I was inspired to write this by Lieutenant Kidane who has spoken truth in his articles at Awate.  I am using the name meseta Kidane to show my respect to him for encouraging me to speak up.  My background is similar to his, and we by chance know one other but the conditions in Eritrea do not allow me to guess even who he is. 

The Eritrean people are fed up with scapegoats. For more than fifty years, they have been hearing endless scapegoats. In comparison to the regimes that I have seen in my life the Haileselassie's constitutional monarchy did not attempt to use scapegoats. The Dergue was notorious in using scapegoats but the PFDJ has so much refined it and has become so much addicted to it that you wonder if it can live without it. It has become like the daily dose of daonil of a diabetic person.

Before 1998 even if the Eritrean economy was relatively healthy, the PFDJ clique roared in the TV and radio, "Bsenki megza'eti ezin ezin kgber aytekal'elen." [Such and such could not be done because of years of occupation.]  For every problem there was the ready made answer, "Nhnako dolar hizna ay'atenan, Bsenki dergi ze'anewe tihte qirxi nm'eray.. " [we did not come with dollars; an infrastructure that had been destroyed by the Dergue�] The excuses are endless.

Unluckily for the Eritrean people, luckily for the PFDJ clique, the war started (they started the war anyhow). They were confident (including me) that the war will end after two three months. The mass media was tuned to the unforgettable slogan, business as usual, �Janda woyane lim'Atawi medebatna ki'enqifena efitn alo [the Weyane clique is trying to hinder our development program] but we will overcome every hindrance accordingly; they were our students; we will teach them a lesson blah blah�

Unfortunately, the war dragged on not only for months but for more than two years.  Just before the second offensive, the official news paper and the radio were comparing confidently about the currency exchange rate in Addis Abeba and Asmara: �Whereas in Asmara the dollar is being sold for 7.2 Nakfa, in Addis it is 8.00 Birr.  Petrol is being sold in Eritrea for so much but in Ethiopia for...�

In the military front as if the man did not say, "they will be taught a lesson. If a man wants to fight he doesn't talk in the street, he just has to get out etc," he made a U turn after the second offensive and said, "Bzey qal alem tesa'irna ina. [frankly, we have been defeated.]" He even interfered in the daily program of the radio and forced Weyni Gerezgiher (in spite of her objection) to announce the following: "Woyane serawitu ma'ebel bma'ebel nmsilaf n'erditatna syru nbadme kqoxaxer k'elu alo" [after launching waves and waves of its army, Woyane has succeeded in breaking our lines and capturing Badme.] She repeated it again and again. The minister of information then was Berkai Gebreselasse [one of the arrested G-15], and objected to the broadcast and even told Issayas, "Zeytesrihana, qurub znih ilka cassette ba'eley kiqeyer kitiblena ika [why don�t you let us do our job.  You are so intrusive, very soon you will even tell us you will be the DJ changing the cassettes.] But the man insisted and the shameful sentence was disseminated.

Not only this, after having refused to accept the Ouagadougou peace accord, he made a telephone call at the small hours to Koffi Annan saying that he will accept the accord. This is like eating what you vomited. He should have accepted it while he was in Ouagadougou. Bikobor oabya aynet iyu eti neger. Duru'e [Haile Weldensaie, Eritrea�s foreign minister, also one of the G-15], later tried to minimize the damage by giving a detailed explanation of the battle. But it was too late. Eritreans were wounded morally and could do nothing except lick their wound.

The second offensive was a child's play as compared with the third offensive. Just before the offensive, Isaias was saying, "eniho meda eniho feres, jahra waga yebilun [taunting them with �here is the horse and there is the field; bragging achieves nothing.�]. I don't want to go into the sad situation of May 2000. The point is after the third offensive the economy was totally disrupted; half a million people were displaced and inflation sky rocketed within days. It never recovered after that final disastrous offensive.

Forgotten was the business as usual, the dollar exchange issue.  The bell was ringing "bsenki werar woyane zetemezabele qutebana nmhway, wx'it bwerar nztehasyu zegatat, nsnkulan, ndeqi swuat.� [to rehabilitate an economy devastated by Weyane; to help out citizens injured, disabled and orphaned.] Everything was dominated by the Woyane song.

I remember an episode just before the war. Isaias was making an interview concerning Eritrea's relation with the Arabs, that Israel has a base in Dahlak etc. You know what he said, "The Arabs are so traumatized by the Israelis that even if their child fails in exam they say it is because of Israel.� This is a hard fact and anyone can find it in Haddas Eritra. Now he has become like the Arabs he belittled in that interview.

Recently the tone has become a little bit modified and America has replaced Woyane as the scapegoat, because Woyane is no more alive. As a system, it is dead and buried. So claimed Ali Abdu the shrewd (politician) of PFDJ in stuttering voice in an interview with VOA.

These days, if anyone asks a legitimate question such as why the delay in the implementation of the constitution? Why the shortage of bread? Why the shortage of gasoil or cooking gas? The harsh conditions in Sawa? Or even if someone presents a petition against the petty crimes of his boss etc, he will be branded as a stooge of the Woyane. There will come a time when the crocodiles of PFDJ will be branding each other as a Woyane puppet. Andebrahan and Amare are recently being tarnished as tools of Woyane.

More will come: a system that is not based on democratic principles and justice is liable to face dire economic and political problems. The PFDJ, because of its wrong policies and crimes it commits against its own people, has already become alienated. It is now too late to remedy things that have gone too far. It is high time the searching of a scapegoat stop.