Over the last 9 months, for a variety of factors, we have gone through, and are still going through, the bitter experience of witnessing our front go through a period of deterioration and decline.   That the Revolutionary Council was preparing its third ordinary session within the background of this commotion and turmoil is engraved within our collective short memory. The challenges in search of decisions and solutions were as follows: 

�      The crisis that arose in the aftermath of the ENA [Eritrean National Alliance] fifth ordinary session;

�      Our relationship with the ENA which had gone through a negative turn;

�      That, due in large part to the lack of competent and organized opposition, the dictatorial regime of PFDJ [People�s Front for Democracy & Justice] had exacerbated the oppression and pain it is inflicting on our people;

�       That within the international environment, and particularly within our region, a positive political environment that encourages and colludes with organized opposition had developed;

�      That, more than any time before, for us to get measurable reception from our people and the international arena, there is a need for all opposition, regardless of their size and type and regardless of their political orientation and tendencies, to organize and speak with one voice. 

Within this context--one that has engulfed and continues to engulf our front�the issues that occupied the third ordinary session of the RC [Revolutionary Council] are ensuring the internal unity of the front and renewal of our membership with ENA.  To ensure this, the following decisions were taken: 

�      To appoint a three-member committee to deal with the escalating crisis that had developed within our grassroots and particularly that in Germany;

�      After noting its reservations regarding articles 3 and 4 of the Alliance�s Charter [issues dealing with religious and ethnic autonomy], the responsibility of how and when to renew membership with the Alliance was vested in the Executive Committee [of the ELF-RC.] 

However, the act of following up on the decisions that were passed to restore our internal unity have not been pursued within the spirit and guidance intended and have not brought fruition.  This act, though not fully assessed and brought to a conclusion, is one which can be considered corrupt from a historical perspective; the appointment by the chairperson of a colleague who is not in harmony with the grassroots as director of the organizational affairs office and giving a deaf ear to the members of the RC, doomed the initiative from the outset.  Moreover, his [the chairman's] decision to appoint people who have neither ability nor acceptance within the grassroots as heads of organizational offices simply because they supported his decision increasingly clarified the motives behind his objective. 

In short, the machinations of the Chairman and his political cohorts and, subsequently, the deeds he has executed since, have clarified to us that his intent is not to protect and safeguard the unity of the front but a purging process based on a narrowly defined need to retain power.   Thus, within this uninviting environment, expecting the appointed RC committee to come up with a solution is an expectation that should not even be considered.  Consequently, on the heels of the third ordinary session of the RC, not only is our grassroots not mollified, we are actually witnessing the turmoil spreading to other branches. 

The second issue that was of great concern to the RC and one that was the subject of a great deal and deep debate was that of renewing the membership of our front with ENA.  In this regard, it is remembered that the Chairman of the Executive Committee had sent a letter to the Secretariat of the ENA on June 17, 2003.  For its part, the Secretariat responded on July 8, 2003.  The gist of its answer is as follows: 

�       We accept your request to rejoin the Alliance and we ascertain your membership;

�      We anticipate your front to appoint two members to represent it to the Secretariat and the General Council;

�      We, as the Secretariat, are not empowered to decide on the two reservations you expressed about the Charter but you have the right to discuss them in the ordinary session of the General Council;

�      What we need to remind you is that it should not be forgotten that the Charter was jointly passed [while you were still members of the ENA], etc.

We found the position taken by the Secretariat of the ENA to be positive.  We are convinced that the Secretariat cannot go beyond that.  Seen from the perspective of the front and the nation, we note that accepting the decision and working could be quite productive and consequential.    Thus, henceforth, and until the next meeting of the senior leadership, we shall occupy our space in the ENA and carry out the responsibility given to us by the RC.   If the meeting of the senior leadership [of the ENA] is unsuccessful, we will present our summary to the Revolutionary Council.  We found this to be a better form of struggle.  

On the other hand, the position taken by the Chairman and his supporters is that we cannot renew our membership with the ENA until the above-mentioned articles are officially removed from the Charter.   As far as we are concerned, this smacks of trying to change, from the outside, the charter of an opposition alliance, one where our membership is not ascertained, and about a charter that we, along with 13 others [organizations] jointly endorsed [while members.]  Other than trying to exert [undue] pressure, we found no other meaning in it.  Whether we like it or not, it is inevitable that it will be seen only as a continuation of the sequential and exhaustive preconditions set forth by the Chairman and his followers not to rejoin the ENA.   Thus, we find no objective basis or justification to reject the decision offered by the Secretariat of the ENA.   

We have finally come to the conclusion that they present various pretexts time after time and have no desire for us to renew our membership within the Alliance and resume our struggle.   And our fundamental difference is based on this.  

And so, over the past 9 months of bitter turmoil, while we carried the slogan of national salvation above all else, despite the fact that it [ELF-RC] commands better resources and content, the leadership has not only failed in safeguarding the internal unity of the front, it has also failed in the struggle and leadership of enhancing the organization of the Opposition Forces.   To resume in this mode henceforth would be worse than reliving our recent deterioration and decline; we fear it could lead towards disintegration.  Thus, to safeguard the continuity of the front which is synonymous with unity, the alternative [we presented] is: 

�      Since the leadership, during these times of division, cannot conduct a successful conference, it should step down from its position of authority and surrender power to the grassroots movement who endowed it with its authority;

�      Because the cause of the chaos within the grassroots is the leadership, the grassroots should be given the opportunity to resolve their conflicts [without the intervention of the leadership];

�       While giving due consideration to the geographic dispersion of the grassroots membership and on the basis of democratic principles, a provisional leadership should be elected by the grassroots.  Its goal would be to organize a congress within six months to elect a new leadership.

These were the ideas we presented.  However, they did not accept the proposal.

Thus, after exhausting all alternatives, the conclusion we have reached is that this leadership has not only repeatedly demonstrated its failure to the grassroots, it has no intent or ambition to organize the opposition forces.   While the front is heading towards malaise and disintegration, we cannot watch with our arms folded and escape accountability to history.  We hereby give notice that we have chosen our mode of struggle.   We call on the grassroots movements to organize themselves, to join the ENA and resume the struggle.

Let�s struggle to ensure the continuity and unity of our front and to organize a broader umbrella movement of the opposition.

With best wishes,

Ahmed Mohammed Nasser, Member Executive Committee
Doctor Beyene Kidane, Member Executive Committee

11 July 2003