I was elated to learn of a conference titled Law politics and Islam in Africa to honour professor Bereket Habte Sellasie University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from April 12 to 14, 2007.

Dr. Bereket, the expert on constitutional law, the writer of many books and a compassionate patriot, initiated the first International symposium on Eritrea which took place in January 1979 in London at a time when the world knew very little about Eritrea. The budget for the conference including air fair for speakers was covered by Mary Dines/War on Want (a charity organisation in the UK). The conference’s objective was to highlight the origins and characters of the struggle in order to win political, financial and diplomatic support for EPLF and the Eritrean Relief Association. It was a symposium that opened the gate to the main stream British politics and impacted support from many social democratic parties in European and the labour party of Australia. It was chaired by Basil Davidson the writer of many books of anti-colonial struggles in Africa. Basil Davidson visited Eritrea at the time of the dramatic victory of EPLF in North East Sahel where colonel Girma and lieutenant Degafe with about 3000 Ethiopian soldiers were captured. In his BBC interview Basil Davidson described the battle as the “Dien Bein Phu of Africa”. This battle represented the beginning of the end of Ethiopia’s military presence in Eritrea. The Ethiopian Military Government campaign was characterized by bombing villages, slaughtering animals, massacring villagers. In the town of Sheab the Ethiopian army committed a heinous crime by forcing the inhabitants to line up and run them over by tanks where more than 200 were crashed to their death. It was a typical example of the Derg’s and Emperor Haile Sillasie’s policy of “drying the sea to kill the fish”.  At that time Basil Davidson was an adviser of the Labour Party on African affairs. In 1981 The National Executive Committee of the British Labour Party (NEC), based on Davidson’s papers on the right of the people of Eritrea to self-determination and several meetings with the leaders of the mass associations, passed a resolution to support the right of self determination of Eritrea led by the EPLF. It was the biggest political and diplomatic victory for the EPLF. Soon the NEC sent an official letter to EPLF to visit Britain and get acquainted with its various constituents.

The EPLF sent Ermias Debessai (Papayo), a member of the Central Committee and head of the European Foreign Mission based in Rome, Italy. The Labour Party arranged the first public meeting at the Hall of Methodist Church, Lion Square in Holborn, London.  Further more it arranged meetings, workshops and radio talks in different regions of the country, in order to establish partnership with the grass root labour party members. From that onwards it became easier for ERA-UK to raise funds from British NGO’s which eventually run in millions of Pound Sterling.  Since then the EPLF became an international guest in subsequent Labour Party Annual Conferences for 11 years including the last in 1991 when the head of the Labour Party Neil Kinnock was about to relinquish his leadership to Michael Foot. Subsequently the labour party would win the Government under the leadership of Tony Blair.

ERA became the darling of British NGO’s such as Caffod (an NGO associated with Caritas), Christian Aid, War on Want, Oxfam.  At the time when Glyness Kinnock was the chairman of War on Want it led a consortium of NGOs to solve the water problem in the liberated areas. I remember the late Michael Fessehaye, the famous EPLF head of Transport and Kibreab (olio) an oil drilling expert who had a lot of experience working in Iran and Yemen came to London to select a drill suitable to the terrain and climate of Eritrea. The drill coasted 1 million US dollars. 

The soft spoken Ermias is a pleasant character whose smiles and simplicity made strangers feel at ease in a matter of minutes. Papayo was the most efficient PR the EPLF had ever had in Europe. He had an inexhaustible energy and incredible net work with people in half the globe, in Europe, USA, and Africa. Also he had network connection in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India and South Korea. His tentacles go beyond borders in his drive to win Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for the new nation. Within EPLF Ermias represented modernity and progress. Since the struggle started in 1961 Eritrea had suffered an incredible brain drain to Ethiopia and other countries. Papayo, by stimulating Eritrean professionals to go back and contribute to the social and economic rehabilitation of the war torn Eritrea, tried his best to reverse the incalculable brain drain. Papayo lobbied Doctor Abraham Medhane to invest in Eritrea. Dr. Abraham spearheaded Diaspora’s investment in Eritrea and together with Tzersu Gebremeskel, the leading contractor in Ethiopia, before his deportation to Eritrea, built two magnificent high rise building for offices on the road to the Airport.   Papaya’s idea was amazingly progressive and far sighted beyond the imagination of the macho gun glorifying top EPLF officials.

It is sad to see that the PFDJ banished Ermias. Today, he is on the list of “prisoners of conscience”.  Professor Paul Keleman of Manchester University who was a committed supporter of EPLF and a persistent campaigner for independence of Eritrea in the North of England is spearheading the campaign. By imprisoning the high profiled EPLF leaders the PFDJ has undermined the history of the armed struggle and the enormous sacrifices the population and the fighters paid. However, in jail for pro-reform and sanity in the crises-centric politics of Eritrea, the imprisoned leaders together with the young pioneers of free press, the imprisoned journalist,  are keeping the flame of genuine freedom and democracy burning. They are the living martyrs of today symbolizing the fallen martyrs of yesteryears.

Today the PFDJ has lost its moral high ground to be the vanguard of the people of Eritrea. However propaganda and disinformation it sets in motion the situation is irreversible and beyond repair. The respect it enjoyed at the time of independence was completely eroded.  President Isayas Afewerki who was loved and was taken as a demi-God is no more loved. He is feared and resented by the people. He is unlucky right from the beginning he started to surround himself with yes man people who clap their hands in support when he got things wrong. The President missed the G-13 offer for advice and help to sort out the country’s problem. Many commentators in London say that was the best document a President can get from concerned professionals in the Diaspora. The G-13 had no axe to grind they were very highly successful professions with no interest to power and politics.

The ministers and the top government officers are in a worst situation. They know the system is not working and they want reform but they can’t push it. They know very well that they can not influence the president and are scared to speak. For most their helplessness and frustration is making them live under the influence of alcohol.  They are dying inside.  

Amdemichael Kahsai with whom I worked with for many years and I respected him a lot is a victim of this frustrating scenario. Andemicael died long time before his unfortunate accidental death. He was an alcoholic unable to regularly carry his ambassadorial assignment in Rome, Italy. He was an unhappy person unable to reconcile the repressive system he helped to create with his vision of democratic and humane Eritrea. He was one of the long serving foreign relations officials during the struggle. He was an amazing good speaker very intelligent who used English, Italian, Arabic and French in his engagement with political leaders, parliamentarians, in conferences, and international solidarity evenings. He was highly cultured individual a lover of gardening, photography, music and a football fun a supporter of Juventus, an Italian Football club.  No one excelled him in cooking delicacies. Before May 1991 he was in London as Head of the European office. He used to cook us dinner. In one hour he could cook 4 or 5 types of delicacy dishes.  He had flowers in his hand visiting his in-laws when he fell down to his death. Isn’t it unprecedented for an Eritrean to go visiting people with flowers?  He is indeed unforgettable character. His nick name was “Capo” meaning chief. Fascinated by his incredible hobbies, once I said to him. “Capo you should have been born in an affluent society like America not in the miserable war torn Eritrea.” He said, “Pedro but I love this miserable country called Eritrea”. But, did he have any choice.  I didn’t have any either. It is a fact of life that you don’t choose your neighbours you have to learn to live with them. Love thy neighbour is the best wisdom of co-existent. I wonder if he also loved the sky, remember he was in the Ethiopian air force and he flew his fighter plane as an escape machine to Eden, Yemen on his way to join the EPLF. He is different from others who dress up shabbily when they give certificates, medals and look low than the people they give awards to. May be it is one way of glorifying   peasant culture of manual labour, in construction and farms. The culturally advanced Amdemicael Kahsai, a member of the dying middle class (as the private construction companies and other business closes,)  the middle class,  supposed to be the engine of economic growth,  has fast becoming the “downwardly mobile class” and it is becoming the nouveau poor) became disillusioned and frustrated with PFDJ. But instead of rising up to the challenge he chose drinking.  Unless the conscious ministers realized what it is happening to them and stop drinking and start debating they will go the same route to eternity. The late Ali Said Abdella  the ex-foreign minister  had  a drinking problem once for which he was being treated.

The ministers could have faced the underlying causes of their agony and frustration by calling for a debate to explore alternatives to the already failed new social order. They can raise the issue of re-demobilization, the issue of taking away licenses from private businesses and other issues affecting the day to day life of the people. 

Right from the beginning, things would have been different had the president went ahead with the demobilization program studied by experts with the cooperation of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Eritrea and launched in September 2001 with him giving the key note speech and his blessing. In launching the program on September 11, 2001 with a budget 200,000,000 US dollars out of it 130,000,000 was pledged in that day alone.  Parents were looking the day they reunite with their sons and daughters. It would have given the opportunity for the Children to reunite with the bread winner of the family and rescue from impending famine. As the issue of defending the country is concerned 40,000 trained solders with modern arms will do. The entire people of Eritrea are reservists in case Eritrea is attacked from the outside.

Today, the critical issue of the nation such as demobilisation, the economy, poverty have no places in the media debate because the crises  in Darfur,  in Iraq and recently the crises of Somalia predominates over the interest and welfare of the people  of Eritrea. The home front is totally shelved aside.

It is timely to tell the new generation about the Eritrean Intellectual’s experience and the amazing contribution to the long political and armed struggle of Eritrea. The Eritrean issue for independence is articulated and structured by its intellectuals. We can look at the example of Abdulkader Kebire, a lawyer by profession and a prolific advocate for independence. His son Jemal Kebire a wise old man and a member of The Eritrean Elders Welfare Association in the United Kingdom told me, “My father was preparing to go to New York to appeal to the UN when he was shot on March 29, 1949 and died on March 31, 1949. I was 19 years old then studying at TTI (Teachers Training Institute). We were overwhelmed by people flowing into our house, both Christians and Moslems. It was like a collective grief and a show of solidarity. I remember a large bowl in one corner and people were putting “Tarifas, British East Africa coins” in it. Ibrahim Sultan with other patriots continued the journey to New York without my father.”Other pioneer intellectuals are Aboi Woldeab Woldemariam and Aboi Ibrahim Sultan.

In a world were the UN is policing the nations behaviour, legitimacy is a critical factor to win political, diplomatic and financial support in one peoples struggle.  To that end it is the intellectuals who played a pivotal role in publicising the case of Eritrea. Writing books, pamphlets and articles are the means. But publishers are difficult to get.  Kasahun Checole filled the critical gap.  Once he said, “We are handicapped, we depend on Western Publishers who are interested in their income and not in spreading the facts behind the anti-colonial struggles in Africa. He said we have to have our publishing house. The Red Sea Press was born and grew with this specific mission.  Not only did it serve in promoting the issue of Eritrea but many African writers have benefited.

In mid 70^th Eritreans for Liberation in North America (ELNA) published a book called “In defence of the Eritrean Revolution” A book meant to correct the distorted stand of ESUNA (Ethiopian Students Union in North America) stand on Eritrea as to its colonial question or not. ” One of the main contributors was Petros Yohannes Adgoi, a cousin of Nunu Kidane an ex-member of Eritrean Development Foundation, USA.  Petros Yohannes was an editor of City Wide Union University student’s paper at Haile Sellasie 1University in Addis Ababa in late sixties and worked to cement solidarity between the progressive Ethiopian and Eritrean University; Students.  Aba Issac Gbreyesus, an ex-EPLF fighter, amazing historian, wrote many books in Tigrinya. He got an honorary doctorate degree from an Italian University, he also owns a website, unprecedented for anyone living in Eritrea. 

Ababa Tesfagiorgis, “A Painful Season and A stubborn Hope: The Odyssey of an Eritrean Mother,” Jordan Gebremedhin, “Peasants and Revolution in Eritrea.” Dr.Gaim Kibreab, professor at London South Bank University, wrote more than 6 books on Refugees and Environment. His latest book in print is, “Critical Reflection on the Eritrean war of Independence:  Social Capital, Associational Life, Religion, Ethnicity and Sowing seeds of Dictatorship”. Dr. Ogbazghi Yohannes’s “The Tragedy of Africa”. Most of these books were published by Red Sea Press.

On his first visit to the librated areas of Eritrea in Sahel Abdurrahman Babu wrote, “Where in Africa today would you see doctors, engineers, mechanics, and technicians, all of world standards, inspired enough to flock back home enthusiastically from foreign universities and institutions of learning to serve their country –without pay? 

However, I can not praise all Eritrean Intellectuals to day.  There are those intellectuals who are totally indifferent to what is going on under their nose in Eritrea. They are permeated by a culture of cynicism and opportunism.  Many have compromised their intellectual integrity by the privileges accorded to them by the PFDJ. They are bribed into silence by the land given to them to build villas for themselves and their children mostly born in the Diaspora. Undoubtedly there is also fear factor the PFDJ prison is more often than not one way ticket.

It is a blasphemy though to observe their children, the youth in the Diaspora, having conferences and talks about the successes of Warsay-Yekealo Development Campaign.  How inappropriate it is. It is the newly arriving asylum seekers that can reflect the reality of that Campaign; they lived through it and suffered in it. They all have a story to tell. Some of them suffer from flash back and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and are getting treatment from psychiatrists and psychologists and there are few who commit suicide.  What do the Diaspora children have to tell?  That they have enjoyed the night clubs, the Massawa beach and other forms of tourist entertainment and turn around and say the campaign is a success. They should know that they are being instrumentalized.

Some of those who seek asylum have the potential of being scientists, doctors and engineers like the previous generation refugees who are serving in the UN, in various US, European establishment. However, they were hindered to freely pursue their carriers. They are reluctantly leaving the country in order to reclaim back their freedom and their individuality. They can then focus their energy to achieve their carriers without anybody messing up their life.

However, we should not lose sight that entering the West is not a panacea for a successful life or carrier.  They have enormous disadvantages and hurdles to overcome. The Eritrean communities and the Diaspora’s children’s should understand their specific needs and give them practical support and encouragement. The least they want is misrepresenting them. They can very well represent themselves.

Having said about the opportunism on the part of some intellectuals does not make the need of intellectual less important. All Governments are run by economists, foreign relations experts, scientists etc. A trade union leader, a teacher or a police man leading a liberation movement can be a president but it is the technocrats, who are high educational achievers, which run the state. Any country that undermines intellectuals and runs the country by soldiers is a disaster.  That is what is happening in Eritrea. 

the demonstrations, marches and the contribution of articles, facilitated by the Eritrean Websites, the Awate, Asmarino, Selfidemocracy etc. and the contribution of the  intellectuals in South Africa, Elsa Chyrum and the rest Human Rights activists is a great achievement and is  making a great difference to building awareness, confidence and hope for the future.

However, today more than ever the Eritrean Intellectuals have tough challenges. The people have yet to make a connection between the miss-guided policy of the PFDJ and their misery. It is the intellectuals that can help the people see these connections.

To honour Doctor Bereket is to recognize and celebrate the invaluable contribution the Eritrean Intellectuals did to the independent struggle of Eritrea in particular and to Africa in General.

Thank you Dr. Bereket you are an inspiration.