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Menqesaqesi. Gffa. Wepo. Tantu. ***image1:left***These are the four words that Eritreans will associate with 2002. “Menqesaqsi”—literally “that which enables you to move”—is a form of identification. Without it, Eritreans have no freedom of movement. With it, you have the right to a very limited movement. In fact, if you have no “menqesaqesi”, Gffa will surely follow. “Gffa” means “roundup.” Allegedly, its purpose is to nab “draft dodgers.” Given the magnitude of the “gffa”—targeting everyone, everywhere—this either means that (1) Eritrea is now a nation of “draft dodgers,” or (2) Eritreans are expressing a form of civil disobedience against the government. The government wouldn’t consider the latter, of course, so it is content to insult Eritrean—land of the brave—as now full of cowardly draft dodgers. The people in charge of the roundups are the “wepo”, acronym for wetaderawi police, or military police, a police force with full military powers. TanTu is another word. “TanTu” means mosquito, a name given to the thousands of spies the government has hired to report on their family members and friends. A tool of every tyrannical government that fears the people, the “TanTu” approach renders organizing of any sort next to impossible. Its message is: “We are everyone and Don’t trust anyone!” The government eavesdropped on conversations, on phone calls and even on e-mails. The New & Old Tools of Terror These were the new tools of terror, but the old tools were not abandoned. In 2002, just like in previous years, people were still frozen (Mr. Tekie Beyene, Director of Eritrea’s Bank and Brigadier General Habtesion Hadgu, Commander of its airforce); people were still arrested (Hamid Mohammed Said, Saidia, Saleh Aljezaeri, Suleiman Mussa Hajj, Tesfaldet Seyoum, Ali Mohammed Saleh Shum, Wedi Redi and countless of nameless others.) There were new enemies, to add to the old. There were the “liberal” churches of “menfes” and “Pente” (to add to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, an old enemy.) There were the Eritreans who were deported from Ethiopia (who, according to the government and the Washington-based Voice of Eritrea, are responsible for all the ills in Eritrea.) There was the Eritrean Islamic Jihad movement which the government is simultaneously taking credit for completely destroying (according to Sebhat Ephrem’s interview, they were a handful and they are now gone), and for being such a large threat the government has engaged them for “13 years” (according to President Isaias Afwerki, now qualifying to teach America how it is done) and for still being a credible and imminent danger to the Republic (according to Eritrea’s Ambassador to the UN, Ahmed Baduri, who told us Eritrea has been fighting them since 1991.)
More of the Same President Isaias Afwerki told the Eritrean youth in South Africa precisely what he thought of them: you are disposable. I don’t need you; I have, thanks to globalisation, cheap Indian labor.
He also made yet another empty promise to the mothers of Warsay-Yeka’alo: I will disclose the name of the martyred within a couple of weeks. That was three months ago, but who is counting? The mothers and the fathers, that’s who. But there is always another crisis that will pre-empt the previous crisis: war and winds of war. Flight was one option. Eritrean members of the Air Force sought amnesty in Germany. As did members of Eritrea’s sports commission. As did the journalists, Amal Ali and Berhane Tewelde. As did Ambassador Mohammed Nur Ahmed and Ambassador Abdella Adem. As did a director within the foreign ministry, Younis Hussein Omer. As did Semere Kesete and Mehari Habotom. As did scores of Eritrean who crossed the Mereb and fled to Ethiopia. Others fled to Sudan, in the thousands. Some braved certain death to cross the Sahara desert and ended up in Italy and Malta. Only to be deported back to Eritrea. Only to be arrested by the government of Eritrea. Fighting was another option. There were F-1 explosions at the “Garage” and “Radio Marinayo.” As during the Era of the Ethiopian occupying forces, full and unconditional submission was another option. This came in the form of “Hzbawi mekete”—as spontaneous and as empty as the arms display and the frequent show of arms of the Derg. This broad but not deep orchestrated movement is meant to intimidate but, in the end, it is all-futile, because it is based entirely upon caricaturing and lying about the “enemy.” Where the Derg described the Eritrean Revolution as “petrol-crazed Arab wannabes” who get their orders from Mecca, the “hzbawi mekete” folks describe the “enemy” as “woyane tools” that get their orders from Addis Abeba. But behind closed doors, the Derg soldiers complained about Mengistu and the “hzbawi mekete” types, after making sure there is no “Tantu,” complain about Isaias. The “mekete” is a force driven not by love, principles or conviction but by fear and loathing. Remove the fear, remove the loathing and you have no movement. This is why Reconciliation is the word most dreaded by Isaias and his cronies. Relationship with Sudan, Ethiopia and Yemen deteriorated even further. The World Bank is discouraged and EU still insists on the Cotonou Agreement. Amnesty International wrote a damning dossier. The State Department joined the chorus and told the Eritrean government to shape up; it was accused of trying to overthrow the Eritrean government. RSF occupied the Eritrean embassy in France. An Australian reporter filed an article about Sawa being a rape camp. The Boston Globe advised its government to be ruled by caution in establishing relationship with Eritrea. The Arab League advised Eritrea to “leave Sudan alone.” At year’s end, more than 1.4 million Eritreans are facing drought and famine partly due to nature and partly because the government alienated every NGO and every GO that could possibly help Eritreans. With the country completely militarised, with the cultural gatekeepers weakened to the point of ineptitude, with government officials “clubbing” and getting drunk publicly and becoming terrible role models governed by the pleasure principle, with the economy in ruins and prostitution rampant, HIV-AIDS stealthily destroys our youth. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of Eritreans remain displaced and homeless, living in make-shift tents and the alms of strangers. Eleven years after Eritrean independence, more than 400,000 Eritreans are in the Sudan, with December 31 looming as a deadline for them to choose between two bad alternatives: to go back to Eritrea and become a game in the PFDJ sport of gffa, wepo, disappearances, arrests or to stay in Sudan and lose their refugee status and live by their wits. The Opposition So here you have a government with a hollow base, corrupt to the core, despised by the people and by the opinion makers of the world. A government that is bankrupt morally, economically and politically. A government that is literally saying “Hamus-Hamus.” A government that requires the most minimal and coherent force to tip it over… So, what does the opposition do? They do precisely what the PFDJ wants them to do. They pick fights amongst themselves; they ostracize and demonize one another. They focus most of their energies on all the wrong and secondary priorities. They posture and they magnify and embellish their difference when what they agree upon—that the PFDJ is the enemy of the Eritrean people and should be removed—takes second place and the noble fight for Eritrea’s salvation plays second fiddle to organizational interests. Cause for Optimism The “invincibility” of PFDJ is gone and, with it, the fear to oppose it. The Eritrean civil society has never been as strong as diverse as it is now. Every week and every month, there is a new advocacy group—in the month of December alone, two were added: HEWAR (Eritrean National Party) and EFDM (Eritrean Federal Democratic Party.) There is a medium of idea exchange that will never be muffled by the PFDJ: The Internet. The Eritrea-Ethiopian boundary is finally delimited and will soon, notwithstanding the huffing and puffing, be demarcated. The monstrosity of the PFDJ is no longer a secret: everyone knows it and its disclosure is irreversible. The Eritrean spirit remains defiant: unmuffled by the orchestrated campaigns of “chapter is closed” and unruffled by the loud noises of phony “mekete.” The youth, Eritrea’s future, remain committed to democracy and justice and they recognize the PFDJ as the major obstacle standing in the way of Eritrea’s march towards peace, justice and democracy. Happy New Year
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