusive humanity if you grasp what I mean. No one can restrict my freedom of expression because it is earned by respecting other views. I may be far from the truth but it is my subjective truth that there is no more struggle to liberate Tigrai from Ethiopia, as there is nothing to liberate Eritrea from Ethiopia; yet, the original leaders are no longer. The Tigrean and the Eritrean Liberation Fronts are both dead in concept and in actuality after the first decided to stay Ethiopian and the second achieved independence.

Shewit: “Fitsum, I have a question for you. During WWII Germany stayed in France for five years. That is the exact amount of time Italy stayed in Ethiopia. Would you say Germany colonized France? No you wouldn’t. Yet, you have no problem to call Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia for five years ‘colonization.”

Me: Please do not ask if you know the answer or have a fixation on something because it will steal your transparency like it did here. The European history aside, Ethiopia was an Italian colony for the five years you admitted in the comment, whatever you call it immaterial. The essence by which colonialism is defined is more important here for there is no time restriction for it, obvious to state that the “five years” was life in hell for Ethiopians. The Europeans were not visiting Ethiopia but exploiting and running it as well and they did this to the extent of building infrastructures (Jimma, Gonder, Debresina, Ambalage, Liamalimo, etc) and making Askaris (Ethiopian conscripted soldiers that serve the Italians) like in Somalia, Eritrea and Libya (Googling will get you there). Graziani couldn’t have partied in Addis in the absence of the King unless Italia put Ethiopia under its empire for that long until the Britons dislodged it from our region by UN mandate. The brief Italian colonization of your country does not vindicate it from having been colonized, with all respect.

Araya: “I thinking that Ethiopia colonized Eritrea don’t hold water. It is better if we say ‘Occupation’ of Eritrea by Ethiopia….”

Me: It does hold a lot of water. All colonizers first have to occupy before installing their power in victim societies. Colonizing is impossible without occupying.

Embasorya: ” Afwerki has no capacity to communicate with people in a civilized manner because he is not civilized.”Not civilized? What is that supposed to mean?”

Me: It means he is not urbanized.

Dawit: “Isaias Afewerqi is torturing the people into submission to mold them into accepting his life long dream, Abai Tigrai.”

Petros Haile: “Dear Dawit, Although, you declared yourself no more PFDJ, and you seem to be awakened from all the under handed and evil deeds of your former indoctrinator, but unfortunately, your recovery is not complete …”

Me: In agreement with Petros, the resistance is hurting because Afwerki’s WEYANE CARD is still working in the minds of Eritreans in the opposition camp.

Dawit Meconen: “Fistum has never[] voiced any objection against Woyane. The hallmark of genuine Eritrean at this time is he/she who, without any equivocation, makes his position clear on Isaias Afewerqi and woyane as the twin enemies of our country.”

Me: I am sorry for people concerned about a completely crystallized issue (the Eritrean sovereignty) but I do not share this concern: Weyane/Tigreans to me is nothing more than a neighbor. The Weyane syndrome is Afwerki’s tool to inculcate fear in the absence of the narrative. We must understand that no one gave us independence but our sweat and blood; nor can any force stop our freedom for we will earn it what ever it may cost. They need peace as much, for none of us can make it without … PERIOD.

I support the success of Tigreans full-heartedly for they are poor Africans like us who are trying to change their situation for the better. A stabilized Tigrai is good for us and so is the reverse for the Tigreans. I would be as delighted changing the life of a Tigrean child as I would an Eritrean’s. We should grow together in our separate homes by working for the final goal (peaceful coexistence) as soon as possible. This is not about love and hate but about the best political business for close societies destined to live physically and socially attached forever. My individual responsibility is to contribute towards everlasting peace and freedom for the next generations of, with all progressive people in the region. Regardless, let us earn respect by focusing on our condition as the primary objective of the destination and the rest will fall in the puzzle. Bias, hatred, fear, Hasadnet, denial, pretension, war and jealousy based Afwerkism cannot cut it!

Our confidence is a function of the wellbeing of our society and respect of international law like other nations. It was not because we were more patriotic than the Ethiopians that we liberated our country but only because we had a CAUSE. Nor was it because of Ethiopian patriotic superiority that we lost in the Badme conflict, only because they had a CAUSE. It is because we have a CAUSE today that we will eventually have freedom in Eritrea. We therefore can defend ourselves from any external force if we choose to be part of the solution.

This may be monotonous but important to repeat in the effort to close the case and move on. Weyane’s military offense against Eritrea is unimaginable in today’s reality in terms of capacity, legality and strategy. There is no force called WEYANE that independently exists in Ethiopia and the TPLF is part of the EPRDF only politically, no more militarily. The TPLF cannot initiate a fight nor can it independently dictate political terms on the issue within the Ethiopian government any longer. And then Eritrea is a nation with defined boundaries that all nations including Ethiopia must respect. The TPLF understood the Eritrean independence as the only solution for peace in the region from the onset and fought for it within the Ethiopian society consistently until the Badme conflict and even after with a slight modification (firmly standing on its position more than ever) for its survival. The Tigreans cannot be expected having any interest beyond living peacefully with all of us in the region unless very naïve and stupid.

In peaceful and democratic Eritrea, the political cards our future politicians can play in view of the majority of the Ethiopians totally outweigh that of the Weyanes in the game, should they antagonize us. No one can touch a civilized Eritrea that respects its people and their freedom my dear people.

Everybody knows that the Ethiopian government has to give us back Badme eventually but through genuine diplomatic effort. Any breach of agreement between nations (the Weyanes breached our Algiers agreement) should be challenged diplomatically like in other countries with a similar problem. Freedom, justice and life don’t have to wait because of Afwerki’s refusal to dialogue for the retrieval of Badme. Had life been normal in Eritrea like it is in Ethiopia, people may patiently accommodate his excuse to dictate but not under this absolute dictatorship any longer. Nor can we expect Badme from a regime that failed to get it militarily or diplomatically because there is no other way of getting it. We cannot expect this regime to receive Badme without any contact with the Ethiopians at the expense of everything because it will never happen.

“The dead Meles []  during the 1998 war []  left no stone unturned to seize [Asab] by force… The sly Isaias Afewerqi was about to offer him but The Mighty Eritreans Defense Forces, ignoring Isaias Afewerqi’s order to withdraw, stood their ground and forced them (Isaias/Melse) to rereat in shame and defeat.”

Response: We tried to dominate them on foreign currency transactions between our interests and businesses, did not we? We confiscated their properties in Assab after they decided to use port Djibouti and later in Badme by force, didn’t we? We violently took Badme and it threatened their power immediately. They tried hard to peacefully reverse the situation but failed and were left with no other choice to doing whatever it takes to get it back. They penetrated deep into our uncontested territories but withdrew for it was illegal to stay inside a sovereign country (please do not flutter yourself on “strategic retreat” and admit defeat: we were terribly beaten because they had a cause).

Apparently, they did not have to capture Assab to claim it had that been the case because they could have made it a condition for withdrawing from our territories at that vulnerable moment in our history. They, however, knew they would loose at the end of the day through fierce resistance consistent with our history of patriotism in defense of the motherland; yet because of CAUSE. It is not Ethiopian favor that made us the masters of our destiny as a society but our passionate sacrifice for it: it was as basic as this.

You cannot logically separate Ethiopian withdrawal from our territories from what would have taken place had Assab fallen under during the war. They stopped the war and withdrew a little after they captured Badme because that was the only issue they had with us: should I say more on this reality?

As for his suggestion that Afwerki ordered our forces to withdraw from Assab but failed to effectuate it because of internal resistance, I feel safer keeping it in the rumor bank until I see evidence on the merit.

Response: To me the only enemy of our people is Afwerki and his system. I do not see an integrated enemy composed of him and the Weyanes. If Afwerki is teaming up with the Weyanes, he must also be teaming up with the US against us: this position is so contradictory that we cannot accept an imaginary enemy (Weyane and US) fabricated by his regime because of fear.

We cannot stay idle because “Isaias Afewerqi is an old guy. Sooner or later, he will die” since he can last for another 20 years considering his age at about 67 (Mugabe is over 80 and Kadaffi ruled for 41 years and would have ruled for another 20 years because he was around 70). As for the “we can kill him” stuff, Dawit has the burden of proof here.

Dawit: “Can’t you see his nature, treacherous, killer, unjust, vindictive, all typical of Tigrawai, but alien to that of the genuine Eritrean…?”

Zebib: “Dawit M., This above statement is extremely fascistic and dangerous. You cannot and should not consider one ethnic group absolutely evil and another one absolutely good. You must have a serious problem (PERSONAL) that is driving you to make such extremely unacceptable nazistic statements. You seem (less your obssessive hatred for Tigray and Tigreans) as a reasonably articulate person. Your statement is tantamount to upholding the great tragedy that happened in our days between the Hutus and Tutsies of Rwanda.

You cannot continue to live with this baggage of pure hatred. You should seek help for your own and your family’s sake. Societies worked hard since the dawn of mankind and paid very dearly to arrive at where they are today that good and bad does not belong solely to one ethnic, religeous, tribal, racial, or whatever group. There is no other person in the cyber fora with a distinct hatred baggage of an entire region like Tigray like you and it goes without sayaing that it stinks to high heaven.”

Me: I cannot articulate my concern about this man’s emotional problem better than Zebib. Dawit’s mentality of the Tigreans is extremely destructive and anti Eritrean and humanity at large. His fascistic political formula is a recipe for disaster and genocide that has to be rejected without any thought contemplation. Thank you Zebib for your input.

Discussion

At the bottom line, our country’s welfare depends on peaceful coexistence with our neighbors and regional cooperation that our president drastically failed on. We need to positively influence each other in every social life and I believe this is what the Tigreans and the Ethiopians are looking for as well. I think this has been proven by the birth of genuine democracy in Somalia contrary to what Afwerki wanted us to believe (“Ethiopia wants an ever anarchic Somalia”, actually that is what he wanted). No “Abai Tigrai” can tantalize the extremely individualist president who does not value human life at all. He would rather see the Tigrians and Eritreans go to hell than losing his power. There is no Weyane for Eritreans to fight, however, and there is no conspiracy between the president and the Weyanes that one can rationally conclude from the entire experience at hand. I cannot see the president teaming up with the isolated political losers such as Seeye and Gebru Asrat against the sovereignty of Eritrea because they are nothing today more than ordinary individuals in the Ethiopian society. Whether he was in some sort of conspiracy to destroy Eritrea is a thought to entertain because a conspiracy theory is applicable in our case in view of our total failure but “with the WEYANEs” does not hold any substance in my opinion. It could not have been with them once the contemplation of Abai-Tigrai is eliminated from the picture by so many agreements between Meles and Afwerki and by international policies on the reality of Eritrean sovereignty.

The issue of external solution:  Ethiopian contemplation to get rid of the president by direct involvement (if this ever is the case) emanates from the fact that Eritrea has become impossible to work with similar to the contemplation of some frustrated Eritreans on solving the problem by any means necessary. Afwerki is as pain on the butt to Ethiopians, Somalians and Djiboutians  as he has been to us and we are all desperately tired of him, are not we?

All we have to do to live peacefully with our respected borders is removing the common enemy strictly on our own and negotiating on business and security issues with Ethiopians. In the absence of our people’s willingness to do this homework, the Ethiopians may not have another alternative to forcing the regime out. Let us focus on the main problem and avoid this situation if we may: let us remove him from post by ourselves through a solid united front. This is what the opposition forces have failed to achieve my dear people. They did not respect themselves through unity and they lost respect from the external forces affected by the problem.

Apparently, the only way the minority Tigreans can peacefully live in Ethiopia is in the condition the country is democratized and I believe they achieved this objective successfully, at least partially. The only way for Ethiopia to continue its democratic path so that every ethnic group can enjoy equality was having the neighboring countries follow a democratic path and I believe they achieved this goal too, at least in Somalia. All this should have pressurized Bashir to free political prisoners and promise to leave in 2015 in favor of democracy. I welcome this positive influence as an Eritrean because it will change the regional political atmosphere and influence us as well.

Dawit: “Fistum does not express any reservation or concern on those so called “Eritrean opposition”, who not only have close association with woyane but also draw the necessities of their existence from woyane. As a matter of fact, he wishes them success on their meetings in Addis Abeba.”

Me: Proxy war effect: you cannot hit me in the face and expect me not to react similarly: You cannot have the cake and eat it too! We support their enemies with dictation and they do the same to the opposition forces in their country. Afwerki tries to mold the political goals of the Ethiopian opposition forces in our country according to how benefits his dictatorship and they do theirs in similar fashion vis-à-vis our opposition forces in Ethiopia. It was a political game based on an eye for an eye philosophy that the Weyanes and the Eritrean regime played for a long time without the consent of their people who have nothing to do with the game. Both peoples are victims of the friction and thus have equal interest in resolving the problem. The people need to help each other here rather than hurt one another because the destructive leaders in both sides who came to power without the democratic mandate of their people were the only ones responsible for damaging the relationship. We cannot condemn the innocent peasants on the opposing sides of the borders from exchanging their products for survival for the sake of the dictatorship without being a menace to the region.

Please leave the Tigreans alone and do your homework if you can! Our president’s hatred and jealousy (with Meles) did not help us and stop repeating the mistake if you may by accepting that we are the only ones responsible for our condition. We are responsible for the weakness of our opposition forces in Ethiopia because we did not check and balance their situation closely. We did not finance them to be independent but we can reverse the situation if we are more organized and stop blaming others for our weaknesses.

By the same token, things have changed and we need to readjust our thoughts accordingly for heavens sake!! The development is such that we have nothing to do with the Tigreans in segmentation or with the TPLF as a group. Our political business is strictly with the Ethiopian government. Therefore, the so called WEYANE is a historical phenomenon that does not independently exist in today’s East African concrete political paradigm; nor is it a threat to the Eritrean nationhood in singularity.

There should never be war between our countries under a visionary leader in democratic set up. If there is going to be one, however, it cannot be on the question of our sovereignty, needless to say the only group of people who would contemplate the idea of re-annexing Assab would be the chauvinist Amharas from Shoa such as KINIJIT, which for some strange reasons the president tried to bring to power in Ethiopia (may be by conspiracy) thanks it did not happen because of Meles and the Weyanes.

Today’s Ethiopian youth is being educated at a faster rate and one fundamental change in the Ethiopian mind-set because of the Weyanes is the reality that war does not benefit anyone. This itself is a good card for us to utilize with good intention.

We need to realize that the Tigreans and the Eritreans did not team up against the Mengistu regime by accident but because they were natural allies. The strategic vision of Eritrea should, therefore focus on harmonizing the difference with the Tigrean people and actively taking advantage of the new political environment in Ethiopia to close the difference once and for all.

In conclusion; truth hurts but we are the only ones talking about them and it has been long since they decided to ignore us and continue to develop their society. Today, the Tigreans are more prosperous and liberated than us because we did not do out homework like them. They are more educated than us: I dignify them for believing in educating their people (3 universities, 2 colleges of education that generates teachers, one higher education for Nursing, one Institute of technology at minimum, in TIGRAI). I also dignify them for helping the Somalian democratic arrangement and for the smooth transfer of power in Ethiopia.

I congratulate them for all this and I envy their situation with positive impulse. I sincerely want to see them continue doing well because their wellbeing can only positively influence us. The EriTV’s main objective since the war had been to destruct the Weyanes while they were doing their homework and the difference is visible today for us to be convinced of retreating from naiveté or JELOSY induced antagonism with the Tigreans (this is my subjective opinion). All Eritrea needs now is a devoted leadership that secures peace and Badme through negotiation and that harmonizes the relationship between the Eritreans and our brothers and sisters in Tigrai AND in the rest of Ethiopia.

Ethiopians must in their part give us back our territory for us to normalize the relationship. We should also stay alert of the Ethiopians including the Tigreans on how they may influence our impotent opposition forces in Ethiopia. There is no doubt that they will do the best they can to pressurize them for their advantage but accept this as natural tendency of any system in such a situation and stop it by doing the right thing. Do not expect respect from Ethiopians while disrespecting yourselves by division and power struggle.