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INTRODUCTION Dear compatriots,
Awate.com has acquired a database of our gallant soldiers who were killed in the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war of 1998-2000. The database includes comprehensive information on the thousands who were killed: their full names, their place of origin, their nationality, their date of enlistment, the regiment they belonged to, when they died, cause of death, etc. Beginning next week, Awate.com will publish this data in a series. By the time the entire report is provided, scholars will have sufficient information to prepare reports from various disciplines including social science, military science, and history. Our readers will recall that two of the earliest columns this website promoted were Martyrs Album and Fertile Womb. We Eritreans are a people that respect our gallant fighters and soldiers and, in keeping with this tradition, the information we have will be published with all the reverence that the martyrs are entitled to. But we also have a tradition of allowing those in power to tell us how and when they will share with us information on those who paid the ultimate price for us. This secrecy, which has nothing to do with national security but everything with power preservation, is not a tradition worth encouraging or keeping. Tyrants thrive by denying and manipulating information and this tool must be denied. Unelected individuals, with no mandate from anyone, have come to exercise ultimate power to decide when our children should be sacrificed and towards what objective. This, too, is a tradition that is not worth keeping. The dead are not numbers and slogans. They are not extensions of the machines they carry. They are our brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers; they have family members who grieve for them every day. Behind each name, there is a mourning family, an orphan, a widow, an old parent living in an empty world after the passing away of their loved ones. We want to humanize martyrdom so war in Eritrea becomes for now and forever a thing of the past. The tribute to our dead is not just a virtual memorial; it is a reminder that Eritrea has paid enough, more than enough, to ensure that her citizens enjoy the fruits of liberty, justice and democracy. Eritrea deserves better governance, better living conditions, freedom and liberty because those dues have already been paid in blood and sweat. Eritreans deserve a stable and peaceful country, a country where the young dream beyond the age of 18, a country where the young bury the old. Finally, awate.com appreciates the efforts of those who helped us to acquire the list to share it with our compatriots. Those who make it their obsession to dwell over peripheral issues will no doubt give scant attention to the sobering data but focus their attention and wrath on how we got this information, but we, and those who provided it to us, understand that the martyrs belong to all of us and their stories must be told and retold by all of us so we can remind ourselves that wars must be avoided; and if they cannot be avoided, they must be ordered only after careful deliberation and only by those who have our consent to govern. May Eritrea be peaceful. May its people enjoy a life of freedom and liberty. And may the era of martyrdom come, at long last, to an end.
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