(Let me correct the always reliable Gedab News on its recent report.  The Giffa that it reported happening in Tsaeda Christian, in reality happened in Tseazega.  But the rest of the details are correct.)

Sirnay Canada [Canadian Wheat]: The Fraudulent "Self-Reliance"

Every Tegadalay [combatant] knows that we have been eating Sirnay Canada, protein, fish meal, Xeba Salsay alem [Thirld World Milk] etc. while we were in the field. Even our children who were as young as five and six years in 1985-1991 remember every aspect of our nutrition system. Even our great helmsman was a beneficiary of all the NGO's that were generous and humane in sending everything needed for the continuation of the anti colonial war. I am quite sure had these aid not been present the war could have taken a different turn. After all, people, even the ones with the greatest resistance and stamina, can't survive without food.

Way back in 1988-1989 we were lobbying Caritas [Catholic Charity organization] through various Eritrean individuals to send us aid in whatever manner possible. I thank those nationals who helped us in making that a reality. By contrast, while we were eating NGO food, credit is due to Oxfam, World Lutheran Federation, Save The Children etc.

After liberation, PFDJ made a U-turn and discarded its longtime friends by saying, �they are CIA stooges, corrupted organizations, they have evil intentions etc.� The secret is not because the PFDJ wanted cash for work, the secret is that the PFDJ began to lose the confidence of the masses and wanted to reverse the situation.

Till 1995, Eritrea was flooded with food aid like wheat, wheat flour, Third World milk, vegetable oil, chick peas, etc. Everything you see in the market was labeled USAID, or gift from the European community, or a Christian response to hunger etc. Definitely, most PFDJ cadres and specifically men like Yemane Monkey [Yemane Gebreab, political director of PFDJ] who were haranguing people about self reliance, and menberawi fitHi [social justice] were never happy with the new trend. The problem was people in the rural areas and in the towns were having an easy life, (thanks also to the Ethiopian Birr and free trade with Ethiopia) because of the migbi nsrah [work for food.] Not only this, even women as old as 80-90 years were getting their share of vegetable oil and wheat because even if they were not able to lift a hoe, the village youth did their share of work. As a result if you ask anyone in Eritrea, �Hi buddy! How are you doing?� He will reply, �Thanks to aid, we are not short of anything; we are doing fine!�  

In the towns even salaried men were getting aid. The excess aid was sold by the grain board (as a result, suppressing the price of basic commodities) and the cash was put into the coffers of PFDJ.

So far so good.

The negative influence the PFDJ hated was not that people were becoming �aid dependent� but that nobody cared about the PFDJ. People were fed up with the PFDJ meetings and everybody was saying, "Ata eziatom entay geromlna eyom akeba wedi akeba enabelu tekek zebluna?� [what have these people ever done for us to exhaust us with their calls for meeting?] To the PFDJ this is tantamount to saying PFDJ is counter-revolution. Therefore, to turn the allegiance of the people towards the PFDJ, the best solution was to create a conflict with the NGO's.

The first step was to change the aid distribution channel, and make it pass through the mimhdar [administrative zones.] If someone doesn't appear in a meeting, he will be denied aid.  Secondly, all aid was to be controlled from A to Z by ERREC [Eritrea Relief and Refugee Commission]. This was not enough and after the PFDJ constructed huge stores and hoarded a millions of tons of grain, it said that all aid agencies should pay taxes.

It also banned some NGOs on lame excuses. All the measures taken, however, were counter-productive and the PFDJ, through its mouthpiece of EriTV and dimtsi hafash [Voice of the broad masses radio] restarted the old song of �bsenki werar woyane, walakwa bzuh srahat enteteameme qutebana bmeteneu kemqolqul kem zekeale zikehad aykonen. [Due to the Weyane offensive, although we have accomplished much of our objectives, it is an undeniable fact that our economy has relatively nosedived due to the Weyane offensive.]

Therefore, because of the distorted idea of PFDJ and its quarrel with them, it lost its longtime allies who were feeding it starting from 1979. The basic problem is PFDJ's intolerant behavior with any one including its people. Blaming NGO's across the board as thieves, corrupted organizations and CIA instruments is like tarnishing the EPLF as stooge of China or Libya. Finally, from its long history we can understand that the EPLF- PFDJ is inherently anti NGO's because it is afraid it will lose the allegiance of its people which it has lost already of course.

Traders and affluent people:

Way back in 1995, a certain trader asked a deceased central committee member of PFDJ the following question: "Why is it that the government is not leasing land to investors; it is high time that this is done." The PFDJ dignitary smiled and retorted by saying, "You have been to the Sudan and you know it well. In the Sudan of 1980, the merchants or traders were wealthier and more powerful than the government and, as a result, the government was not able to do anything it wanted because of its weakness. So we don't want to create wealthy merchants."

Of course, the man (I knew him well) said this because he heard it being said at the rare PFDJ meetings and, therefore, could not elaborate on it. He was simply saying that the PFDJ was heading for the creation of a communist regime which it is trying to do. In his interviews prior to 1998, whenever Issayas was asked about the private sector, he was answering, "The private sector is so weak that we can�t even say that we have a private sector." Later on, after the government's coffers became depleted of foreign currency and the budget deficit became chronic, the PFDJ started trampling on the already powerless merchants.

The reaction was disastrous for the nation. The merchants and their dollars all went to Dubay, Angola, Uganda, Kenya. Most senior PFDJ officials, including Romodan Hamednur (when he is drinking, of course), say openly that the foreign currency and importation policy is wrong and should be reversed. After all, one should know that government policies should not be proclaimed at someone's whim or because you are envious of someone.  But the Romodans compromised their authority and integrity many years ago.

What comes at last is this: If the government is anti-traders and rich people, then it means we are heading for a totally communist regime--the type of regime already discarded by its originators. The PFDJ hates the NGOs simply because the loyalties of the people were being transferred to them, and it didn't take all the cash (the cost of the grain and foodstuff; the cost of freight; the cost of inland transportation etc.) Its aim is to grab all these dollars, dump them in PFDJ coffers and finally claim an economic boom.

This is practically impossible. What I advise the PFDJ Managers, even while I know they don�t listen to advise, is to let the NGOs do their job and let the hungry people be fed at least till they are able to feed their people.

Issayas may think that the people will praise him for his efforts.  But they are laughing and gossiping about his foolhardiness. It is high time that our (venerated) leaders come to their mind. Just because you are in a senior position doesn't mean you are infallible.

Leave The People Up To Me                                               

We were victorious not because we were clever in propaganda but simply because our people love their nation very much. As a result they nurtured the revolution as their child. I remember, unlike today, when we were saying "Men kem hzbi Debub? Teqalisu Zeqales Hzbi."[The people of Debub are peerless; they struggle and they enable struggling.]  As the Tigrigna saying goes, "Zihalefelu tinfas seb ahlefe" [those who are well off, suck out the oxygen from those trying to survive.]

PFDJ's tactic is to use something to the best of your advantage and when some new situation arises, to discard it. In brief, it prefers the disposable system. No weight is given to principles or right and wrong. "Do something and justify it later by saying another thing" is its motto. Whether the justification is right or wrong or contradictory doesn't matter as long as it serves the purpose of PFDJ. The end justifies the means.

Let me take you back to 1994.  At its party congress, the crucial statement from some senior party members was this: �the EPLF should hand power to the masses.  If the EPLF continues in power what will the Eritrean people say?� As they put it, "Sltan nhizbi kinerekib alena, hzbike entay kiblena?" [We must surrender power to the people; otherwise, what will the people say?�]  Issayas's answer was, "Hzbi! Hzbi de'a entay kibl? Hizbi hanti kem zeyzareb ba'ley alekukum!" [The people! What will the people say? The people will say nothing; leave that up to me.]

The Eritrean people are always victims of the contradiction of history. In that unfortunate day, the party members and specifically, Mesfun Hagos, Duru'e [Haile Weldensae], Wedi Solomon [Petros Solomon], Sherifo [Mahmoud Sherifo], Ogbe Abraha, Ali Said, Alamin [Alamin Mohamed Said] etc. etc. reluctantly accepted his final suggestion.

A chameleon since its birth, the PFDJ is still continuing to hoodwink the Eritrean people, now under the cover of Ethiopian or Woyane aggression, and Eritrean sovereignty, etc. It is trying to survive for at least two or three years. Its aim is to solve its economic problem, and specifically the foreign currency shortage, by exporting gold from Bisha Mining in the coming two or three years. Until then, so as to alleviate its problems, it is detaining traders on the pretext of money laundering.

To those who ask, �on what legal ground is it imprisoning people, including taders, without due process of law?� the answer is, �The government itself doesn't have any legal or legislative ground for its existence.� It is a government of the few who oppress the masses.

If the PFDJ is confident that it has the support of the people, how come it prohibits people from social gathering? Why does it deny their freedom of press, and their right to choose their own government?

The Eritrean people are ardent patriots and they showed this in 1993. The PFDJ knows quite well that, if given a choice, the Eritrean people want to dismantle the parasite PFDJ and install a government of their own making. But this is a nightmare for Issayas and his puppets the Yemanes [Yemane Gebreab, PFDJ political director and Yemane Gebremeskel, Chief of Staff at the Office of the President], Hagos Kisha [Hagos Gebrehiwet, PFDJ Director of Finance], Abdella Jabir [PFDJ Director of Organizational Affairs] etc.  These people never have confidence in the Eritrean people. They know that they don't represent them. Therefore, by relating Eritrea's sovereignty with the existence of Issayas and his PFDJ clique, they try to intimidate the people that they will lose their sovereignty to the Woyane, the border will never be demarcated etc.

But the truth is, Issayas does not want the border to be demarcated. He knows that as long as the border is not demarcated, he can stay in power, and his basic principle is to stay in power whatever may be the cost to the Eritrean people.