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On August 17, 2003, Awate.com received a press release dated August 12, 2003, from the “military secretariat” of the “Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement,” which was, until recently, known as the “Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement.” The “military communiqué,” was issued in Arabic. For the benefit of our readers who don’t read Arabic, we are providing a translation of the main points, which reads as follows:
· On July 17, 2003, the Mujahideen attacked a wing of the regime, which was moving from Ferar close to Haikota. The attack continued for about one hour until the forces of the regime fled leaving behind their dead soldiers numbering 17; the Mujahideen lost three martyrs. · On July 23, 2003 a Mujahideen unit destroyed a military vehicle on the military road near the town of Gongne killing 16 soldiers of the regime. · On July 31, 2003 on the road between Agordat and Barentu, a military vehicle was destroyed and five soldiers on it were killed. · On August 7, the Mujahideen destroyed a military vehicle carrying a number of senior military officers on the road that leads to Sawa base in the vicinity of Haikota and killed six soldiers and wounded three. · On August 9, 2003, a Mujahideen unit destroyed a personnel carrier in the road leading to Rekeb, in the vicinity of Nackfa. Two were killed and four wounded.
Awate Team Commentary
The EIRM may consider these military targets as legitimate but the targets who are being described as “wing of the regime”, “forces of the regime” and “soldiers”, are our Eritrean brothers and sisters, many of whom have been forcibly conscripted into the Eritrean Defense Forces. The members of the Eritrean Islamic Reform Movement who carried out the “military operations,” who are branded "terrorists" and are hunted down by the government are also Eritrean brothers and sisters who see violence as a last and legitimate resort to bringing about change. The Eritrean government believes that the “EIJM”, and the rest of the opposition, are terrorists and traitors who must be eradicated; the EIRM believes it is waging a legitimate armed struggle. Though many do not want to acknowledge the fact, the two sides have been in a state of war for nearly two decades. Brothers and sisters are chasing each other with one intent: to kill each other. The "theatre of operations," which, in reality, are the fields of blood, have expanded from Western to Northern Eritrea. In other words, the government's "military solution" has not worked for 20 years and it is about time it considers more creative, fair and just solutions. The regime has outlawed all peaceful opposition, it has excluded many segments of the population from asserting their citizenship, it has blocked the way to dialogue and negotiations and chosen to rule by proclamations without a constitution or a representative legislative body. In the process, those who aspire to bring about a peaceful change have been jailed, exiled or made to disappear. Not surprisingly, this has pushed some to seek extreme measures to regain political and social rights they have been denied. How many more Eritreans must die before the current path of destruction is abandoned? How many Eritreans must die before meaningful measures are taken to find a peaceful, political solution to this madness? |
