With the death of time and distance, the Awate team spearheaded by Saleh Gadi has been bringing news from Eritrea immediately after the act has been done. The Awate team has been exposing the unspeakable criminal actions of the dictatorial regime. It denied the PFDJ a hiding place after they commit egregious crimes against the Eritrean people. In order to stop and discredit Saleh, they armed their apologizer Sofia Tesfamariam with false and fabricated information.

I am pleased to read the formation of the Awate Defense Fund. The committee is requesting people who oppose dictatorship and violation of human rights to contribute money in order to bring to court the defamer Sofia Tesfamariam.

When I read that a complaint will be filed in court against Sofia, the first thing that came to my mind was that it is not in the culture and practice of PFDJ to hear something about being sued or bring cases to a court of law against them. Their practice has been to take whatever action they wanted against any one at any time without any accountability. The filing of a complaint with the court in the U.S. must have shaken them since they have never expected to be sued by anybody any where. There is no need to repeat that this group have been killing, torturing, maiming hundreds of innocent Eritreans and have never been held accountable for their actions. They may have believed that they can also do to Eritreans abroad who oppose their dictatorial regime.

To take Sofia to a court of law is not only to defend Saleh. It is more than that. By taking her to court for what she said, we will send a message to PFDJ members and supporters that what they have been doing at home against the Eritrean people cannot be repeated in a foreign land. We will tell them that in other countries there are laws governing the actions of people. The defamer in her presentation of the accusations against Saleh seemed as if she was living in Barka about thirty years ago and had witnessed while Saleh was killing people, stealing money, raping girls etc. I am very anxious to see her in court standing in front of a judge answering those questions in public. In fact I suggest that Court TV should be invited to tape the hearing and present it in one of their programs.

This case is not about Gual Hdrtna. Rather it is to bring her government to answer for the irresponsible actions of one their apologizers. Sofia presented her unfounded and fabricated accusations as part of her job and as an assignment given to her by PFDJ. Her primary assignment is to defame people who oppose the totalitarian regime who live outside of Eritrea.

In fact, if we had stopped her when she defamed the honorable and internationally respected professor Bereket Habtesellasie, she may have learned a lesson and would not have continued her despicable accusations against Saleh Gadi. But since no serious action except condemning her was taken against her, she continued with here fabricated defamations unabated.

If the regime was challenged when it killed over two hundred Muslim teachers in 1993-4, they may not have mowed disabled veterans in 1995.

If they were challenged at that time, they may not have taken university student to Wia including to their death.

If they were challenged at that time, they would not have arrested the ministers and generals.

If they were challenged at that time, they would not have massacred the young Eritreans in Adi Abeito. If they were challenged at that time, they would not have kept arresting the elderly and widowed mothers to bring their adult children who fled to neighboring countries.

If they were challenged at that time, they would not have demanded 50,000 nakfa per deserted son or daughter..

They saw and practiced it inside Eritrea that they can do whatever they wanted to do against the people. Now they wanted to go beyond their border and attack people of Eritrean origin.

We have to participate in the making of history by taking their agents to court. This will definitely deter them. One bold Eritrean took PFDJ to court in Canada for their fraudulent activities in collecting money from Eritreans. As you may remember, the court decided that it was an illegal activity and decided against PFDJ to pay back the accuser all his money with interest. From what I have been hearing since then is that the PFDJ is confused how to collect the 2% from Eritreans who are living in Canada.

This case is also similar to the one of Canada. The court will tell PFDJ that they cannot simply defame and do character assassination as they pleased. The court will tell them that there is a price to pay for doing so. In order for the court to rule in our favor and against the lawless representative of the oppressive regime, we have to participate in the action by contributing money to pay the lawyers who will present our case. When I say we I mean every one who opposes the dictatorial regime in Eritrea. When the ruling is handed, we could proudly say that I participated in the action that would hinder the arrogant PFDJ supporters from their character assassinations. In addition, the oppressed people back home who do not have the luxury to take any PFDJ operative to court could give them some moral support.

In addition, we will see how far the regime is going to defend her. As everyone knows, it is a common practice with the PFDJ to use a person and once the service is completed to throw him/her away just like a toilet paper. If Sofia has not yet known it, she will definitely know it when she is summoned to appear in court and wanted to hire a lawyer to represent her that she did not have anybody on her side. That is the day that she will come to know the true color of this regime. However, if the regime is going to hire a lawyer to represent their agent Sofia, so much the better. At that point, the case will be against the employer, PFDJ and the employee which is Sofia Tesfamariam. That will be the day to see the PFDJ supporters trembling inside a court of law.

This case is going to teach us a lot. In addition, it may serve as a spark plug in the demise of the PFDJ. As “a thousand miles journey starts with the first step”. in situation, it may end up to be the first step that will take us to the end of injustice in Eritrea.

Based on my limited knowledge, this case is going to cost a lot of money. Lawyers in the U.S. charge at least about $250.00 per hour and in increments of half an hour. At that rate, if we contribute $30,000.00, we will get about 120 hours of service from the lawyer. If we contribute $50,000.00 it will be about 200 hours.