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Dear compatriots, It has now been 10 days since we disclosed that we are in possession of a Martyrs' Database and pledged to you that we will publish the data, in a series, "beginning next week." We followed up this announcement with an editorial setting the parameters of our disclosure: that we would be governed by concerns for national security, accountability and sensitivity. The "next week" we promised is here and we still have not published the information and, understandably, many of you want to know why. We apologize for the delay (particularly to one correspondent whose letter appears below) and we are working hard to ensure publication by Friday. One of the reasons for the delay is a concern we had not expressed: concern for our sources. As you can deduce, the patriots who have entrusted us with the database did so with the understanding that we would take every precaution to ensure that their identity is not revealed. Part of the delay has to do with an effort to ensure that the source is totally untraceable. The other reason for the delay was to ensure that, given the emotional nature of the subject, that the serialization is shortened to take no more than 3-4 parts. This has resulted in front-loading the task. In the course of preparing this data for publication, we have been attuned to Eritreans regarding this issue. As many of you who work in the area of public policy development know, the process includes a "Call For Comment" phase. Before a final decision is taken, policy-makers involve their constituency in the process by inviting them to comment on the proposed action. The comments are then taken into consideration before the final policy is issued and the people are asked to live with it. In this case, although unplanned, we have taken the delay as an opportunity to expand the call for comment phase to include letters to Awate.com, Asmarino.com and Meskerem.net as well as listeners of EDP's Voice of Liberty who expressed their views in Asmarino's Talking Points. (Source dates 12/6 - 12/16/04) Taking the four sources together, the following generalization can be made: while a majority (60%) wants the martyrs information shared, those who do not want the information disclosed (40%) are more intense about the subject. We intend to address the genuine concerns of our compatriots who are opposed to the publication. A tabulation of the "for" and "against" positions (excluding postings/letters where position could not be identified) is provided in the table provided below: | | For Publication | Against Publication | Awate Readers' Letters | 20 | 15 | Asmarino Talking Point | 22 | 10 | Meskerem Baito | 7 | 14 | Voice of Liberty (Talking Point) | 22 | 10 | Total | 71 | 49 |
A final point. Although we are certain that by now we are trying your patience, we ask you to be patient and wait for the publication of the database--particularly those of you who have made assumptions that Awate.com, opposed as it is to the government, would not have published the data, unless it contained information that was "damaging" to the government. This assessment is made because Gedab News only provides "bad news about Eritrea." The truth is that Gedab News is only after uncovering the truth that is not published elsewhere and it so happens that truth that is not published happens to be bad. We may be in the opposition, we may practice "advocacy journalism" but we firmly believe in the dictum that truth is its own reward. Even if this truth will "exonerate" the government. And, like every Eritrean family, we too have loved family members who have been martyred. We thank all the writers for taking the time to express their views, excepting the usual percentage of our correspondents who cannot make their points without threatening. (To our concerned supporters: don't worry, the First Amendment is not the only amendment we like. We live in a land governed by law and against those who don't respect the law, the law gives the law-abiders an extra weapon: the Fourth Amendment.) Excerpts of all letters sent to Awate regarding this subject, with the sender's name and e-mail blocked out to protect their privacy, follows: From Awate's Mail Bag
Numbers matter. Numbers matter because this will be a testimony on how honest or dishonest the government is with its people. I beg you to at least give us the true number. It may not be important to have names but we need the true number. I HAVE A DREAM SAID DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING. I BELIEVE ERITREA WILL BECOME A COUNTRY WE WILL ALL BE PROUD OF BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU. THE PEOPLE OF ERITREA NEED YOU. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. Sad how you try to sound caring and pathetic about your handling a sacred document in your reports. If you really care about suwuatna, why don't you redeem yourselves and be useful with the lives they left behind? Have you done a single thing to console their famiilies in any way or shape, besides causing outrage?How about helping the poor Eritrean families of the deseased who are in serious need of financial, health, and economic hardships??????? You think poking deep into their wounds without their wishes just to show to outside people who really don't care about them is fun or useful? The fact that you are doing all this in the wake of a ray of hope for a better Eritrean future further exposes your jealousy, hopelessness in your evil designs. Keepin exposing yoursleves (it;s not that we don't know you already). We know why you are doing this. Thanks to Woyane, Eritreans are a whole lot more alert than anytime in their history. We can tell a rat from a rodent from a mile away.Nothing and noone can break our back anymore.Good luck with your long trip straight down a bottomless pit. Dear awate team,this is simply to say thank you are BRAVE, COURAGE ANG GREAT ERITREANS. please keep the good job you are doing! My reasons for opposing your publishing are as follows: 1) Eritrea has no accountable/constitutional government; 2) The border issue is not settled yet. 3) How many of Eritreans do really have Internet access? 4) For social science, military science, and history research in Eritrea we should start with THE MARTYR DATABASE from the revolution era, not from issues that will clearly compromise our national securely. Based on the above reasons I ask you sincerely to drop or delay your publishing of "The Martyrs Database" Maybe y'all can dedicate a whole new website for them. I know those who despise anyone opposing the government would also be less inclined to be disrespectful to not see it on a website that they feel is pro-weyane or traitorous to the Eritrean cause. Myself, I feel very odd seeing their names among the politically charged and what I noticed to sometimes be as venomous as that of the pro-government websites, as you yourselves admit. I must say I would be less inclined to feel this wary of your move if you dedicated a whole new website for it. It would be more respectful way to honor them, sirs. I know what I suggest costs time and money but I just wanted to express, if that expression is worth anything, to y'all how I feel about your move. Awate team,The first time I read about the plan of disclosure of our martyrs data base, I started to think about the treat to our national security. Whether your government is dictator or not, as journalist you should not compromise your national security. I strong believe on you judgment and I really I appreciate your open and objective analysis to the matter by looking at it from different angle. I strongly support the rules you uses to disclose the database. There will be Tigrina and Arabic versions of this, I suppose ... it is too crucial and no doubt that it HAS to reach the public at large .... I lost my brother on 1998-2000 border war and I know where and how he died. To publish again this information to remind me how this brave person died is an insult to all. Shame on you, I wish and pray God will punish you or your member of your family with death. You are right publish everything. - [Same author as the one who wrote the above wish.] To all of you awate team. Super as usual, keep it up. I am not sure if that is beneficial to the eritrean people now. but your work is appreciated Your article "Liberty, Security, and the Martys Database" has exellently dealt with those paranoid elements, who support the regime. And I say it was a good piece. I still am apprehensive about some of your decisions. You chose not to divulge the units of those killed in action for fear that it will compromise national security. It may be true in many instances, but not in PFDJ's Eritrea. Since the gedli era military units have perpetually been in teklit or metehinfas. Institutions have a short life. And therefore units, and thier leaders were always shuffled around....The summary executions that occurred in the recent wars have a direct link with the past. Has the regime this time chose to call them martyrs, when it has killed them. It was not its practise to call them this way in the past. Please be careful not to dilute the information. u need to unconditionaly stop the publication of martyres database. They shouldn't be used as a political tool and will cost you a lot .. i mean a lot. It could have a national and personal consequences and i urge you to stop it coz it won't benefit any one. if you want to, you can tell us the number of the martyes. I live in the usa ,I had two of my young brother in army, serving and protecting Eritrea against the wayene, one of them made it.The other one martyred on [deleted to protect privacy]. We are very sad but at least the country called Eritrea save.Please do'nt play game with my brother and other grave for your politcs. MY brother did not die for Isayas or for other single person,he martyred for his country.respect him and his family. Again and Again please do'nt expose him for your politics live him alone. Boy, What a grave blunder you are committing? It has never been clear than this time around for those of us who have been suspecting this jihad team was contrived, assembled, funded, and run by the enemies of Eritrea, your masters in adigrat. It is an indulgence by your own jihadist standard you claim to be, and a crime against humanity as well, to use our martyrs as tool for your political prostitution. Never to mention you are also putting your accomplices life in danger. At the end of the day neither the feeble jihadist team nor your collaborator will succeed to ruin this land. One thing though, Why do you portray "you jihadist" as a concerned citizens for the national security of Eritrea, while wittingly sell your morality for the trash agames? In exchange for what? Power? Recognition? Or just for the sake of evil deeds? The agames dont even have enough for themselves, like your masters say " KeJib terfo Le WishA" Selam Seb Awate, I pray to see the day that Eritrea will be lead by people like you, who have utmost integrity, respect, wisdom and good will. You see, it is that we are unlucky we ended up with people like Isyas. If Amricans after they defeated the British, were like Isayas, the Amarican dream would never have been achieved. Or if Mandela, had to turned like Mugabe, South Afirca would still be in mess. Unfortunatly for us, we ended up with Isayas (instead of people like you) that we are in this mess. The opportunity he had to do the right thing and to set Eritrea to good start, has I am afriad lost, in my opinion. It will take years and houndredth times of efforts to overcome the challenges and hopelessness he created. But, as long as we have people like yourself, I can say, perhaps we still have hope to salvage what's left. God bless you. Saleh, & the Awate team, I've been humbled. You guys really mean it. our deeds remind me of a Christian song. "I've decided to follow Jesus, I've decided to follow Jesus; no turning back, no turning back. The cross before me the world behind me, The cross before me, the world behind me; no turning back, no turning back." Dear brothers and sisters in Awate.com, It is with interest that I read your article " The Story of our Martyrs: Introduction" of Dec 6, 2004. I felt deep inside. I did not know what to say. After few minutes, I decided to write this letter to bring it to your attention. I know, you may have a political and maybe personal differences sometimes at its highest range against the government of Eritrea. I do not blame you for being who you are or whatever stand you may have. It is none but yours, and you are entitled for it. Be supporter opposition or you name it... it is up to you. But when it comes to our martyrs: I jus want to kindly remind you the following:1. They are neither, for or against the government... but for the people and deep in the hearts of the people. 2. We owe them the utmost respect... and should not by any means use them for or against the government for political and PR purposes 3. It is morally and ethically unacceptable to any person who is trying to use documents of our martyrs to any kind in respect to them. Reasons for you to change your mind might as well be a big list. Hoping to have highlighted the most important points, I hereby kindly request to halt on publicizing the information you claim acquired. Glory to our gallant martyrs.May Allah have mercy on them all. I am very happy about the information you will give about our martyers. Do you give also informations about those who were shot and killed by the goverment, but told to their parents they are martyerd ? thank you If you display the information of my cousins who fell in the recent war, I will sue you in court. No one is allowed to do research on my fallen cousins, with out the knowledge of family members period. No more playing games with fallen heroes. As reader I strongly oppose what you are doing. You are manipulating the politic using our Martyrs as you said brothers, sisters mothers and Fathers. I strongly object this . It has no voluble objective but only demoralizing the nation and weakening the nation this is a bad politic that you are committing suicide.I am just writing in regards to the mezgeb of Marteyers. I am glad such information is available to the public as a whole....My concern is for those people [who provided you the database], I just hope you take great care in making such information public so as not to expose the identity of those people and the way you have acquired such information.I am sure in the future there are people...who well provide such information as long as their safety is protected. Some people say "STEP OUT OF THE FRAME AND YOU WILL SEE THE WHOLE PICTURE"...The list of names of our martyrs might shock and sadden us in the west for couple of days at most, but cries of their fathers and the wailing of their mothers in Eritrea is still resonating in the form of poverty and despair on the streets of Asmera and other cities and villages of this cursed land. My dear fellow Eritrean, Every Eritrean knows the suffering of the people in Eritrea, except for those "Felitome Aynome ThAmotu". Our priority should be to establish strong emotional connection with the people in Eritrea. THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT ANY BODY FROM MY FAMILY MEMBERS IN YOUR WEB SITE WITH OUT OUR PERMISSION YOU ARE LIABLE .......AND RESPONSIBLE. Dear AwateTeam, It's with great sense of admiration and gratefulness I read your announcement with regards to the "martyrs' data base". I am in total agreement with you that putting a name and a face behind the numbers may help those whom haven't been able to yet assess the consequences of the PFDJ past and present blunders. Thank you for your incessant and tireless effort to bring about justice and good governance in Eritrea. Thank you for keeping the torch lit and for giving your all to avert another "senseless war." At the end, it will be people like you who will be remembered for showing courage and farsighteness at a time when the ordinary Eritrean citizens needed it most. I am glad awate.com prepared the data base now we will see their necked lie about how our people died. I am sure some of the crime is not going to show I mean people who r procecuted just for simple reason of 'koblilkum'. Yes awate team , you are the best I am so proud about this website. pls keep it up, I am thinking what can I do to show my support to you. you are so great team It is really interesting to follow you guys insinuating anything that you feel makes the PFDJ looks bad. I have never seen such analysis, which emanated from the deep personal and group vendetta you have toward the government of Eritrea and in the process hurting the country. What a shame. Wish you all the best in the path of insanity and lunacy. Thank you for your contribution towards the fall of the dictator in Eritrea.Your plan to list all our martyr is a salute to the cause of our martyrs died for. Your working day and night to put their name on a golden book, to be remember, not just in group, by name, is of historical magnitude.Your effort to track the name of all martyrs, and list them for us to remember them by name is much appreciated.Awate, please keep the good work. It may be an espionage milestone for awate foundation to acquire this data but to release this data in the filthy world of internet is very unexpected of you. As your fellow Eritrea who firmly believes in your birth right to oppose and citizens government policies, I must say that this time you are crossing the line and personally I don't want to see my loved ones on a website which illegally acquired the data and publicize it without seeking the permission from each and every martyr's family.If you are dying to publicize the names , there is only one way to do so and that is to seek a permission from every and single martyr's loved ones and ones you get that green light then you could have a field day...People opposing your venture in this venture aren't necessarly infringing your right to do so but they are advising you to refrain from infringing martyrs' family privacy rights....so my brotherly advice for you is that to realize that the whole concept was wrong from get to go and I hope you will revise your stand refrain from this unethical adventure. Hi people in Awate, I would like to commend you on your daily activities.......it is a light after the tunnel for most of us. I was wondering if you still have the first (older - from the independence struggle) list of Martyr's and if it is possible for the public to access it.Best Regards, This is a note to you to show my displeasure with this showing of the so called document listing my young brother name who gave his life defending Eritrea at [deleted.]Dear sirs, for heaven sake in the name of Allah, do not let me go though another sorrow.Please dont tell me not to visit Awate.com site because I dont have power to do so. This is the site I got my dehai about back home. I just want you to know that there are literally thousands of us who emotions you have at your your finger tip. You have given us hope but you only tease us with it. You have announced with great fanfare that you will release this information. However you never indicate when. You should realize that you are playing with the very raw emotions of those of us who lost many relatives. You are doing to us what PFDJ did to us. You are dragging this thing to long. If you have information please let us know when to expect it so we can go on with our lives. It is not fair to use this as a means to get hits on your website. I am sure many keep logging in to check. However they leave disappointed. Awate please stop this cruelty. Release this information ASAP. You are messing with a lot of very tender emotions. Please do not use this for political gain. Be straight up with us and let us know when we can expect to see this information All of us have miserably failed this beautiful and small country of ours with rich traditions. We all profess we love this country, but our words have not been supported by our deeds. In fact our hypocrisy is self evident : Her name has been tarnished by our failures, and we owe it to her history and to future generations to leave a country in a better condition than when took over. So, what does it take? All I can tell you is publishing the names of the heros is not one of them. i hope you guys at awate.com do the right thing! P.S. The people of Eritrea are not over the Ethiopians evil action about the cemetery of our martyrs, so, your plan does not help healing the wound of the people Best regards Please stop playing with our martyrs names. The list belongs where it is located, at the government archives and the certificates issued to their surviving loved ones. I have disappointedly followed your previous attempt with our liberation era war martyrs list. I am in possession of the ELF-RC issued list under the title of (Kmk [Lpq- {G[ 1996 KH)1. I can tell you how much my blood boils over every time I look at it, For it lacks decency and respect in archiving the important information about the martyrs as well as all the names it is missing. I do not want this to ever happen again. As for you, you did not even take the time to make that list available on line. What makes you think you care any more for the latest martyrs? Or is it for a political expedience that you want to thinker with their names? I am sure you will tell me that I do not have any more right of claim on behalf of all Eritrean martyrs, but I can tell you that I have an absolute right over my loved ones martyrdom. A price they proudly and gallantly paid. Last but not list I would like to remind you that one can not have a martyr when one does not believe in the cause. Your past record shows that if not all of you at least most of you do not believe in the cause my loved ones paid the ultimate price for. I do not want to see my martyrs names at your web site or any other web site, government friendly or not. The list is a sacred one and should be accessed at a sacred place only. Martyrs list is not a web site banner that you can post at will. You do not find such information posted on line out side the United States of America. In case you forgot we are not Americans and we have our customs to follow as most other people in countries the world over do. At the end of the day it is our culture and customs what you have to answer for when you transgress it. Transgress the line at your own perill. I worn you not to cross the line. it is amazing what you and a small team of supporters are able to do with so little. I'm one of those people who is glad you got hold of such a list and are doing the right thing with it. Truth hurts and people will react in different ways, which is to be expected. But, remember there are those of us who're not always vocal but support your work.while I say kudos, there are many others who'll not be happy about this database. Please be careful and take care of yourself. Well, good job in obtaining the database. You have hit the jack pot, I should say. But it all depends on how you use it. I'm 110% confident that it will be presented and handled with much dignity it deserves. Your article today mentioned good points and I believe it will be well addressed. My younger brother was killed in action during [deleted] and like any one, it will be hard to see his name again. Then again, you guys are humanizing the names of the faceless martyr's. As much as it's painful to re-live that dreadful moment, it's worth everything. Let other people learn what the price of war mongering is . . . [Deleted] and other arm chair quarter-backs know that misguided policies result such a destruction. |
