Let's call things by their name: what happened at Adi Abeito may be a tragedy, it may be a heartbreaking loss, it may be a massacre, but it is not an "incident."
On Thursday, November 4, 2004, following a nation-wide and indiscriminate round-up of Eritreas youth, hundreds were herded to the makeshift prison of Adi Abeito, on the outskirts of Asmara. Due to overcrowding and flared tempers, a melee ensued. Although the exact details of what transpired next are still precisely unknown, what has been confirmed from various sources (including Asmara-based foreign diplomats) is that nearly twenty Eritreans were killed, and several multiples of that number were injured and referred to Halibet Hospital. The loved ones of the victims flocked to the prison and the hospitals but were turned away without answers.
Some of our compatriots have described this tragedy as an irreversible and history-altering event: that Adi Abeito will be a rallying cry for the youth to rise up against the slave masters who call themselves "the government." If it is, it wont be because the cruelty was unusual but because it was the final in a series of cruel punishments this government has inflicted on its citizens.
Faced with any crisis, the first and last instinct of PFDJ is to lie. It lies about what happened, it lies about why it happened, it lies about how it happened, and it lies about who is to blame. Sometimes, it even lies about where it happened.
As Eritreans, our first opportunity to say, "No!" was after the Mai Habar tragedy in 1994. But we were in a euphoric, post-independent state and prone to extending the government the benefit of doubt. At Mai Habar, a dozen disabled war veterans--a group of people who are the most highly-valued and venerated in any societywere gunned down by direct orders of Isaias Afwerki. Their crime was protesting their living conditions, a measure which earned them the slander of "self-indulgent" by the foul-mouthed president.
This action, and the inaction by the people, emboldened the government to be crueler and more vulgar with every outrage that we now refer to as "incident."
In the "incident" of August 2001, nearly two thousand university students questioned a government summer program, which they felt was incompatible with their studies, and challenged the government to account for foreign aid that was supposed to be directed towards their summer program. PFDJ supporters, taking their cue from Isaias Afwerki, called them "spoiled brats." They were bussed, under duress, to Wia, one of the hottest places on earth, where no lodging accommodations had been made. The sweltering heat snuffed out the life of two young boys. The government took no responsibility for the death; it blamed it all on the G-15 and the students themselves. Then, the government media told us that Wia is actually a nice resort.
Eritrea had a private press then and the government was forced to reluctantly admit that the two boys had died. In the case of Adi Abeito, there is no private pressforeign or domesticand the government must have felt that it could lie about the "incident" with impunity. But the truth has a nagging way of leaking and the government was caught red-handed. The same pattern was continued: the victimsno longer "self-indulgent" or "spoiled brats" but now "gangsters"were at fault. The government was entirely blameless. More lies and promises about an investigation that will never be conducted: how does one conduct an investigation when they already know who is to blame?
So why does the government continue to inflict these cruel punishments to a point that it is now so commonplace? Here's one answer, provided in December 2003 by Zekere Lebonna and Aklilu Zere.
Of all the military gears of a Tegadalay, the plastic rope sends shivers to me, to this day. The plastic rope had a multifunction. It was used to bundle wood collected as well as for meseri nesela (to tie the abu jedid cotton blanket). But it was also a terror weapon used for the same purpose that the Khmer Rouge was using it. Disarmed victims were tied behind their backs with this rope before being led to execution grounds. It was also used to garrote the victims. The meseri nesela was a gruesome "self-reliance" weapon, one which spared the use of scarce bullets. This happened mostly on the riverbanks of the Waddis in the Tegih, Tebih, Arag, Ela Saeda, and Algena areas. Dry riverbeds, easy to dig mass graves. In 1973, the "Menka" movement raised the disappearance of these people, but to no avail. Most of the "Menka" themselves fell victim soon afterwards. (Zekere Lebonna)
And now after thirty years the same man and the same method is used to roundup innocent people and us the nave people, are everyday hoping against hope that this will stop and the prisoners of conscience will be freed. But what are we dreaming? Why would a mad man change his behavior if every time he takes an action nothing happens to him? (Aklilu Zere)
The answer to the question of why is the PFDJ leader so cruel is: because the PFDJ leader has gotten away with it for so longsince 1973, that is 31 years--he no longer even considers the risk of getting caught. Like a career criminal, his behavior is pathological and he has long forgotten, if he ever knew in the first place, the difference between right and wrong. That is why, in the few times that it has been caught, the PFDJs reaction has been so flat-footed: it is more shocked by the fact that it was caught than by the crisis itself. And it will continue until we rise up and tell him, "Stop!"
Winds of War
To state that the PFDJ is readying for war is like saying a criminal is about to commit a crime: it is to state the obvious. It is to describe the nature of the beast. Eritreans who have had so many warnings from so many different sources may get immunized to them when the warnings dont materialize; but that is no reason to be deterred from expressing our anxiety about what this regime is capable of.
The telltale signs are these. First, there is the closure of the Mai Nefhi Technical Institute and the re-assignment of the students to their military units. As usual, the regime has offered no explanations for this development. Second, the "gffa" is not being conducted during its regular season and it is more massive and comprehensive than usual. Third, the regime is now even more isolated than usual, having come back empty-handed even after a visit to the sole "ally" its got left: Colonel Ghaddaffi. Fourth, the discontent is now spread throughout every segment of Eritrea, including the military, who had been deferring airing their grievances until "demarcation" but are coming to the conclusion that demarcation is not coming.
We fear that the PFDJ will use the only instrument it haswarbecause it values its stranglehold on power more preciously than it does the future of Eritrea. We also fear that the opposition is not in a position to present a unified alternative to spare Eritrea more suffering and bloodshed.
Alliance Meeting
The rationale to form an umbrella group of Eritrean opposition parties is as valid now as it was at the founding of ENA. And it will remain so as long as the operation of parties in Eritrea remains illegal, so long as the PFDJ insists on dominating the political space and the parties are forced to be exiled.
Whether the Alliance can be resuscitated or whether it is broken beyond repair after the developments of October 2002 is a question that will be answered by its member organizations at its next meeting, now scheduled for the 21st of this month. Regardless what the answer is, we hope for a finality. Fix it or kill itbut dont give the people a false hope. Tell us whatever it is you've decided to do, or failed to do.
Regardless of what the Alliance does, Eritreans still need a unified opposition that reflects Eritreas diversity and is able to harness our differences in a way that is manageable and does not present a New Eritrea, a post-PFDJ Eritrea, even more problems than the one we face.
Happy Eid!
