Action No. 1:  Mind Over Matter

If you are exhausted of cursing the darkness and are eager to bring about The Light, we call on you who are fed up with the present system to start to act now: give your time, your money, your skills, your talent.   Act how?  The first thing we need to change is our state of mind.  A project is not inspiring if there is a constant sense of futility.  Here is a very important thing to remember: as long as we are advocating justice and as long as the PFDJ�s �G1� is for oppression, we are right, and they are wrong.  Since most people intuitively know and love justice, this means we are in the majority; they are in the minority.  Notwithstanding their �Awet nHafash�, they are working against the �Hafash� and we are working for its victory.   This should empower us all.  Feeling empowered, we should network and work with a sense of purpose that we shall prevail and they shall fail.  

If there is one thing that the PFDJ is good at, it is to milk its members of all the cash they command (and the cash that they do not command but can borrow nonetheless.) Though the cash is mostly extracted from members by using scare tactics, intimidation and emotional manipulation, we cannot deny that there are some people who believe in giving to the party willingly. There are also few who genuinely give money because of the desire to improve the situation in their country. Money is decisive in any project. The PFDJ commanded much of it.

Imagine the structure that the PFDJ kidnapped and the destructive results it achieved! Fighting this monstrous culture of disarray and defamation, intolerance and oppression needs money. Many Eritreans would wish the evil that plagues Eritrea, the PFDJ, would just go away. They want to weed out the PFDJ system; they want to bring about the free-press; they want, they want and they want many things. Yet, they are paralyzed. They don�t want to participate with their intellect, their skills, their energy, their time and their money. But no one has Alladins Lamp: no one can make things happen by simply rubbing a lantern and commanding a Jenni. If one believes in something, one needs to support it with tangible action and deed. Whining from behind the scenes without moving a straw while living on past glories and old claims of participation is not good enough.   In fact, that is exactly what PFDJ�s �G-1� is counting on: that the �opposition� will soon be exhausted and give up and the �turtle� will fly.   It is time for all of us to say: Not This Time.  It is time for us to tell them the turtle never flies and there is no stopping a determined Eritrean. 

Action No. 2: Dismantling PFDJ�s AlQaeda

Anyone who thinks it is only Binladen who has AlQaeda is wrong: There is also a PFDJ Qaeda.  Both networks share similar values:  strict adherence to a Dogma, Reverence bordering on worship of a leader, a passion for us-vs-them Theology, a knack for mystification of information, a contempt for history and culture, an inflated sense of self-importance, an affected Spartan mask, and an alarming comfort for Violence.  

The fingerprints of the PFDJ�s Qaeda surfaced in San Diego, CA two years ago, moved to Kassel, Germany and Washington, DC over a year ago, then revisited  Washington, D.C. and London, U.K within the past month.  In San Diego, the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) had to calmly explain to the PFDJ Qaeda that, at least in the United States, people have a right to assembly free.  Yes, even out of town visitors, explained the SDPD to the PFDJ Qaieda members who were shrieking, �but they are not San Diegans!�  They seemed to be clueless to the idea that, in the United States, there is freedom of movement.  The rebuffed PFDJ Qaeda stood on the pavement and attempted to intimidate the assembled Eritreans by videotaping them and calling them names.  The videotape was then �edited� at the �community centers� to ensure that it could be used in the most damning way.

At Washington, DC, Haile Menkorios, by way of rebutting some of the criticism against the Reformers said, ��some accuse us that only reason we decided to speak up is because we thought Eritrea was defeated�.� Did you hear that, cried the witch hunter.  He said Eritrea was defeated!  Off with his head.  The PFDJ Qaeda got its tiny opening to disrupt the meeting and it did.  

Across the Atlantic, a bonafide Eritrean hero, Mesfun Hagos, was assaulted by the PFDJ Qaeda.  This time, what provoked the PFDJ Qaeda was that the hero was seen with people who disagreed with the Leader of the Qaeda and were, unlike many who keep their opinions to themselves, unafraid to speak their mind.  Outrageous.  The Qaeda members acted like the hoodlums that they are.  Chairs and punches were thrown.  �London Heroes�, exclaimed the sympathetic members of the PFDJ Qaeda who made Dehai their home.  Meeting foiled by the backbone of Eritrea� Revolution, added the government�s radio, Voice of the Broad Masses.  Unfortunately for them, the UK actually thinks the rule of law overrides the rule of the mob and the hoodlums will be persecuted.   The Dehai members�the ones with imaginary names, the pretend warriors, the one-man organization with press releases and the Adolescent In His Sixties�can all raise funds for them and visit them in jail because, unlike Eritrea, the UK does grant its prisoners visitation rights.     

Now this is important: just like Bin Laden�s Al Qaeda does not represent mainstream Islam, the PFDJ�s Qaeda does not represent mainstream Eritrea.  Because it is naturally loud and arrogant and because it resides in an echo chamber, it has convinced itself that it is.  But it is not.  And because its first impulse to any conflict to use force or the threat of force, it may have intimidated some into silence.  But its continuous outrages has already started to arouse the wrath of the Silent ones and in the not too distant future, it will lose the only currency it has: FEAR.   

Our brothers and sisters in Eritrea live in FEAR but there is absolutely no reason why those of us who reside in nations with rule of law should.   Our Eritrean families look to us to speak for them, to articulate their fear, their anger, their helplessness.  And we should.  

Action No 3: Challenging The �Community Centers�

We should dismantle PFDJ�s Qaeda: those who insist on using brute force, those who insist on violating the rights of Eritreans, those who insist on doing things the illegal way must be reported to the authorities and sent where they belong: to the court of law.

Our second plan of action is to challenge the breeding ground of PFDJ�s Qaeda: the so-called community centers.

No one can deny the role the �community centers� played in the mobilization of resources during the liberation struggle. That has greatly contributed to the weakening of the occupational regimes that led to the independence of the Eritrean land. However, the intolerant culture that prevailed during the years of the struggle was perpetuated in those centers. They remained partisan bastions intimidating anyone who moved an inch outside the PFDJ-drawn line of discipline.

These organizations, many of them enjoying tax exempts status (e.g.  501 c-3 in the USA), do very little of what convention community centers do.  You won�t find them counseling the youth; you won�t find them assisting with gang problems, alcoholism, drug addiction, divorce and separation, refugee resettlement, assimilation into host countries, job training, job services, etc.  They have no purpose other than to be the eyes, ears and hands of the PFDJ-- the organization that jails and intimidates our people.   By selling PFDJ merchandise (books, videotapes, audiotapes), functioning sometimes as restaurants, other times as bars, other times as casinos, they are nothing more than a piggy bank for the PFDJ.  Politically, their function is not to reconcile old wounds but to pour salt over them.  Their call is no higher than to apologize for the PFDJ and defend its positions, no matter how contradictory.  

Until recently, Eritreans who are not members of the PFDJ were told to leave the meeting halls and that TPLF (The Weyane of today) and PFDJ members only should attend the meeting. Many of the foul-mouthed ultra-nationalist who now lecture us about the evil of Woyane were regular contributors to �lemAt tgrai� (Tigrai Development Fund) when the TPLF was the PFDJ�s bosom buddy.   The 500,000 -  650,000 members that the PFDJ boasts about was derived through deceit, blackmail, forgery, intimidation and promises of illusive benefits.  

The centers have become a nesting ground for extremism and fostering social and political division. In these places, which liaise very closely with the Eritrean embassies, dissenters to the PFDJ are targeted and freedoms of opinions are stifled. Away from the bleeding Eritrea, this web of destruction has been hovering over all the activities of Eritreans in the world. Evil character assassination and defamation campaigns are launched from those places. They are the abode of �ed sewra newiH eyu� functionaries. The activities of Eritrea in the community are closely monitored and security reports are sent to the embassies.  Each and every community center around the world is manned by several security agents whose main function is to spy against their compatriots. Such reports, typical of a police state performance, are piled against the �culprit� who would be carefully watched until he falls in the hands of the �ed sewra� and disappears in the oblivion of the PFDJ maze of jail system.

So far, this Qaeda has refused to transform itself from a narrow clique of ultra nationalists who consist of a non-representative Eritrean social force.  Through their us-vs-them Theology, they have destroyed our cohesion, unity and strength as a people choosing, instead, to represent a narrow slice of Eritrea and act as if we live in a boot camp commanded by the PFDJ.

Step Two of our Plan of Action should be to create community centers that reflect the values and diversity of our Eritrea.  Unlike them, we believe in freedom of choice; thus, we are not after the destruction and dismantling of the PFDJ Community Centers.  We are for truth in advertising: we want them identified as PFDJ offices, not community centers.  We are for creating alternative community centers that do not force the community to wear PFDJ�s straitjacket; we are for building a home where there are no litmus tests other than compliance with the laws of the host nation.  

Action No 4:  Networking for Salvation of the Motherland

Eritreans do not need PFDJ�s permission to meet.  Repeat: Eritreans do no need PFDJ�s permission to meet.  The PFDJ which claims a guardian�s role for itself in the lives of Eritreans who, according to it have the maturity of children, detests the idea of Eritreans meeting without its knowledge or permission.  That�s why it calls meetings �conspiracies�, �secret cells�.  That is why it works so hard to disrupt them.  That is why it is constantly bad-mouthing them quantitatively and qualitatively: they are �poorly attended�, �they had no agenda�, �they have a failed agenda�, �they are remnants�, etc.  This is how every genuine grassroots movement (from the Haraka movement to the Reformers movement) was dismissed by those opposed to the people�s will.   And that is why Eritreans should form associations (no matter how modest the agenda or few the membership).  This is how the Civil Society is formed.  Eventually, there will be natural coalitions and critical mass will be reached to challenge the coercive powers of the PFDJ.  Eventually, something that is far-fetched now will be a reality in the course of time: a �Parliament in Exile�, as suggested by one of Eritrea�s former National Assembly member, Mr. Herui T. Bairou.   Networking includes a recognition of resolution that will establish a healthy respect for reconciliation.   We want the PFDJ, including the �G-1� to live in peace in Eritrea, in a nation governed by a constitution and rule of law.  We do not want to set precedents and an irreversible tradition of past presidents living in exile.  We don�t want ex-presidents to end their office time by going straight to a spot two meters underground. A key component of reconciliation is clemency�including for Isaias and his clique who are, even now, subjugating Eritreans to fear and misery.    Before this can happen, however, power must be returned to the people.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, �A mouse can hardly forgive a cat that can shred it to pieces.�  The people must be given the power to forgive before they are asked to exercise it.

Welcoming Milkias and Semere

The Awate Team congratulates two reporters, Milkias Mehretab and Semere Tazaz who, unlike fifteen of their colleagues, evaded PFDJ�s security system.  We are saddened that they could only be free by fleeing; nonetheless, considering the alternative, we are happy for them.  We are also grateful to them for being forthright in describing the horrors in Eritrea including the extra-judicial arrest of hundreds of citizens who are languishing in jail, in some cases, since 1991.  Their fresh voice is added to the many voices that have been expressing concern about the human rights violation in Eritrea for the last decade.

We wish to make a correction to their interview.   When Gedab News reported that the two reporters had left Sudan for Ethiopia, it was not done as a �ruse.�  We reported it for the exact same reason we always report news: we received information from sources we considered (and still consider) highly reliable that the two reporters had fled Sudan for Ethiopia.  We don�t report news items as a �ruse� or with �good intentions� or �bad intentions.�  We report them because we believe our readers have a right to know.   Our journalistic standard does not include �Bear false witness if it helps your friends.�   

We are slightly amused by the brouhaha this has caused in the usual quarters�Dehai, of course.  The reporters described Eritrean horrors in credible and frightening detail and all the Compulsive Deniers could concentrate on was on weaving fantastic theories about a relatively minor issue: how the reporters got to the United States.  Lost on them was why is Eritrea in the mess it is in?  Who is responsible?  And how do we extricate it?  This is not surprising, of course.  The �G-1� supporters have developed this habit of dwelling on the Irrelevant to avoid facing reality: they obsess over what color of flag was flown, what words were used, etc.  

Having succeeded in evading the police state, we hope that Milkias Mehretab and Semere Tazaz will re-open their banned paper in exile until such a time that they can return to a post-PFDJ Eritrea which is coming soon, notwithstanding the cries of those who live in denial.  Welcome to the Land Of The Free.