Since the date the letter of appeal to the African Union was published (1 June), many noted Eritreans supported the initiative and volunteered to join the Initiators who at the very beginning were few and insignificant. As of this information is posted, 60 individuals from different parts of the world have already signed the letter using This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Many of the Initiators are yet to sign. Valuable comments continued to come to the Initiators. The initial Initiators had to heed to these comments – it is a process one learns from mistakes.

The comments include that the list of Initiators should be published; that a better means of collecting signatures should be devised; that the collected signatures should be open; that the deadline should be extended and certain terminologies should be changed. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Tesfaldet Meharena and Yoel Alem among others, a new mechanism that has incorporated these comments has been devised. Please find it here and here.

Some of the Initiators have already signed the letter. For uniformity, the rest are cordially asked to sign it forthwith using the new mechanism. However, those who have already signed the letter using This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it must not sign again. The new mechanism of collecting signature will remain open until 20^th June 2008, 11:59 PM, EDT. In three days the letter will be submitted to the African Union together with list of signatories. A small group of the Initiators need to follow up the letter through the African Union and it will need to undertake other related activities. Volunteers should come forward.

Important deliberations of significant organs of the African Union will take place late in this month. The Permanent Representatives’ Committee of the African Union is meeting (16^th Ordinary Session) from 24-25 June. The Executive Council is meeting (13^th Ordinary Session) from 27-28 June. The 11th Summit (Ordinary Session) of the AU Assembly is taking place from 24 June to 1 July. Click here for more information on the up coming events. Apart from the addresses of the letter, we can thus try to bring the letter to the attention of the coming sessions. In this regard, individuals with diplomatic experience should come forward to play their roles.

At this juncture, the initiators and signatories deserve gratitude for their voice. Yet, we can turn the initiative in to a more successful story. Thus, I personally call the Initiators to continue their campaign and to continue appealing their constituencies to solicit more signatures. I again call all Eritreans living in the free world and who have not signed the letter to sign it. I call every signatory to reach as many potential signatories as he or she can.

Personally, I see this initiative as part of the National Conference many of us aspire to have in the near future. It is to be recalled that the EDA has ‘announced its readiness to study means of holding a dialogue with the Eritrean regime provided it shows its readiness to find a peaceful means to resolve the political crisis in Eritrea by paving the way for a democratic transformation and establishing a constitutional rule that conforms to the will of the people and their aspiration for security and stability’.

It is in this regard I subscribe to the letter which is calling the African Union to immediately and publicly urge the transitional ‘Government of Eritrea’ to allow establishment of constitutional order within a period of not more than six months. I subscribe to the letter which is calling the African Union to immediately and publicly oblige the transitional ‘Government of Eritrea’ in clear terms to invite the exiled Eritrean opposition parties, civic-society organisations and individual activists to a forum in which framework for transition to constitutional governance should be developed. I subscribe to the letter which is calling the African Union to offer its assistance to facilitate the process of dialogue between the two sides.

The initiative definitely suffers from lack of broader thinking and planning. Yet, something must be done with a sense of urgency. We cannot afford to move at the pace we have been moving. The EDA’s initiative towards studying how and when the National Conference can be held should be welcomed. Our civil society organisation should intervene with their assistance and they should realise that they are the main actors. They should shoulder the heavy task organising the event requires. Eritrean academics should play their role. The EDA should work with a sense of urgency and assertiveness; and should assume organisational role. At the same time, the EDA should bear in mind that it is a small component of the bigger Eritrean political spectrum. Thus, it should give space to the other actors. Importantly, proposal such as this and their authors should be seriously consulted.

In closing, as part of the initiative I once again thank everyone who has registered his/her voice and offered his/her comment. Hitherto, some of the Initiators including myself have volunteered to organise the matter. Initiatives like this cannot be left unattended. I thus call the learned and the influential to takeover or join.  

We should remember this year’s 20^th of June with an affirmation to the aims for which our martyrs scarified their life!