There is a radio station that airs the news and views of ordinary Eritreans; it is called Voiceless of Eritrea and it broadcasts nothing but silence.

In the static, in PFDJ�s Eritrea, only foreigners can speak on behalf of Eritreans victimized by their government.  Even then, it is in a muted going-through-the motions voice, with an eerie familiarity and resigned spirit: the equivalent of File A going to Drawer B.  The files and the drawers may change but the motion is the same. There is no expectation amongst polite company that any of the motions will actually translate into something tangible, but the files must be shuffled because, if nothing else, we can refine our meta.  Sadly, when it comes to Eritreans, what we have here is not human rights but meta-human rights: a self-referential discussion about human rights.

Let me elaborate, using the recent case of Aklilu Solomon, the VOA reporter who was recently abducted by the government of Eritrea, and the responses from the usual quarters.   Aklilu is just an example; one can substitute the name for any other voiceless Eritrean languishing in PFDJ�s dungeons.

As reported by Awate�s Gedab News on July 12, Aklilu Solomon was arrested on July 8, 2003 by security officers who taunted him for submitting a report that �pleased the enemy.�  The broadcast they found offensive aired a couple of weeks earlier, June 20, where he had the nerve to report a basic fact: parents are devastated when they hear about the death of their children.  Some cry, some wail, others faint.  This is a heresy in PFDJ�s Eritrea where, according to one of their versions of what people said, a parent is heard saying, �when we bid them farewell, we said, �Go! Sacrifice yourself! Be a martyr!�� 

On the surface, Aklilu Solomon is luckier than most Eritrean victims because (1) he works for an American employer, VOA; (2) he is a journalist, which means that he will have instant advocates pressing his case.   I say �on the surface� because, in the end, these factors are not enough to make a difference.

Shortly after the broadcast, the Ministry of Truth in the Government of Oceania revoked his license.  This, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with his broadcast; it is just that by sheer coincidence, the Ministry of Truth had just discovered, �Oh My God!  The man has not fulfilled his national duty!�   Aklilu Solomon was credentialed and hand-picked by the previous Acting Minister of Truth, Zemehret Yohannes,  and the buddy-buddy system was awaiting to see if someone would jump to the defense of the reporter.  But, it turns out, the previous Acting Minister of Truth was in Europe, busy in his new role as the Acting Emptier of The Wallets of the Flock.

Now, right here, the Voice of America could have protested in the strongest language possible.  But it didn�t.  Probably because in PFDJ�s Eritrea nobody quite knows who to go to.      From June 21 to July 8, the government was trying to figure out what to do: do we just revoke his license and �freeze� him, as we have frozen many?  Or do we send him to one of our slave camps and have him fulfill his �national duty�?   The latter was a tried-and-true approach: recall that every time Amnesty International (back when they used to be able to get visas to Eritrea) asked the government on the whereabouts of journalists, the Minister of Injustice used to write back, �oh, they are in Sawa fulfilling their national duty.�  Besides, it sends a strong message to the other stringers for BBC and AFP:  caution, surface is slippery so don't push hard. 

So, he was �picked up� on July 8 by security officers, at night, to send him a reminder that he had forgotten to fulfill his national duty. (The rumor that they left the head of a dead horse next to his bed has not been corroborated.)

The American Ambassador sprang to action and, had nobody to talk to.   So he spoke to the All-Purpose Commissar, Naizghi Kiflu, formerly the Minister of Truth and now the Official Bouncer of the PFDJ Club.   Naizghi gave the ambassador the PFDJ�s patented, �I know nothing of this matter� followed by the very helpful hint that he just doesn�t know who does.    Shrug. 

Self Dialogue 

With Aklilu Solomon arrested, the voices of protest poured in, albeit in their usual self-dialogue style.  First (July 14) came the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which had named PFDJ�s Eritrea �one of the world�s ten worst places to be a journalist� on World Press Freedom Day in May.   CPJ quoted its own executive director, Ann Cooper, to make the point that the �outrageous� arrest of Aklilu Solomon was �outrageous� and the government should �immediately release� him. 

Then (July 14) came the VOA, which quoted its own Director, David Jackson who decided to �strongly� object the arrest, a week after the fact.  Mr. Jackson must have an honorary PFDJ-issued citizenship because he talks like a PFDJ subject.  While the issue is the arrest of his own reporter, Mr. Jackson decided to tell us that Aklilu Solomon had provided excellent coverage about the drought in Eritrea and therefore�what?  He is not a Weyane?  What if he hadn't covered the drought, would that have made his arrest justifiable?  While he�s at it, maybe Mr. Jackson could have added that Aklilu paid his 2% rehabilitation tax.

Then (July 15) came the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which had labeled PFDJ�s Eritrea as �Africa�s biggest prison for journalists.�  And what did RSF do?  It decided to quote its own boss, Secretary General Robert Menard, who said, that the arrest of Aklilu Solomon makes �Eritrea by far the most repressive country in Africa in this respect."

Not to be outdone, Eritrea�s Ministry of Truth decided to have a conversation with itself, with its characteristic flair for language that is �outside of this world,� to use one of its favorite phrases.  The ministry interviewed its own Acting Minister, Ali Abdu Ahmed, who decided to take a break from his daily interview with UN IRIN to make a statement about the arrest of Aklilu Solomon. �We cannot entertain addressing the issues of individuals when the core of the matter remains to be nothing but the realization of what they need to carry out as nationals.�   See, on June 19, Aklilu Solomon was carrying out his duty as a national, with a PFDJ physician authorized waiver from military service due to his health; on June 21, he ceased carrying out his duty as a national--he no longer had any health complications and was fit for military service.  Whatever he did or did not do on June 20, has absolutely nothing to do with his shift from a national to a mere individual.

In all of the above quotations and statements, there is one glaring absence: the voice of the victim.  There is no statement from Aklilu, nor from his family because in PFDJ�s Eritrea, they are mere individuals, not citizens with rights.   Voice of America does not interview a spokesperson from the Eritrean Reporters Association because no such organization exists because Eritreans are just individuals, not citizens with the right of free association.  RSF and CPJ cannot quote or attribute information to Eritrean opposition figures or human rights activists because they don�t find them credible or even reachable, for that matter.   Part of the reason for this is RSF and CPJ�s snobbery and elitism which finds Western sources (inclduing themselves) more credible than African sources and they find it easier to stay within their trusted collection of names on their rolodex; but part of it is that the Eritrean opposition is fragmented, ineffective and self-insulated from the universe of human rights advocacy and effective lobbying and, therefore, as good as non-existent. 

�Next Time�, Again? 

I hate to say this but within weeks, if not days, the case of Aklilu Solomon will just be another distant case of another �individual� who has been abducted, arrested or made to disappear by the government. My guess, I hope I am wrong, is that he won't be in Sawa for military training; he will be in some unmarked, unknown jail somewhere.  

Think back of how many outrages we endured all the while saying, �that is it, no more!�  September will mark Year 2 of the arrest of the �G-15�, the journalists, the elderly and many more �individuals� we haven�t even heard of since.  October will mark Year 1 of the disappearance of Eritreans deported from Malta.  December will mark Year 9 of the arrest and disappearance of 20 schoolteachers, who are, to their families, presumed killed, without the benefit of a single day in court.   

Radio Voiceless Eritrea broadcasts nothing because the people are paralyzed watching, on the one hand, the PFDJ, which is methodically and deliberately setting Eritrea ablaze with it sadist indifference and, on the other hand, the opposition, with its puny, leaky, disintegrating water hose, sprinkling and feeding the fire, while the self-appointed fire-fighters fight over the direction and control of the hose.   

The disappointment, nay, the disgust with the Opposition is so pulpable, the Eritrean people have turned away from the main task of giving voice to the voiceless Eritreans thereby giving the PFDJ mafia free rein to torture our people without even bothing to pretend to care about their views.  

What will happen?  Well, since every agency is asking its "Director" and "Executive Secretary" and "Acting Minister", I decided: why shouldn't Awate ask the publisher of Awate, Saleh Gadi, the ultimate Voice of the Voiceless, for a preview of his speech.    He said, "Hold on to your optimism and defiant Eritrean spirit!  'aga wegaHta, dQdQ iyu tSelmat,'  went the Revolutionary song.  Change is coming to sweep off the debris."  

Spoken like a revolutionary.  Sounds good to me. 

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