(On the occasion of today�s sad anniversary of the imprisonment of Haile Derue�e and his comrades by the cruel one-man regime in Asmara, I just wished to re-post an article I wrote six weeks before 18 September 2001 about the role of Haile and one of his old friends, Seyoum, in the national resistance and the ongoing arduous struggle for democratization. The intent of the writing was not to project personality profiles of the two but to show the gradual narrowing down of the old ELF/EPLF divide in Eritrean politics. This Part II of the article will add a few introductory paragraphs and then invite the to go over the old stuff as a tribute to Haile, the virtual leader of the reform movement within the PFDJ since July 2000, who was not only coming up to the forefront of this uphill struggle we conduct, but also declared his determination to pay the price with his life for Eritrea�s democratization, if it so demanded.)  

Those who know it tell that Haile Woldetensae (Deru�e) and Seyoum Ogbamichael (Harestai) were old friends since their high school days and also as prison mates. During one unforgettable evening in 1964 (may be it was 18 September, one can�t remember the exact date of that 38-year old event!) both these young men were among a group of students who were distributing �subversive material� in the heart of Asmara while agitating against the Ethiopian occupation. The material pasted on the walls of the Eritrean capital in that particular night included a short Tigrinia poem with a drawing of the Blue Flag. Haile Deru�e and Mussie Tesfamichael (leader of the �Menka�e� movement) were assigned in one team.  Seyoum, who prepared the material, went with Wolde-Dawit Temesgen to cover Itieghe Menen Street. Anyway, the important thing now wished to be told  is the following: the next morning, Haile and Mussie came to school with mourning-bands on their chests as if both lost close relatives the previous night.  Schoolmates started asking why they had to put on those black mourning-bands and the two were giving death of relatives as reasons.  However, Haile and Mussie later on confided to close friends that they were mourning for Eritrea and that they were determined to wear those black pieces of cloth until the Eritrean people had attained full freedom.  

One cannot be sure for how long Haile and Mussie physically carried the mourning-bands on them. Nevertheless, one can say with certitude that they indeed have carried to the end their determination to struggle for the full freedom of the Eritrean people - Mussie until his martyrdom together with his Menka�e comrades in the mi -1970s by orders from Isayas, and Haile until his incarceration by the same Isayas on 18 September 2001. 

Today, as we remember with deep pain and anger the imprisonment of Haile Deru�e and other veteran Eritrean tegadelti for having stood against the actions and policies of the lawless PFDJ regime, and the clamp-down of the then burgeoning private press in Eritrea, we also remind ourselves that the only choice we have for achieving full freedom is to keep struggling in the footsteps of all those who had fallen or all those who still languish in prison cells for its sake. 

In last year�s write-up, it was stated that Seyoum and Haile had been separated for decades on the Jebha/Shaebia categories of our political camps. However, Haile�s and Seyoum�s pronouncements during 2001 were manifestations of upcoming joint action to remove obstacles to our unity and democratize Eritrea before the worst befalls it.  My summary on the   narrowing down of the gap between Eritrea�s two political cultures during 2001 was gathered from Haile�s interviews with the private press, and Seyoum�s meetings with large Eritrean audiences in Europe and North America. The voice of Haile Deru�e, who, I believe, could have helped very much in further narrowing down the old Jebha/Shaebia differences, was brutally silenced together with the private press on that fateful 18 September of last year. On the other hand, Seyoum, who is now the Chairman of the mainstream Jebha, ELF-RC, and his comrades, continued the struggle for bringing about full freedom to our nation through joint action that can come by achieving the �Reunion of the Grand Eritrean Family� made of the two camps to which Seyoum and Haile belonged.  It is the conviction of this writer that Haile Deru�e could have greatly assisted in the much needed reconciliation and unity of action that we badly need in today�s Eritrea.   

Good reading/re-reading.
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PS: The article below did not cover the �Open Paper to the Eritrean People� released by the G-15 in August 2001.  Mainly authored by Haile Deru�e, the paper was a grand policy statement by the reform group, which at the end lacked a leadership to promote the ideals the paper pronounced. The key issues that the paper added to what Deru�e did not say in his interviews until that time included the following points:

• That the question of land must be reviewed and a better solution introduced.

• That Tigrinia and Arabic would have to be adopted as the two official languages.

• That it was import to revise the constitution prepared in exclusion of others.

AgenaE Seyoum, Bravo DeruE !!
By This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , August 7, 2001

Among the interesting readings and utterances by Eritreans in the past few weeks that left me with a flicker of hope for better tidings in the near future included the voices of two steadfast fighters for the Eritrean cause: Seyoum Ogba-Michael and Haile Wolde-Tinsae. These two compatriots are veritable giants of the struggle, as awate.com would rightly call people of their stature in the Eritrean revolution. Yes, who else but Seyoum and Haile do count among our giants of the liberation era!  As in the long days of the liberation struggle, they are again today proving that they will be second to none in the struggle for Eritrean democratization.

I am told that it was this two, among a few others of their generation, who 40 years ago turned a school they went together into a test lab for nationalist re-awakening in the very heart of Asmara. They knocked on every door (and heart) of a slumbering populace asking for change of mind regarding the future of Eritrea. They did it through their graffiti and by agitating in the streets of Asmara at a time when a big support was not there, and when the name 'Eritrea' spelled crime, rather, treason in those dark days. Our two 'subversive' teenagers believed that the Eritrean people should, and eventually would, follow their path. History has not proven them wrong.

For decades, Seyoum 'Harestai' and Haile 'DeruE' parted company, always faulting each other - the one thinking the other to be riding the wrong horse and holding wrong ideas. (In fact the last time they had long hours together was in March/February 1975 soon after the liberation of 1,000 prisoners by the ELF from the Sembel and Adi-Quala prisons; the two counted among the liberated thousand.)

But whatever the past had them do and think in separate camps, Seyoum and Haile are today speaking the same language and seeking the same destiny for the nation. And as it was the case in the long past, they are again at the forefront agitating for change of mind among Eritreans urging them to wake up to receive a new Eritrea, different from the one of the yesteryears. And supposing the two were teenagers today in Asmara of 2001, what do you think they would be doing?  Judging from the character of their generation, I would expect them do what they used to do in  a similar situation four decades ago: demonstrate in the heart of Asmara carrying placards reading, "Change Now!!"  "Power to the People!!"  "PIA Out!! In fact, that is what Seyoum and DeruE have been saying during the last few weeks - Seyoum talking to Eritrean audiences (and responding to Saleh Younis� questions) in the United States of America, and Haile to the newly 'freed' private press  in Asmara. You did not hear them shouting?

In part IV of the interview with Saleh Younis, Seyoum  said in plain language all what is needed to explain the relations of ELF-RC with Ethiopia and the Ethiopians and to falsify the crude and fabricated lies churned out by the PFDJ regime against the ELF-RC and the Eritrean opposition forces in general. But Seyoum knows that the lies and wild allegations will finally be exposed for what they  are and be rejected by the people. Seyoum aptly stated:  �Anyone who has read our communiqu�s and properly read our position papers could see (the whole truth). But we don�t  give much weight to the ears that didn�t want to listen and have decided not to listen�.   At this point of his interview,  Seyoum appeared to be recalling his memories in the early 1960�s when patriotic Eritreans  suffered of acute shortage of �listening ears�.

Throughout his meetings with Eritrean audiences in the United States, Seyoum wanted every listening ear to know that he and his comrades-in-arms in the struggle for reconciliation, unity, democratization and social progress in Eritrea cannot, and should not, be called  �traitors� and �fifth columnists� because of their refusal to kneel down to a dictatorship established since day-one of Eritrea�s liberation in 1991.

In the following paragraphs, I will try to summarize what Seyoum and Haile DeruE have been trying to tell every Eritrean patriot in order for us to collectively build a nation and a government that our struggling people deserve.

• Legitimacy of GoE: Seyoum said the GoE was illegitimate from the start. DeruE said it has become illegitimate as of May 1997.  (Only a slight difference.)
• Unity: Both believed national unity is at stake and both warned that very urgent actions be taken to rebuild and strengthen Eritrea�s national unity.
• Dictatorship: Both condemned the one-man rule in Eritrea.
• Democracy: Both supported multi-party system in Eritrea.
• Diplomacy: Both believed that GoE failed in its diplomacy and damaged the image of a hard-won name and fame for struggling Eritrea.
• War and Peace: Both agreed that the war was avoidable, and both expressed fears that PFDJ, as it now stands, will not deliver justice, human rights, peace, good neighbourliness.
• Transition to a New Eritrea: Haile hoped the transition period would be smooth. Seyoum agreed but expressed fear that the PFDJ regime, as is, will push the people to more bloodshed before its exit.

In short, both Seyoum and Haile, speaking in almost identical language, are urging PIA and his GoE to hand over power to the people without any condition and loss of time.

DeruE made more advances from the G-15 stand and called for opening of the closed gates so that Eritrea could reconcile with itself. Seyoum went a step further and charted a transition period through a national accord reached at a National Reconciliation Conference.

DerueE was asked 12 questions by the private press in Asmara; the 13th question gave him the opportunity of adding any other point he would wish to make. I will try to summarize in a few lines the long (29 pages in my print-out) interview DeruE held with the private newspapers.

1.   Q: Why does the Open Letter call for meetings?

A: Why not call for meetings when the time was over due for regular sessions of the PFDJ Central Committee and the National Council ("parliament")? Why not an urgent call for collective decision making when the supremacy of the law is being  undermined?

The National Council could have worked out long ago election procedures and laws on formation of parties. Depriving the people of their legitimate and constitutional right to free elections is unacceptable. There is a stand against formation of political parties. There is an intention to continue PFDJ's monopolistic hegemony in the politics of this nation. I am against it because this infringes upon the resolutions of the 1987 and 1994 EPLF congresses and the September 2000 decision of the National Council. We must answer  'yes' or 'no' to questions of tolerance and civil liberties. An overall review of the past is a must in order to plot the future on a sound basis. Such a review will lead the path to a PFDJ congress and the launching of a constitutional government. The review, in which the entire nation should participate, shall ask questions like the following:

•       Was it possible to avert the war or at least to minimize the cost, human/material?
•       How do we avert future wars with Ethiopia and the rest of our neighbours?
•       What can be done to redeem our damaged/blemished national image?
•       How do we work on transition to democracy [without excluding political and social segments of the nation]?
•       Wasn't martyrdom the pre-paid price by all for the rule of law, justice, peace and participatory democracy in Eritrea?

I do not see that it is to the interest of the people to turn the proposed elections into a comedy and ascertain PFDJ's unquestioned hold on power.

2.   Q: Why did PIA refuse to hold meetings?

A:  The refusal speaks for itself; in effect, he is placing himself above the law. But the failure is collective. We have failed collectively.

3.   Q: What was the January 2001 paper prepared by PFDJ?

A shouldering responsibility for failures, the paper calls for a purge of [party] members. It pointed fingers at some senior cadres to tell them they were  fifth columnists.

4.   Q: Your views on outcome of the Open Letter?

A: I (DeruE) started telling the truth to our people by admitting our mistakes at the  Frankfurt festival in July 2000. We as government suppressed freedom of expression. We were better off in that before independence. The people must not be reduced to the status of observers. The power must be handed over to the people. And sooner than later. They should be allowed to live under the rule of law and not under the [whims] of PFDJ. A constitutional government must grant freedom of organization and expression.

5.   Q: Can there be election without electoral laws?

A: No. A neutral commission must be established. The talk about independent candidates is a farce, an open secret to establish PFDJ's monopolization of Eritrean politics for another 5 years. I acknowledge that groups and individuals that did not merge with EPLF have until now continued to serve their country and people with devotion. Who are we to give certificates on patriotism?  Let the people freely elect their leaders and I bet they will not fail. But if one intimidates them by hoodwinking to irrelevant situations and incidents of the '40s and '50s, then they can say: 'let us delay party formations'. The people are wanted to say that. This is the PFDJ 'strategy', the big ploy.

Let PFDJ resources be used for the benefit of the war-wounded and families of martyrs.

Undue external influence in the affairs of local parties can be barred by law. Then, why use pretexts to obstruct the birth and growth multi-party system in Eritrea, which anyway had it in the past? This is not correct. In fact, transparent external support may help capacity building, as is the case with the support received by national associations for youth and women.  I do not support the planned PFDJ's monopoly of power for the next 5 years.

6.   Q: If parties are let to take part in elections, will it mean that those who were supported by the Woyane will participate?

A: Civil and national rights are there to be respected. The right to organize parties cannot be denied under any guise. There is no need [to fabricate pretexts] to trample upon inalienable rights of the people [and their political formations].

7.   Q: Why do you say the National Council failed Eritrea?

A: It was a body that was entrusted to do the following: defend human and civil rights; promote the unity of the people; deliver justice, peace, and stability;  improve people's standard of living by reconstructing a war-torn country; ensure the political participation of the people by promulgating elections and party laws and establishing the necessary democratic institutions. How many of these tasks have been achieved? Practically none. No constitutional government as yet. Human rights were not respected. Equality and participation of the people is under a big question mark. People are thirsty for peace and tranquility. No good neighbourliness. The country's image was blemished. At the end, all members of the National Council are collectively responsible for what had happened.

8.   Q: How do you interpret the cabinet reshuffles in the past 10 years?

A: The National Council and the president were legitimate authorities only for the first four years. After May 1997, they lost all legitimacy. The reshuffles could be lived with only during the first four years. After that, even the president should have gone. On the other hand, political appointments in our mosaic [situation] needs special arrangement to reflect our diversity. Excessive trust in the president blinded many of us. Questions of law were never raised. The family-like work relationship [was not suitable when measured by a national yardstick].

9.   Q: Your comments on the war with Woyane and its consequences?

A: Martyrdom, displacement and destruction; it is not quantifiable [loss]. Its catastrophic scars will last long. There should be ways of preventing future wars. Our weaknesses must be reviewed very seriously.

10.    Q: Why are you avoiding talking to foreign agencies?

A: Because the issue is internal.

11.  Q: How did the current movement start?

A: Just as a renewal of our self-criticism and commitment to the people' cause.

12.  Q: How do you see the private press:

A: It must be supported, internally and externally, to stand on its feet No pretexts can be acceptable in stifling it.

13.  Q: Any other point you want to make?

A: The Eritrean people deserved a better situation. The current unease is unfortunate, and the president should not be allowed to quell the growing dissent by brute force. Our people should not remain observers. They must act, and correctly.