As recently confirmed by Ato Adhanom Gebremariam in one of his articles, when Isaias gets mad (which is always) he lashes out by making a derogatory reference to their tribes and ethnic groups. Ever since �Nehnan Elamanan�, Isaias has relentlessly promoted this culture and it is now picked by the new Dimetrosites. To understand how this culture is promoted, check the Dehai Website where such bigotry and ethnic bashing goes on unabated with the full endorsement of the Dehai administration and their director, Yemane Gebreab. This is what the PFDJ-intellectuals practice: promote hate and prejudice.  

I was reluctant to reply to this irresponsible bashing for almost two years. I believe staying aloof of petty issues is the best thing to do when one is addressing national issues. Nevertheless, no one is coming forth and condemning such practices. The intellectuals are quiet and, it seems, are being amused by this. I want to appeal to all those who write pages and pages to counter such propaganda of division. An attack on an Eritrean ethnic group is an attack on all Eritreans. Otherwise, do not complain when organizations like the Kunama and Afar rise to defend themselves. Do not complain when websites with ethnic agenda are set to defend their ethnic groups. If such things are considered sub-national, the cause for such reaction should be identified. Otherwise, watching a victim being victimized and condemning them when they start to defend themselves is an unbecoming behavior of those who consider themselves enlightened. I don�t intend to entangle in such debates with ignorant elements who don�t know anything about Eritrea or its history. With this, I am pleading to all noble Eritrean intellectuals to take charge and face such unwarranted ethnic bashing.  

I have met people who treat rumblings like that of Embaye Melekin as an amusement. That is exactly how I treated the writings of the bigot extraordinaire.  

I have curiously followed the writings of this man, specially when he claimed to have had a call from God telling him that Haile Deru�e will become the president of Eritrea in December 2001. I never understood, in fact no one would understand, how he thinks.  Embaye claims to be a religious person, yet he is a violent bigot and a racist. Embaye occasionally claims that he talks to God; yet, he is a hypocrite. If I find out that God talks to the likes of Embaye, I will immediately become an atheist. Only the Lucifer can talk to Embaye Melekin. 

Embaye Melekin is not the only one playing this dangerous game.  Over at Yemane Gebreab�s website, Dehai, profoundly ignorant geezers like Feseha Habte refer to Seyoum O/Michael, derisively, as �Harestay;�  cowards with fake names refer to the great nationalist Ahmed Nasser as �Sahotay�, etc.   What makes Embaye Melekin worth responding to is because he is a prolific writer and could influence the gullible.    

Experts say childhood plays a role in the future thinking of people, and I thought perhaps it is helpful to look into his childhood, the Embaye of the old days in Alighider. In a small country like Eritrea, one needs to just open a file, and information with X-ray clarity becomes abundant. Those who live in glass houses  have become fond of throwing stones at others. 

Childhood Influences

As a school child, Embaye used to walk to the blackboard to draw knives, with a symbol of a cross, penetrating a crescent and star (considered a Moslem symbol) with blood dripping from the crescent. He used to tell his young classmates that he envisions Christians killing Moslems. After his young days in Alighider, and many unfavorable incidents later, he left to grow up in the house of Bitweded Asfeha Weldemichael, his *aunt�s husband. We don�t need to repeat what Asfeha Weldemichael stood for.  

Later, Embaye Melekin grew in an Ethiopian Embassy residence in Nigeria. His promotion of anti-Moslem rhetoric and his falsification of history are hallucinations taken from the books of the Andenet party of the forties.  It is no surprise, then, that the grown-up Melekin is the man who threatened to tame the Eritrean Moslems by �the unity of the Eritrean and Tigrayan Christians: It will not take them a day to unite.'   It is no surprise, then, that the grown-up Melekin would call Ibrahim Sultan �Bedew Sultan� �  referring to the great man�s pastoral lifestyle in a derogative manner, even if, in the process, he insults the descendents of Mariou and Troaa; their brother, his great ancestor manshiou, is turning in his grave.   It is no surprise, then, that he castigates the entire Saho nationality because he is unhappy with the writings of one Saho Eritrean, Mr. Barole.   

But he reserves most his venom at two Eritrean groups: the Betjuk and the Jeberti.   I think it is important that some innocent readers be exposed to the true histroy of these great people.

The Betjuk 

The origins of the Betjuk can better be told by the Betjuk themselves.  I was fortunate enough to know a few in my lifetime and I would like to share from my modest experience. 

Alighider is the home of the late Idris Gelawdeos, founder of the ELF and later a member of the Constitution Commission of Eritrea (CCE). He was a Betjukai and died a few years ago. Alighider was also home of Azzien Yassin, a veteran leader of the ELF and another member of the CCE, who died a few years ago. It is also home to Zahra Jabir, ex-mayor of Keren and a high ranking official of the Eritrean Government. She is the wife to Mohammed Nur Ahmed, the Eritrean Ambassador to China. She is also a sister of Dr. Yahya Jabir, the young Eritrean medic who joined the ELF right after his graduation. He was martyred in an Ethiopian ambush while attending to a woman in labor in the Eritrean desert. It was also home to the Mohammed Mussa family whose six or seven children were all fighters.  

The Betjuks, who were highly educated by the standards of the middle of the last century,  were recruited en-masse to work in the Alighider plantation, about ten Kilometers west of Tessenei, close to the Sudanese border. The story of Alighider is a story of the Betjuk as much as it is the story of the Hadendwa and the Beni Amer.  

Betjuk is a small, cozy district, about 15 Kilometers North West of Keren. The vast area of Betjuk lies between the Ander Gorge and the Anseba River. The Betjuk are neighbors to the Blin, both Tewqe and Terqe, west of Krba Bered and East of Wazntet. They also are neighbors to the Ad Tekles on the Sahel side and the Mensa�e beyond Ajerbeb.  

Betjuk has always been home to noble Eritreans who served the Eritrean national cause with dedication and loyalty. To name a few, it is the home of Saeed Behailay and Mohammed Idris (Mkeskish): the revolution�s human-Internet of the time. They risked their lives while they collected intelligence and served as communications links between the Eritrean liberation army and the cities. It is home to Taher Salem, the erstwhile martyr. It is home to Osman Zeroum. It is home to Ibrahim Ali-Nur. It is home to Abdella Suleiman, (member of the ELF democratic reformers group of the late sixties), who played an important role in acquiring arms and financial assistance and under whose leadership the ELF�s foreign relations flourished, with dozens of representative offices the world over. It is home of the brave and generous Shiekh Ali-Bekhit who was known by the Tor Serawit as �Shambel Ander�, a villager who acted as a father to all liberation fighters. The Tor-Serawit always chased him to the extent that helicopter squads were frequently on the look out for him. Wazntet, the main village of Betjuk, was a bustling village. It was destroyed and deserted during the liberation war of the sixties. Betjuk is a region known for its dedicated quest for education and knowledge.  

The Betjuks go few generations to find their origin to Christianity just like their neighbors, the Ad Tekles and Bet Asghede. They have been interaction and mixing with other ethnic groups to the extent that they have members with Saho and Gelaanta origins.  

Melekin claims that the Betjuks hail from Gojjam. Who cares? Who cares where every Eritrean comes from unless one is a student of anthropology? The measurement of Eritreanism is one�s loyalty to the land and all its people, regardless. 

The Jeberti 

As for the Jeberti, there is no one who hates them more than Melekin except Isaias himself. In a conversation with the late Orthodox Papas, Isaias reportedly said, �ezom Jeberti ember ashegiromna.� His Holiness, a partriot,  is said to have replied, �anta wedey hzbi yzareb alo, entay ikhum tgebru zelekhum?� To which Isaias become hysterical and told His Holiness, �ane zbelkukhum gedifkum kal�e aytemtsou, ab zeyyetwekum guday ayt�etewu� and rushed out leaving the Papas behind.  The president has made it a ritual to insult the Jebertis on many occasions. Why? Until recently, I never believed a rumor that circulated around the Hillet Sudan and Gucha�a area of Keren and Acria in Asmara. But, sometimes I wonder.  

The Jebertis have known themselves as �Jebertis� (a name bestowed on them by the Prophet Mohammed) for 1400 years, ever since the first refugees, followers of the prophet Mohammed, from Saudi Arabia came to seek refuge in "Habesha". They were fleeing from the Quraish of Mecca and sought asylum in the land of Negashi Armaha, (a king whose very existence is denied by Ethiopian historians to this date.) The erstwhile Christian converts to Islam in Ethiopia and Eritrea are known as Jebertis.  

It was the disrespect to their identity that drove many Jebertis to disown the EPLF when in 1993, during the referendum for the independence of Eritrea, it forced on them a new name "Tigrigna'. The Jebertis have a language: it is Tigrigna. They have a religion: it is Islam. They will not allow anyone to force anything else on them. They will remain Jeberti. 

�Jeberti� as an identity is 1400 years old but the the composition and origin of Jebertis is quite diverse.  Why is there this notion, among the ideological inheritors of Qeshi Marqos and Demitros, that the Jebertis are all a group of people who fled the Atze Yohannes onslaught on Moslems and should be treated like foreigners?  

Many Jebertis trace their ancestors to the Ad Mualim of Zula who settled in the Highlands around May Tsaeda, and acquired the Jeberti identity hundreds of years ago. Many others trace their origins to the Belew who ended in Seraye, Tekhela. Moreover, many more trace their origins to Christians from different areas of the highlands. But alas, those who can trace their origins hundreds of years to Christian ancestors are considered alien by the bigots simply because they acquired the Jeberti identity. There were also Moslem groups from Harrar and Afar who accompanied Gragn in his conquests against the Axumite Kingdom. Some of them settled in Eritrea over five hundred years ago when Dubaruba (Dubarwa) was the deat of the local rulers of Medri Bahri. Those are the ancestors of many of today�s Jebertis.   In addition, there are many Eritreans who arrived with the invading armies of Ethiopian Kings and generals centuries ago: they are Christians and Moslems. Ras Allula came with over 200,000 soldiers and their families who settled in Eritrea; they are now unmistakably Eritreans. Thousands of originally Ethiopian and Tigrai citizens settled in Eritrea after they joined the Italian Army and decided to make Eritrea their home afterwards. Yes, there are thousands and thousands of today�s Eritreans who trace their ancestors to Lasta, Suakin, Shagya,Tigrai, Ethiopia and Somalia and from the Arabian Peninsula. Yes, there are also Jebertis who settled in Eritrea from Tigrai when Melekin�s idol, Atze Yohannes, passed a proclamation that ordered Moslems to either convert to Orthodoxy within a week or face the confiscation of their properties and be exiled. Eritrea was the safe haven for the victims of Yohannes because it was under the rule of Turks. Yohannes ordered all his subjects to wear the Maateb to show that they are Christians. Moslems were banned from wearing the Moslem Turban, Ummamet. It was during that time that the now common tatoo of a cross on the forehead and temples were promoted. Killing was rampant and the Jebertis had to flee to all four winds. Many ended up in the Eritrean highlands to join previous refugees who fled from earlier Ethiopian emperors. Today, there are Jebertis who fled from Yohannes� rule, in Somalia, Djibouti, inner Ethiopia, across the sea in Yemen and Saudi Arabia and Eritrea. The presence of Jebertis predates the presence of a big portion of present day Eritreans who themselves settled in Eritrea from every region one could imagine: Tigrai, Gojjam, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Oromia.  

People who migrated to the Habasha (present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia) from across the sea and from other parts of present-day Eritrea were continuously settling in the Eritrean highlands. Most Moslems who settled in the Eritrean Highland joined either the Jebertis or the Sahos. Due to the easy assimilation in the culture, many ended up adapting the Tigrigna language, merged with the Jebertis and those who did not adapt Tigrigna merged with the Saho.  There are originally Tigre speaking Moslems who settled in the Kebessa or lived in its escarpment who are now Tigrigna speakers. For all intents and purposes, those groups are considered Jeberti if one is to go by their language, traditions and culture. But simply because they look identical to the Jebertis, or have become Jebertis, though Tigre, they must be considered aliens!  

As a minority, the Jebertis were persecuted throughout their history. Many left their land, settled in towns, and adapted a new lifestyle giving up farming. They became artisans, weavers, traders and teachers�professions despised by the common peasant. They are the first fashion designers of today�s Zuria and Tlfi. They were the blacksmiths who forged weapons and farming equipment. They were the goldsmiths who created ornaments. They were the shoemakers, carpenters and other skilled artisans who contributed greatly to the meager civilization that we have. They flourished in trade and commerce and invited the envy of many prejudiced people.  

As for the nationalism of the Jeberti, it is a fact that the first Eritrean martyr is a Jeberti and his name is  Shiekh Abdulkadir Kebire. Every Eritrean worth his salt knows that Kebire is one of the great pillars that played a historical role in the making of the Eritrean nationalism. If not for Kebire and his likes, we would have rotted under the rule of the ABYSSINIAN King, which incidentally is Melekin�s e-mail name according to another empty lady who says she is the great-great-grand-daughter of Zerai Deres� brother.  

The Jebertis have many loyal patriots of whom they are proud.   To mention a few, the martyr Siraj Ahmed,  who converted his shop to an ELF cell, activists of the early sixties including Seyoum Ogbamichael and Isaias Afwerki know that; Burhan Hassen, one of the founders of Mahber Shewaate. the brave fighter of the Awate era, Negash Mohammed Tuoum; the martyr Mahmoud Mohammed Saleh, formerly with the ELF�s Education Department; Beshir Abdulkadir Beshir who played a major role in leading the ELF army in The Sahel. They had Fitwi. They share the bravery of Saeed Shiekh Saleh together with the Saho. They had  Aya Khiar Hassen, the loyal friend of Ato Weldeab Weldemariam, until his last days in Cairo;  Haji Taha Nur,  one of Sabbe�s closest associates; another Taha Nur, the leader of the PLF and member of the constitution commission of Eritrea (CCE); the late Dr. Saffi Imam, also a member of the constitution commission and so on and so on.    This is besides the hundreds of nameless young patriots who, just like any other Eritrean, struggled and gave their lives under the gallant Eritrean Armies, both in the ELF and EPLF. 

In addition to their pride of positive contribution, the Jeberti can be proud that there never has been a documented case of a Jeberti betryaing Eritrea;  there never was  any Jeberti accused of any destructive role during the whole period of the struggle and the revolution. That was ever since the forties, when they looked up to people like Haji Qusmellah and Haji Berhanu Ahmedin and many more.  

Nothing negative can objectively be said about the nationalism of Jebertis: the fact is that  they are the major beneficiaries of a united and an independent Eritrea.  They have the cultural and linguistic affinity to one major part of Eritrea and the the religious affinity of another major part of Eritrea. When those two major Eritrean segments clash, the Jebertis are the victims. The Jebertis know their interest lies in a united Eritrea. Accusing the Jebertis of being anti unity is just plain ignorance of Eritrean facts. 

The Ethnic Baiters

Embaye Melekin wants to deport Betjuk, Jebertis and now  all of Tselot! He claims that Tselot was given as a praying space to the people by the original native Hamassien and those who hail from Tselot are aliens! Get ready to deport Isaias, Saleh Mekki and many others from Tselot. How absurd and stupid can one be? Isaias is an Eritrean whether the bigots from the stone-age like Melekin live with that or not. He is a dictator because he is dictator and not because he is not a native Eritrean who cannot trace his native bloodline a thousand years back in present day Eritrea. Who is that descendant of Adam and Eve who settled in Eritrea right in the days and can claim to own Eritrea on his own? Only hypocrites and bigots.  

The hallucination of Embaye Melekin, bigotry rather, is appalling. First, it denies the fact that Eritrea is a sum of all its citizens: Christians, Moslems, ethnic groups, etc. The formation of present day Eritrea is based on migration and immigration. The social system in Eritrea is a tested system of tolerance, mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. This formula of coexistence deteriorated when bigots like Isaias took power and hypocrites like Melekin started to spew venom trying to execute their paranoid plans. How could someone who goes to the extent of writing political programs preach hate and racism? Melekin once wrote a brilliant political program! What are the moral and legal foundations of his hate filled preaching? It is just outrageous. 

The Mensa�e, are noble and educated people. They are an extremely tolerant society. It is a freak of nature that a bigot like Melekin is born to that great social group and to spread his hate by invoking his Mensa�e background. It is a stain that shames the whole of Eritrea. The rivers of Bet Ishhaqen and Bet Abreha are dried in sadness. 

Melekin shamelessly mentions Ngusse Mensaay and Mussie Bekhit. He claims they represent him and that he would accept what they agree upon. Yes, Mensa�a is full of great men and women who are clean and loyal Eritreans. They are educators, pastors and leaders. They are the Mussa Arons, the Yohannes Zeremariams, and the descendants of Kentebai Aftai, the Merrirs, the Murkabs, Ligiams and many more. I know many of those honorable families. I can confidently say that they would feel ashamed to represent Embaye Melekin�s sick, bigoted and wicked views. He has nothing in common with them. Nay, Melekin has nothing in common with the noble Mensa�e people. They are for peaceful coexistence; he is for violence and disarray. They are for Eritrea; he is for an Abyssinian Kingdom. They are respectful; he is disrespectful. Traditionally, there is an exercise among Eritrean societies called excommunication. When someone becomes a shame and disgrace to his people he faces that punishment. Melekin is one such candidate.

Melekin is fond of throwing whole social group out of Eritrea if they do not agree with his views. His views and dreams are to see the Rise Of the Abyssinian Kingdom. Those he considers a blocking stone to such sickly ideas are subjected to the wrath of his sick mind. There is no difference between the PFDJ that brands anyone who disagrees with it as Weyane or Jihad and Embaye Melekin who is ready to brand people �illegal alliens.�  Goodness, where there visa requirements and a country named Eritrea five or ten centuries ago? The anti Islam rhetoric that Melekin is so fond of using, is identical to Ethiopian propaganda of the sixties. The man does not disagree with our dictator, he just dreams of replacing him because, according to Melekin, Isaias is not extreme enough in his bigotry.  

The prophet of hate, Melekin, has an advice to Eritreans: do not bother to know other ethnic Eritrean groups. He advises people to live with their misconceptions, ignorance and prejudices. He wants Eritreans to live separated, not knowing each other, yet co-exist in one country. What kind of nation building is the person envisioning? A mushroom of nation where the components of the society are inimical to each other! Isn�t knowing each other and learning the culture, language, tradition of each other a prerequisite for harmony, unity and building a strong nation? Is it the social reengineering of the PFDJ that he is promoting? Creating a sick and weak nation that would become an easy prey for sick exponents of Abyssinian Kingdom?  

I am not a qualified doctor to accuse Melekin of any mental disorder or insanity but he definitely shows strong signs of a person whose mental fuses are not functioning that well. I wish he would get some help. Better, I wish he would call God and get some divine help. However, one has to be careful: faith and bigotry are two parallel lines that never meet.  

There is some information that Melekin lacks: the Jebertis, Betjuks or any other Eritrean ethnic group are not guests to sick people like Melekin or his cohort in sick views including Isaias. Like any other Eritrean, they are Eritrea and Eritrea is them. The Betjuks, regardless of where they came from, (and by the way, everyone came from somewhere because no Eritrean rained from the sky) are all Eritreans by all rights. Questioning their citizenship is something the perpetrators should be ashamed of and not the groups that are being insulted. However, we know the source that is promoting such behaviors and attitude of insecurity: the Boss of the PFDJ himself.