For the past three months the talk in Asmara course within the circle of high ranking personalities is the house ownership (house awarding) issue. Forgotten are the martyrs, the plight of the masses, the border issue etc. Every Dick and Harry is trying to board on the bandwagon. The public, including fighters in the lower hierarchy, are deeply concerned about the issue for so many reasons. The allocation, I mean awarding, of public houses as compensation to fighters, is totally unacceptable and against the law for so many reasons. Leaving aside the basic issue that the PFDJ as a clique does not have the legal mandate to do so, let’s look at the chaos that is going on inside Asmara and what people are saying about the awarding of public houses to PFDJ sycophants.

1. If the PFDJ wants to implement the so called speech of the president of 1993 it should have first promulgated a proclamation concerning its implementation. People may have forgotten what the man said in 1993 and a random speech can never work as a proclamation.

2. Except for the 1993 speech of the president, there was no clear-cut program for the compensation of ex fighters (300 USD per year) and the issue was postponed for so many years. Then it was kick-started in 1997, only to be rescheduled so many times. Prior to his designation as free zone manager, Dr. Araya Tsegay was assigned as its chief.

3. Then this question arises: while the nation is in dire economic problems, is it constructive to allocate public houses at discount rate to high ranking officers who are already at the highest economic ladder?

4. The principle of the exercise is totally misguided.  If someone has a house he inherited or constructed after independence anywhere in Eritrea, he has no right to be awarded a public house. If the issue is concerned with compensation, as our esteemed leader said, everyone should be accommodated on equal footing. If the issue is about allocating houses to those who have housing problem, there is a contradiction. These people are essentially stealing these houses for pennies. Therefore, both ways the exercise has misfired.

5. If all fighters are to be treated equally, what about the martyrs? A martyr of course can not come back and own a house. But there are his children and his wife. Leaving those we buried in the field, there are martyrs that are dying as recently as yesterday. Parents of martyrs are saying, "Deqnake qumar tebeli’om malet dyu?" [are our children the lost chips in your gamble?]

6. General Halibay [in charge of public housing distribution] was disoriented from the beginning and did not know what to do with the issue. He started to allocate houses haphazardly and there was an uproar from all corners. Everyone was grumbling about the unfair procedure and there were cases of gross violation of the basic criteria--assuming there is any criteria.

7. As a result, General Philipos, General Wedi Habteselassie and the esteemed leader's own handyman Gurage have joined the task force to take charge. According to insiders, Phillipos is opposed to the idea of giving priority based on hierarchy. He is said to prefer first-come first-served since a veteran or a demobilized may have no rank.

8. There are considerable cases of conflicts between high ranking officers as result of one preferring a certain house and then being ousted by another higher ranking officer. There are also cases of some personalities switching about three houses in a row. All of these discrepancies are the result of the lack of a clear cut policy or criteria.

9. There is a general understanding among PFDJ cadres that all this confusion started only because the PFDJ wanted to consolidate its waning popularity and prevent its eventual downfall by paying kickback and buying the wavering allegiance of high ranking officers. In fact most of the ones that have profited from the process so far are hard core PFDJ cadres and prominent personalities. Some people even claim that there are many non-commissioned officers who have joined the club of villa owners. 

10.  Most of the houses being awarded are Italian-built antique houses. But General Halibay and his cronies (probably afraid of their bosses) are estimating the cost of the houses at almost nil value. The official exchange rate is 1USD = 15 nakfa. To enumerate some of the general public talk in Asmara, let's look at the following points:

a. General Sebhat Ephrem, Eritrea's Defense Minister

Located near Bowling, the house that General Sebhat Efrem “bought” is worth 13 Million Nakfa.  This is easily verifiable because a twin house is being sold for the same amount.  Needless to say, "his" house, when he was “buying” it, was assessed at 600 Thousand Nakfa.

b.  Alamin Mohammed Said, Secretary of PFDJ [Ruling Party] 

Located almost in front of China Star restaurant, the house that Alamin wanted has a market value of 11 million.  It was assessed 500 Thousand Nakfas and he “bought” it.

c. Askalu Menkrios, Minister of Labor & Human Welfare

Located in front of Agip Depot in Tiravolo, in front of the famous Baratollo villas, there is a house whose market value is 9 million nakfas.  Askalu Menkerios expressed interest in it, so its price dropped to 480 thousand nakfas.  

These are only samples of the daylight robbery occurring in Asmara. 

11. Let’s take a glance at the damage being done to the economy. According to informed sources within the task force, there are still about 1,000 such houses to be allocated. Then leaving those allocated so far let’s multiply 1000 houses at an average value of 6 million Nakfa. The result is a horrendous amount of 6,000,000,000.00. All this has gone down the drain for the simple reason of satisfying the needs of some government officials or the liberators of the nation or the ones that fought for justice and liberty of the masses. Now they are standing high in the ladder. Kem zeyti xembelel yiblu alewu. [floating like oil.]

12. These days, all government ministers, generals, colonels and department heads are busy repairing and renovating their beautiful Italian houses. "Beat it while the iron is hot!" has become their motto. Overnight, Alamin has practically been transformed into a civil engineer and he is busy transforming his house into a new one. He is making some improvisations by adding additional rooms (service rooms). Luckily he got a sizable amount of iron rods, sand and cement blocks frrm a benefactor.  Meanwhile, all the Diaspora “bond” buyers, cannot build the houses they bought and paid for thorough the nose. Of course the Zoba Maekel [Central Zone] forbids all construction work, but Alamin is immune from the directive.

13. The directives come and go and their applications are not always clear. Just to mention a couple, General Tewil and Mustafa Nur Hussein [governor of the "Southern Administrative Region"] built houses of their own-- God knows where the money came from. Soon after, they were told that they don’t fulfill the criteria for owning a public house.  These two being part of the ruling elite, there was an uproar and a remedy is being concocted to solve their dilemma. Some people claim that they will be refunded some cash for the houses they built-- definitely based on the appreciated  appreciated value of the houses, which means that they will be awarded more than they paid in cash for their houses. This is Eritrea, after all, anything can happen. 

14. How about laborers? Thanks to Seghen Construction Company, the warsay [national service conscripts] have arrived just in time to develop "Eritrea."

While the nation is stuck between the deep blue sea and the devil, our prestigious leaders are looking after their personal issues and telling the people, "as long as we have our beautiful villas, we do not care an iota of what happens to you."

Zeyweghih mesiluwa ab bokura tihari’e iyu eti negher. I have no house but when the time comes I will have a clean conscience!