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(New quotes and newly unearthed old ones) “Apparently, there are plenty of ‘house-niggers’ going around in the Department of State”. ISSAYAS AFWERKI, in a meeting, in 2005, with visiting US officials and staff of the US diplomatic mission and USAID. (The tasteless joke, using the well-known phrase used by some to describe white-appeasing blacks, was uttered in the presence of an audience, including African Americans) “Anta ab idna wala Hanti zei Hazna! Libretto ente belka, libretto tmeskr!” (We have nothing to prove our ownership. We don’t have any legal documents in our possession)
MAJOR GENERAL GEREZGIHER ANDEMARIAM (WUCHU) on his, and other top officials’, unsuccessful attempts to secure title documents for their newly acquired villas. (Even though he personally approved the allocation of the new villas, Issayas has been adamantly unresponsive to their requests for obtaining the pertinent title deeds or ‘libretto’s). “In the first place, I don’t know the person you are talking about. Secondly, people are imprisoned if they commit an offence, of whatever type … …”
YEMANE GEBREMESKEL, Issayas’ chief of staff/spokesperson, responding, in February 2007, to a question by VOA-Tigrinya on reports about the death of Journalist and Playwright Fessehaye Yohannes (Joshua) in PFDJ prison. (Note that he repeated the same line spoken by his boss in an interview with Australian journalist Mark Cocoran in 2004). “Although the Eritrean government is not disposed to reply to such a statement by an amateur diplomat … ...”
From an April 9 statement by the Eritrean Ministry Without a Minister … Oops! I mean, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, referring to Dr Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, in the US Department of State. (Clearly, Jenadyi Frazer’s service, prior to her current assignment, as Director of African Affairs at the National Security Council and Special Assistant to the President, as US Ambassador to South Africa, as a political-military planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in addition to her teaching experience at Harvard and her PhD, were deemed inadequate by the rigorous diplomatic qualification standards of the Eritrean government). “Sima’e ‘ski! Kebidukka dyu ezi slTan?!” (What’s wrong with you? You seem to be burdened by the responsibilities of your position)
MAJOR GENERAL FILIPPOS WELDEYOHANNES expressing contempt, in front of a group of soldiers at his HQ’s cafeteria, for one of his sidekick colonels whose performance apparently does not satisfy the General. “Waa, bejjakhum! ezi neger’zi le'eli Aqmei yu. Waa! na'ai kaa'bba Hsebulei”. (No, please; this is beyond my capacity. Don't you care about what might happen to me?) Minister of ***, [name withheld], reacting to a plea to intervene on behalf of one of his senior staff, who had been arrested by officers of the 5th Command Zone in Asmara. (Following a disagreement on jurisdiction between that Ministry and the 5th Command – then under Wuchu – the official was arrested on orders by Colonel Solomon ‘Weddi Kitcha’.) 1. "Kenyan authorities on Saturday, 20 January 2007 handed Eritrean citizens Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi, Saleh Idris Gama and Osman Mohammed Berhan in chains to the "Transitional Government of Somalia" after illegally keeping them in detention for about 22 days, … …" From an April 3 statement by the Eritrean Government. 2. My birth name, given to me by my parents, is Samson Yemane Berhane. The new name assigned to me by the government authorities in preparation for our mission in Somalia (my fake name written on my passport) is Osman Mohammed Berhan. …”
From a letter, dated 18 January 2007 published in Asmarino.com. The letter, leaked from prison,was from one ‘of those who have been discarded like old rags’, as the writer put it. |
