The mumblings and mutterings of authoritarian regimes eventually reach a phase where they are greeted with the synchronized shrug of an exhausted people and an indifferent world. If ever there was doubt that the Isaias regime has reached that threshhold, it must have been removed recently after it announced, yet again, that it was going to demobilize tens of thousands of Eritrean youth.
If you are asking, "it did?", you are making our point, and we dont blame you. The announcement was made two weeks ago, but there has not been a single commentarynot onefrom friend or foe, from supporters or those opposed, to the governments latest announcement.
Demobilization or Demoralization?
If you are opposed to the government, you dismissed the announcement as just one in a series of lies, one not even worthy of commentary. You understand that the spirit of the word demobilizationmoving people from military to civilian lifehas been totally corrupted by the government. You remember the bogus "pilot phase" of the demobilization, announced in 2001, which just managed to shift soldiers from slave status to indentured servant status, then back again to slave status. You remember the lie of the "women being demobilized" announcement of New Year Eve 2003, which was followed up by massive roundups of the youth and the opening of "Sawa High School." You remember the university students of 2003 who interrupted their studies for just "one year" to provide "national service" and, a year later, when they were packing to go home, they were told they had to stay just one more year. Thus, the recent announcement means nothing to youit is just a private dialogue between the government and the NGOs, an announcement that had to be made to receive phase 17 of a 27 phase funding, but results in no change in the life of the soldier.
If you are a supporter of the government, you too had nothing to say, but for entirely different reasons. Maybe you are in on the joke and understand that it is just things governments say to get money, with a wink and a nod from the donor nations. Maybe you are confused because you cant square away demobilizationdischarging of armed men and womenwhen the government media (DimtSi Hafash, TV-Eri, Hadas Ertra) is telling you that Ethiopia and Sudan have declared war on Eritrea and Eritrea will not wait forever to get its land back. After all, the Eritrean government media now dedicates a full 9/10 of its time discussing Ethiopia and its government. Or maybe the ink on your article entitled "Demobilization? Never!" is not dry yet, an article you wrote to discredit those calling for demobilization and now, and you, yet again, live in fear of ever contradicting the government.
A demobilization campaign is supposed to be an orderly transition of a person from a life of soldiering to that of a civilian. As long as the Isaias regime is in power and as long as it is committed to a permanent state of war-footing, we are never going to see that. There is a name for a campaign where the government embarks on a mission that has no intention of converting swords to ploughshares but cynically exploits the yearning of the people to do just that. But it is not a "demobilization" campaign; it is a "demoralization" campaign. And, knowing the character of this sadistic government, maybe that is the intent after all.
Repatriation or Resignation?
There is no great indictment of a government than the fact that 13 years after independence, nearly 14% of the population lives in refugee camps unable to return to its ancestral land. There are many reasons for this, chief among them being that the issue of repatriation and resettlement is another subject that has little to do with the people: it is dictated by the governments relationship with UNHCR. An entire decade was squandered in the 1990s as the government wanted to score points with UNHCR about its alleged "independence", an independence that, ironically, made the most vulnerable members of the society, the refugees, the first victims of the war of independence, even more dependent on the charity of foreigners.
But the blame should not be entirely absorbed by the government. After all, until recently, we as a people have expressed little appreciation of the fact that the Eritrean refugee problem is more than a humanitarian disaster. In fact, *save those written by a few dedicated members of the ELF, you would be hard pressed to find a single writing about the Eritrean refugees in the 90s, dismissed as they were as "undesirable" or "refugees by choice." But it is even worse. Because the refugees are predominantly Muslim and predominantly from the Western lowlands, the games the government plays in stalling their return will have profound and disastrous implications in future Eritrea, particularly in light of the governments obsessive social engineering and reckless land policy.
Eritreans who read the announcements of the government about a thousand repatriated here and another thousand resettled there may get the false impression that the government is dealing seriously with the issue. Those who are more thoughtful may consider the following: everyone returning is someone approaching the end of his life: either a very old person, or a person suffering from a terminal illness who has resigned himself to dying. The few who are returning are returning not to start a life, but to meet their Maker in their ancestral land. We will never hear this from the PFDJ, but we expect the UNHCR to publish the information about the returnees so the Eritrean people can be informed of the true nature of this "successful" program.
Expose or Encourage?
Because we were willing to extend goodwill to the government, we as a people may not have been listening, but there were always lights of enlightenment and voices of humanity who were always pointing out the injustice of the government. They are the traditional opposition. And they are owed a long-overdue thank you and the gratitude of the Eritrean people, including from the new opposition parties.
By virtue of its mission, the Awate Foundation cannot be neutral in the contest between the forces of change (the opposition) and the status quo (the government.) We are firmly and squarely on the side of the opposition and we have never made a secret of that. Todate, most of our energy has been focused towards exposing the brutal face of the PFDJ regime; we will still continue to expose the PFDJ (and we encourage others to do so because we have a moral obligation to speak on behalf of the voiceless.) We will still nudge the opposition to correct its errors but we will not be, wittingly or unwittingly, a party to the inter-opposition feud. We will not participate in the tearing down of the only organized forces who have risen against the monstrosity of the PFDJ. We would also like to inform those who try to use awate.com for their narrow partisan politics that we will not entertain their articles and that they have to find another website willing to publish their materials.
Going forward, our emphasis is going to focus on doing our part to encourage the opposition to take meaningful steps to building a vibrant and formidable opposition. That is what the people want. The challenge is to form a united opposition force. We recognize the difficulties-- nothing that is worthy comes easy. But it is a challenge that can be met if all of us do our part. We believe this is the responsibility of all Eritreans, and none of us has the luxury of assuming a bystander or a casual onlooker role. More than ever, we are convinced that the yearning of the Eritrean people is to see a united and strong opposition force that can challenge the dictatorship of Asmara. We will do our part: we will encourage those making genuine moves in that direction and we will expose those who are a hindrance. The period of rehearsal is over; now is the time for action.
Postscript
Several weeks ago, we announced that we were experiencing technical difficulties with our Forum, a problem we had expected would last no longer than a week. The problem persists because we have outgrown our medium and because we do not want a quick-fix (an un-moderated discussion board which always degenerates into an insult-exchange bazaar.) We apologize to our readers and participants for the delay. We want to reassure you that the Forum will come back better than ever and you will not be disappointed by the changes.
