If the sole objective of the Eritrean Revolution were to rid Eritrea of foreign rule, then this May 24 should be a day when we celebrate without reservation, for that was surely accomplished in 1991.  But, since that was not the sole objective of the Eritrean Revolution; since the struggle was not waged to replace a foreign tyrant by a local one; since blood was not shed to replace the Derg�s ruling apparatus, e.se.a.pa, by the current rule of h.g.de.f; since it was not initiated to replace Ethiopian princes and colonels with Eritrean dictators and henchmen, this May 24^th will be yet another bittersweet moment, closer to bitter than sweet.

There is significance to the year Eritrea�s armed struggle started.  The struggle did not start in 1967, when Ethiopia started massive scale slaughter of Eritreans.  The struggle did not start in 1962, the year Eritrea was annexed by Ethiopia.  It started earlier. In started in 1961. It started after Ethiopia, and its accomplices in the Eritrean parliament, eroded the rights that were guaranteed its citizens in the Federal Constitution.  It started after Ethiopia and its Eritrean accomplices shut down the Eritrean press, illegalized the two official languages of Tigrigna and Arabic (1956), lowered its green-on-blue flag (1958), suspended its laws in favor of those of Imperial Ethiopia (1959), ending the Eritrean parliament, which eventually �voted� to dissolve itself.   The armed struggle was waged after a nine-year peaceful struggle, including that of Hareka, was met by force.  And the reason Eritrea�s armed struggle gained legitimacy and the instant support of the Eritrean people is because it was waged to restore the rights and dignity of the Eritrean people.         

An Independence Brought Forth By The EPLF�

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when those who predicted that �an independence brought forth by the EPLF will be independence only in name� were dismissed as bitter men and women envious of the accomplishments of the Front.  How far have we come now when they appear as prophets?  How far have we fallen when it is now the PFDJ elite�s turn to answer every criticism against them with �WE are the ones who brought you independence!�

Eritrea now is independent in name only.  The nation is stratified: with one small group, Emperor Isaias and His Princes, lording over the other group, which is the rest, the entire population of Eritrea.  The princes are licensed to do whatever they want, whenever they want and however they want it done, for a price: they have to keep their eyes, their ears and, above all, their mouths shut. They are to execute the Emperor�s orders without question which entails, above all, to lie for him:

• They are to call black white and white black;
• They are to describe a humiliating defeat as a �shining victory�,
• They are to tell the world that a police state is actually a �democracy�,
• They will say, without shame, that there are no political prisoners;
• They will assert, without blinking, that Eritrea�s entire press, without exception, was enlisted to spy;
• They will announce, with a straight face, that religious minorities are not persecuted, only required to �register�
• They will brag that the collapsing economy is actually growing by leaps and bounds.

If, in the process of telling these bold lies they face opposition or dissent, they are licensed to arrest, to torture and even kill citizens without due process.  In exchange, the Princes are spared the hell that they have subjected the citizens:

• They do not have to worry about how to make a living because they are licensed to buy and sell anything;
• They do not have to worry about transportation, because they have fancy cars;
• They do not have to worry about petroleum; they have unlimited supply;
• They do not have to worry about their children being rounded up because in their corrupt system they look out for each other;
• They do not have to worry about healthcare because they get it for free;

Yes they have frills and privileges.  But even the princes do not have rights. Because even the privileges given to the princes are not guaranteed: they can be taken as easily as they have been given by the Emperor, and they could be the jail mates of the same people they badmouthed and condemned just yesterday, as has sadly happened to many of them.  Consequently, as with every dictatorship in the world, the princes� sole constituency is one: the tyrannical emperor.  Thus, their only job description is how to please the Emperor.  And if it is deemed that the Emperor feels more secure and is more pleased when more and more Eritreans are imprisoned and terrorized, then those are the marching orders of the princes and that is exactly what they will do and have been doing.

On the opposite side are the Eritrean people.  These poor people have given everything they have�their children, their brothers, their sisters, their fathers, mothers, husbands, wives�in exchange for what was long promised to them�rights, justice, and dignity.  Yet, they are asked to wait one more year, every year.  Every year, for fourteen years now, they have been told that relief is just around the corner.  Once we draft the constitution, once the war ends, once the border is demarcated.

But any student of history knows that these are all empty promises. Since 1991, the PFDJ regime has initiated conflicts with and spilled or dispatched Eritrean blood in Southern Ethiopia (fighting the Oromo on the side of their then bosom buddies, the Weyane), in Eastern Sudan, in the Congo (on behalf of the killed Kabila), in Yemen, in Somalia (on behalf of Aideed), in Northern Ethiopia, and now in Western Sudan (Darfur.) This is what the PFDJ means when it says Eritrea�s asset is its human resource: kids contracted out as mercenaries to enrich Red Sea Trading Corporation.  

Eritrea is now reduced to a sad series of statistics: 90% of Eritrea�s population (excluding those in Diaspora) depend on foreign aid for mere survival.  The state of education, particularly higher education, is appallingly bad.  Basic necessities including food staples are unaffordable to the overwhelmingly poor population.  A state of permanent militarization consumes more and more of Eritrea�s meager resources.  More alarming than the economic state of the nation is the morale of the people: a sadistic government has demoralized and terrified a historically proud and brave people so that now the only future people see in Eritrea is to get out of it.  One of the most depressing statistics in Eritrea is that the annual migration and death rate exceeds the birthrate. In other words, the PFDJ princes are emptying out Eritrea of its population.

How Did We Get Here?

There are some who would like to attribute our current status to the War with Ethiopia (1998-2000.)  Some even claim that the changes came about in 1994 when the EPLF changed to PFDJ.  But there is an alternative explanation: the PFDJ of the present is no different from the EPLF of the Revolutionary era. It is merely perfecting on a grand scale on the larger population what it experimented with on the rank-and-file combatants on a smaller scale in the field:

(a) Concentration of Power:  Whether in 2005 or in 1975, power in the EPLF/PFDJ was always concentrated in the hands of a small group of people.  The names of �central committee� and �executive committee� may have given this group a cloak of legitimacy but they were always a secretive group of men and women, mostly hand-picked by Isaias as his princes and functionaries, and always rotated, frozen or killed when they posed a threat by having, or having the perception of having,  their own power centers.   Many �reporters� and authors who befriended these small cliques would later write about �collective decision making� within the EPLF, but this was far from the truth and the history of how the Front treated those who called for openness and democratization testifies to the fact that the front never exercised �collective decision making.�

(b) Extralegal Killings:  The EPLF/PFDJ never had any respect for due process or open courts. Mere accusation was sufficient to disappear, torture and kill combatants and even civilians.  In fact, when the presidential advisor Yemane Gebreab speaks of how the front has a �tradition� of dealing with dissent, he means exactly that: don�t expect due process, witnesses, courts, sentences or appeals.  One day they are free, the next they are not.  That is the tradition of the EPLF/PFDJ.  Case closed.

(c) Spy Networks:  The EPLF employed the Stalinist �Revolutionary Guard��halewa sewra�whereby combatants spied on other combatants even at the lowest level possible. Those who were found guilty even of unguarded banter (thought crimes?) were required to attend the �criticism and self criticism� rituals where they flagellated themselves for daring to question a process.   �Journalists� and writers would later describe the EPLF as �highly disciplined� without explaining why this was so.   These spy networks that were perfected in the EPLF are now employed by the PFDJ elite against the civilian population to the point where now people don�t even dare speak candidly to even their friends. The young are being recruited in droves to spy on their compatriots.

(d) Top Down Organization:  Like any Stalinist organization�including the Derg who had his �Kebele,� now inherited by the PFDJ�the EPLF had its �mass organizations.�   Now, in addition to these spying agencies, the PFDJ has neighborhood groups and �zoba meetings.� The entire objective of these organizations is to ensure that the message of the day is conveyed from top to bottom and that all other intermediate authority figures�village elders, the intelligentsia, the religious leaders�are silenced from offering an alternative reality to the one described by the PFDJ.  There has never been a case where an idea that originated within the mass organizations was communicated to the top and then implemented�unless that idea deals with ways for the Party leadership to make more money, wield more influence or control more people.  Yes, once again, many  Western �journalists� and scholars described this process as evidence that the EPLF/PFDJ practiced �participatory democracy.�

In short, if there is one thing that we and the PFDJ elite agree on is that the Front has never changed. It had a fleeting moment, in 2001, when it appeared that it might, but it reverted back to its old self and is now, in its words, �reclaiming our values.�  And its recent flirting with a hint of "dialogue" is nothing more than its tired-and-true system of stalling and teasing the people.

Who bears responsibility for the state we are in?  First and foremost, it is those within the PFDJ leadership who were entrusted by the people but failed in restraining the power of one man, then the Secretary General, later the President, now the de-facto Emperor.  Beyond that, it is the educated class, those who are students of history, who�excepting for a handful�have failed the Eritrean people miserably.  Lastly, it is the opposition groups who have failed by not presenting an attractive alternative that would put a lie to the PFDJ claim that the people are not ready for democracy.

The Meaning of May 24, 1991

Though the freedom of Eritreans is not yet achieved, May 24^th 1991 is still a very significant date as it marked the end of foreign occupation which had begun with Italy in 1890 and ended with the fascist Derg.  It is a great achievement and one worth celebrating for that fact alone. It heralded the promise of a new era, one where the people would determine their destiny and reclaim the rights and dignity that were stolen by Emperor Haile Selasse and his Eritrean cronies in the 1950s.  But those rights remain stolen: still no free press, still no official languages, still no due process, still no dignity.  In fact, one can argue credibly that in all these areas, Eritrea under Emperor Isaias has regressed even when compared to the rule of Emperor Haile Selasse.  

This being the undeniable fact,  to those of us who see the PFDJ elite as the new enslavers of the people, the date is no longer the final chapter. It is, indeed, comparable to two other dates:  September 12, 1974 (when Haile Selasse was overthrown) and April 1, 1941 (when fascist Italy was defeated in Eritrea.)  They are dates that promised a lot and delivered little to the Eritrean people.

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