Some Eritreans believe that Eritrea�s Revolution, which was initiated on September 1, 1961, was much like the revolutions of the Third World: launched to rid Eritrea of an occupying and colonial power.   Since this was achieved on May 24, 1991, they argue that the mission�s objective was accomplished. 

This approach to history negates the ideals behind the Revolution. Eritrea�s armed struggle did not start in 1952�when Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia.   Eritrea�s armed struggle did not start in 1967�when Ethiopia started torching Eritrean villages and killing the innocent.   It started on September 1, 1961 and it started when Eritrean intellectuals found in Hamed Idris Awate a man who could translate their ideals into action.

The intellectuals behind Eritrea�s Revolution were composed of two groups:  university students who idealized rights and liberties and parliamentarians and politicians who had vast knowledge of Eritrea and Eritreans. The university students included Adem Mohammed, Idris Gelawdios, Mohammed Saleh Hummed, Said Hussen and Taha Mohammed Nur.   The parliamentarian was Idris Mohammed Adem.  Later on, those who, like Idris Mohammed Adem, had given up on Eritrea�s federation-era parliament, joined the struggle including Tedla Bairu (the father of Herui) and Weldeab Weldemariam and many others.

Imperial Ethiopia�s propaganda and later, ironically, PLF/EPLF�s propaganda would paint the intellectuals as �Arabists�, �Islamists� and �Jihadists� and Hamed Idris Awate, a literate, multilingual warrior skilled in military science into an �illiterate bandit,� but the fact remains that the intellectuals were progressive scholars, possessors of law degrees from prestigious institutions in Egypt and Italy; young men who recognized the importance of putting together a nationalist, secularist, inclusive movement.  And the spark of the revolution and the namesake of this website, Hamed Idris Awate, though many continue to be surprised by this thanks to 30 years of misinformation, was a literate, multilingual warrior skilled in military science.   

The grievances that the Revolutionaries and the leaders of the Eritrean Liberation Movement (Haraka) articulated dealt with violations of the Federal Act.  They were calls for reinstatement of Eritrean dignity, civil liberties, and human rights.  Specifically, they called for the restoration of:

�      Eritreans� right to a flag they identified with;

�      Eritreans� right to speak and write their official languages: Tigrigna and Arabic;

�      Eritreans� right to representative, parliamentary government.

�      Eritreans� right to benefit from revenues generated by customs and maritime trade;

�      Eritreans� right to self-defense;

In short, the Revolution was launched to restore Eritreans rights, dignity and civil liberties.   In today�s Eritrea, rights, civil liberties and the dignity of citizenship have been mystified and described as unachievable, but they were and they remain the goals of the armed revolution that was sparked this day 43 years ago.  And as long as Eritreans are denied their rights, whether at the hands of foreign powers or at the hands of their own countrymen, the spirit of the Revolution must remain. 

Why The Revolution Must Continue

On August 29, 2003, one of Eritrea�s founding fathers, Mr. Idris Mohammed Adem, passed away in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and was buried in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.  At the time of his death in 2003, Mr. Idris Mohammed Adem had not set foot in a post-independent Eritrea.  That was how September 1, 2003 was ushered: by negating the contribution of Eritrea�s founders.

On August 29, 2004, 84 of Eritrea�s youth, and those who had defended its borders, its future hope, re-igned the spirit of resistance when they refused to meekly submit to tyranny and be handed over to the slaughter house.  That is how September 1, 2004 is being ushered: by resisting the conspiracy to abduct, criminalize and torture our youth, our children and our parents.

Between September 1, 2003 and September 1, 2004, Eritreans have been subjected to a great deal of abuse�at the hands of their very own government, the very same people who were supposed to protect them and at the hand of the accomplices of their government, the very same people who were supposed to provide them shelter and protection from the demonstrated abuse. The cause for which Hamed Idris Awate gave his life not only remains unrealized, but also is being subverted every day.

Institution Builders vs Institution Destroyers

A state cannot exist without institutions. Those who think that implementation of the 1997 constitution would remedy what ails Eritrea miss the point entirely.  Because the assault on the constitution�an important institution�was the last in a series of measures taken to destroy the other Eritrean institutions, which are equally important. These include its traditional institutions, historical institutions, religious institutions, military institutions, educational institutions, legal institutions, market institutions, civil institutions and the press.  In addition to these institutions, there are emotional attachments that bind a nation together: a flag, an anthem, a common language. 

The conflict in Eritrea now is between the institution-builders and the institution-destroyers.  It is a conflict between the �winner-takes-it-all� attitude vs the �all are equal stakeholders� attitude. The salvation of Eritrea and its ability to develop into a peaceful, stable and prosperous nation depends on our ability to heal all these broken institutions and injured citizens and the fact that it is too difficult to do so is not an excuse to opt for the simpler and temporary solutions.

Eritrea is a young nation and is not expected to have strong and firm institutions. The problem, however, is that Isaias Afwrerki, like all dictators, is an institution-destroyer because he, and his supporters, believe that the presidency is the only institution worth safeguarding. Not only are we making no progress towards building institutions, we are destroying the very few that we have every right to be proud of (traditional and religious institutions.)

The enemies of Isaias Afwrerki are a diverse lot, but they have one thing in common: they are institution-builders.  Think about it:

�      The elderly were trying to assert the role of traditional institutions and they paid the price.  Men in their 70s and 80s were jailed not because they posed a threat, but their ideas did.

�      The journalists were trying to assert the role of the press in questioning authority and they paid the price.  Not because they posed a direct threat to his rule, but because their ideas did.

�      The �G-15� were trying to assert the role of the loyal opposition and parliamentary government.  They paid the price.  Not because they posed a direct threat to his rule, but their example would.

�      The leaders of Jehovahs Witnesses, the Catholic newspaper editors, the Pentecostals were trying to assert the role of religious institutions role in setting morality codes independent of government, and they paid the price.  They were too few to pose a direct threat; but their example would have.

�      The youth�the university students, the conscripts�were trying to play their historic role as agents of change and they paid the price.

�      University Professors were trying to assert the right of educational institution�s role of advancing academics and independent thought, and they too paid the price when they were dismissed from their jobs.  Now, the University is staffed with foreigners who have no duty as a citizen, only that of a technician.

�      Eritrea�s law enforcement arms�the police, the courts�have been hollowed out and replaced by cadres whose only loyalty is not to the law, but to the president.

In short, Eritrea of September 2004 has no institutions that are in better shape than they were in 1991 and, in fact, a few (traditional and religious authorities) are in an even worse shape than they were.  Even the presidency, as in institution, is not powerful: it has no organization, no chief of staff, no minutes of meetings: it is only the president that is powerful.

And so Eritrea remains a police state ruled by one president and several generals who continue to suffocate the people and present them the same four choices that the founders of our Revolution were given: (1) obey; (2) resist and risk arrest, disappearance or worse (3) be exiled. Obeying is a survival mode and the fact that someone is �obeying� today is no predictor that he or she won�t be arrested or exiled tomorrow. 

The Opposition

The effort to institutionalize the opposition has also been disappointingly slow.   Despite all our efforts, the organizations are still identified not by their issues but by their leadership (�enda mesfin�, �enda seyoum�, �enda abdella�, �enda adhanom�, etc.)  Moreover, despite the fact that the issues that unite them far outnumber those that separate them, the issues they have chosen to highlight are those they disagree about, often described by their defenders and supporters in exaggerations bordering on caricature. The ghosts of Meles Zenawi and Isaias Afwerki appear in all these caricatures: one side expresses its views on how to bring about change and is immediately accused of being the pawn of Meles Zenawi; the other expresses its views and is accused of secretly harboring wishes of reconciling with Isaias Afwerki.

The baby-steps toward unification are very encouraging. Some Eritreans think that it is premature and naive to celebrate any unity, without critically assessing the conditions of the unity. Our position is that, as long as the membership of these organizations is satisfied, regardless of the terms of their agreement, 5 organizations are better than 23; 2 organizations are better than 5; and one is better than two. The effort to unify presupposes a dialogue and a discussion between the antagonists�which is a vast improvement over the d�tente of the fragmented opposition we suffered for so long. Only a united opposition can have any hope of challenging the government in a meaningful way.

Self-Reporting: Things We Are Proud Of

(1)  Voice to the voiceless:  It was founded on the premise that the voiceless are not inarticulate; they just have not found a medium and the hosts that provide them the space and the empathy. This remains our crowning achievement todate: on any given day, Awate hosts some of the most thoughtful articles and opinions written in Tigrigna, Arabic and English.

(2)  Clear Calls:  We do not do on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand editorials here.  Our messages are loud, clear and unequivocal.  You may agree or disagree with our views; but you will never be wondering where we stand and you won�t be wondering who is behind what you read because they are always signed.

(3)  We Report the Unreported and the Under-reported:  We do not allow our Eritreanness to be defined by the PFDJ and, hence, we do not feel the need to be redundant and report articles and news that have been reported in the government media.  We are unabashedly in the opposition camp. 

(4)  We Are Here To Stay: The PFDJ and its supporters have been prematurely announcing our imminent death for the last four years now.  We have no intention of going away and we will remain a thorn on the side of this and any future oppressive government.

(5)  We Are Entirely Self-Funded:  We have not received one penny from any institution, government or otherwise, since we have been operational. The resources needed to keep us afloat are paid by us and partly by the proceeds from our members. 

Self-Reporting: Things We Need To Improve On

(1)   Governance:  Our goal is to have an independent Board of Directors and ombudsman that will have oversight role over this medium.  We also intend to revise our constitution in recognition of the re-organization of our board. This year, this objective has not been achieved in time for the September 1 report.

(2)    Radio Awate:  We had expected to launch our audio service by September 1, 2004.  Once again, this objective remains unrealized mostly due to the fact that we are self-funded and do not have the resources.

(3)   Translation Services: The Eritrean medium remains to be a parallel universe: much of what is written in Arabic remains inaccessible to our Tigrigna readers and much of what is written in Tigrigna is unread by our Arabic readers.  Both readers could benefit from the point of view of the other, and we wish we could provide this service more frequently. 

(4)    Balance:  In politics, perception is as important as reality and, although we try hard to give all opposition voices equal time, the perception is that we are more partial to one side over the other. To alleviate this problem, we have announced that all future organizational press release and announcements should be posted at our Forum.  We have discontinued posting articles whose litany of insults outnumbers the issues the writers want to advocate.  Still, there is much room for improvement and we will endeavor harder to make all pro-opposition writers, regardless of their orientation, equally welcome at this website which is still dedicated to giving voice to the voiceless.

Happy September 1 and May The Spirit Of Resistance Against oppression Live On!

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