Semere Kesete broke free and ran with the wind.  All the way to Ethiopia.  Yes, Ethiopia, the Ethiopia of Meles Zenawi.  The same nation that uprooted and deported tens of thousands of Eritreans as well as Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, is now, a few months after the cessation of war, seen as safe haven for persecuted Eritreans.  Meles Zenawi will now give amnesty to Semere Kesete. 

This is an irony, but a minor one.  Why?  Because, irony, like all expressions, is relative.   Living in Ethiopia is probably not Semere Kesete�s life-long dream; particularly in Meles�s Ethiopia, a system he fought against.  If he is like many Eritreans, Semere probably has relatives who were deported by the Meles regime.  Suddenly, thanks to PFDJ, Ethiopia, even the Ethiopia of Meles The Deporter, is appealing. Why? 

Because the nation he ran from, Eritrea, is the Eritrea of Isaias Afwerki.  Thanks to the ruling party Isaias leads, Eritrea has been transformed into a 75,000 square mile prison.  Some with bars, some without; some with doors, some without.  When it comes to choosing a country to live in, more and more Eritreans are choosing ABH: �Anywhere But Here.�  Eritreans are now in the most unlikely places: Malta, Rwanda, and Chad.   Moreover, those outside, particularly those in Sudan, are reconsidering their decision to repatriate.    Why? 

The Semere Kesete Case 

By all accounts, Semere Kesete was a reluctant leader.   He rose to the presidency of the Asmara Student Union primarily because the people whose job it is to tinker with the invisible strings in the politics of youth and students--the bosses of the allegedly (don�t laugh) �non-political�, �non-governmental�, �non-profit� National Union of Eritrean Youth & Students (NUEYS)�thought that his quiet, unassuming nature meant they had found a meek and compliant push-over. 

They guessed wrong.  If you choose the life of politics, you either serve power or people.   If you are fortunate, you live in democracies where serving power is the same as serving people.  If you are unfortunate, as Mr. Semere Kesete was, you live in authoritarian states where you are asked to choose between serving people or power.   That was the choice Mr. Semere Kesete was presented in the summer of 2001. 

Serving Power or Serving People? 

What makes Mr. Semere Kesete case different is that the choice he was given was played out in the public arena.  It happened in the summer of 2001 when Eritrea, oh so very briefly, had a vibrant free press.   Unlike many nameless and faceless Eritreans vegetating in the dungeons of PFDJ, Mr. Semere Kesete had an opportunity to speak his mind (publicly).  To anyone who could read Tigrigna, his case and his cause were well known.  

Case in point: the June 10^th issue of Setit newspaper (newspaper banned; reporters arrested since September 2001) conducted an interview with Mr. Semere Kesete.   Fearful citizens in Eritrea have probably burned all their old issues of the private papers (sound familiar?) but, thanks to Asmarino.com, you can access the interview in the archives.   Another irony: you, gentle reader, can read the same archives that the Government of Eritrea is using to �prepare its case� against the private press. 

In the interview, the editors ask Mr. Semere Kesete how the dispute with the president of the University,  Dr. Weldeab is progressing.  What are the points of contention? Why is he, and the student union he represents, opposed to the �kremtawi ma�etot� (winter campaign)?   Why is Semere Kesete, and the student union he represents, boycotting the NUEYS Festival? 

It doesn�t take long for Semere to demolish the �spoiled brats� accusation (from people whose idea of being patriotic is to dance at festivals) by stating that university students volunteered to go to the front, at the height of the Ethiopian offensives.  End.   Then he itemizes the reasons for rejecting the government�s offer. In the interview, Semere argues against the so-called winter campaign on the basis of the law, procedure and economics. Unlike the �national service� call, the winter campaign is not legal, he argues, because the National Assembly has issued no proclamation. Economically, the amount offered by the government, is insufficient given the expenses of the students (where they have to copy 200-300 pages from textbooks to the tune of 2000-2500 Nkfas per year) and given that the World Bank had set aside 280 million dollars for the Ministry of Health project. 

You may not like his answers and, in some cases, it reads like what a typical law school student might say but that is exactly the point, isn�t it?  Isn�t that how a student, specially a law student, should sound? 

Not in the PFDJ.  On July 31^st, at 7:45 AM, a day after he delivered a speech at his graduation ceremony, he was arrested from his home.   (Call it post-graduate internship, PFDJ style.)   A day later, representatives of his student union, who thought the constitution means something, posted an open letter calling on government officials to give an �official statement of his present condition and whereabouts� and to respect his �constitutional right.�   On August 3^rd, the government paper posted a bulletin summoning the students to report for duty because the �obstacle� known as Semere Kesete has been removed.    Within days, the Eritrean High Court, back when it had a semblance of independence (i.e., three days before the firing of Justice Teame Beyene) ordered the government to bring the accused for arraignment or release him.  The government argued that it needed �more time to prepare� its case.   It has been preparing its case ever since. 

When the students congregated�peacefully, according to witnesses�in the Court, the government used their congregation as a pretext to beat them and hold them in detention at Asmara�s football stadium.  Mothers who came in search of their children were beaten, arrested and released after their husbands promised to �keep their wives in check.� (Yeah, that is �women�s rights� at work.)  On August 11, the students were bussed to WiA to learn the meaning of good behavior at the hands of the experts.  Subsequently, two students�Yirga Yoseif and Yemane Tekie�died of heat strokes.   What was the government�s response?  Through its ministry of foreign affairs (MoFA), it expressed its �deep regret��and then blamed the sequence of events that led to the death on the Asmara University student union leadership and, for good measure, the G-15 who were allegedly encouraging the students to agitate. 

Not surprisingly, some of the members of the student union leadership have been arrested. Their cases and causes have not been publicized but, thanks to Semere Kesete, we know their cases by proxy.  

Semere Kesete and the student union chose to serve the people.  There were two other agents who chose to serve power.  The role of two PFDJ �civil societies� has been most shameful in this tragedy.  

The leadership of the so-called National Union of Eritrean Youth & Students (NUEYS) and the leadership of the so-called National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) did not even do the bare minimum to protect people on whose behalf they allegedly speak.  NUEYS not only failed the university students, it was actively engaged in a smear campaign against them.  Like a corrupt organization, it focused all its energies in breaking a �competing� union, University Student Union, for daring to officially reject its political indoctrination �festival.� Not surprisingly, NUEYS is now at the forefront of the Warsay-Yikaalo Project.  Instead of organizing get drunk festivals, NUEYS, please consult with the youth and students on his behalf you allegedly speak.  They will tell you: Warsaysi Ye�aklo   

Likewise with the �women�s� organization: NUEW did not even register a letter of concern about the abuse of the mothers who were clubbed by the police.  Not surprisingly, they have said �peep� about the alleged abuse of young girls in Sawa. 

In the end, the government�s assault on the students and their leadership has backfired.  Whatever goodwill the university students specifically and the youth in general harbored about the government is gone.  Those sent overseas for education and training (football players, students, pilots) are not returning back.  Those who can find a way, anyway, are escaping�even if it means escaping to Ethiopia.  

The Unknown and The Forgotten Ones 

Semere�s escape could not have happened without Mehari.  But little is known about Mehari other than that he chose to take a huge risk to save Semere.  Of course, we will now hear that Mehari was a fugitive who is a suspect in _____ (fill in the blank.) 

One of the good things that will come out of Semere�s escape is that the ordeal of the unknown lost cases will be publicized.  In his interview with the Voice of America, Semere Kesete mentioned an Eritrean general who has been in jail for ten years.   We will, no doubt, hear more about the general.  From what little I know, Major General Bitweded Abraha was Political Commissar of Division 52 under General Herui and later, under General �Wechu�?)  His first �crime against the State,� which is to state �crime against Isaias,� happened shortly after Independence when he publicly aired his disagreement with the post-London Agreement arrangement giving Ethiopia free access to Eritrea�s ports.   For this infraction, he was thrown in the PFDJ dungeon.    

When the relationship with Ethiopia deteriorated, he was released in 1998 because now, with the changing views of The State (which is to say Isaias), the general�s anti-TPLF views were suddenly legal.  Upon release, his hometown, Adi Mengonti(?) threw him a rousing hero�s welcome.    Students from Sewra School (Revolutionary School), who idolized the man, held a big party for him in Dekemhare.  Encouraged, he started getting vocal.  But not in the manner PFDJ intended (giving anti-Weyane speeches); instead, he started talking about writing his memoirs, and his views of the London Agreement, etc.  The PFDJ machinery started spreading the rumor that he had escaped from prison and that he was a wanted man.  Surprised, he called to say, �I am here.�  They picked him up and threw him in jail, where he has been languishing since, along with the Sewra School �ring-leaders� who organized the party.    

That is how �justice� is administered in Eritrea.   Expect soon to hear that �Bitweded� sounds like an Amhara name and he probably was an agent for ANDM. Why not, the intellectual support of PFDJ is based on people who say (I am not making this up) that �Semere Kesete looks like an Agame.�  Such is the power base of the intellectually bankrupt PFDJ. 

Here�s another nameless guy.  I am looking at his picture (to be posted at EHRAG.ORG soon.)  His name is Ali Kerar Mohammed Mussa.  (His name sounds like Jihad, doesn�t it?  Wait till you see his picture: he is reading a newspaper in Arabic.  There is the smoking gun: Jihad!)  Mr. Ali Kerar Mohammed Mussa has been in jail since 1994.   A little aside about him: three of his brothers were martyred for Eritrea so their families could taste freedom, liberty and justice.  Such is justice Isaias style. 

�If Convicted�  

Of course, we know little about everyone.  For all we know, all of them could be guilty of the crimes they are accused of.  The reason we rush to their defense is because there are two words you will never hear in PFDJ�s Eritrea: �if convicted.�  In countries with a working justice system, a person is accused, a person is tried and, �if convicted�, a person does the time.  But in PFDJ land, accusation = conviction = sentencing.  The accusation does not even have to be formalized in writing (all tyrants who fear the world court have learned that lesson); all that is required is a phone call.  What is still surprising is how many Diaspora Eritreans who go to court over matters as trivial as traffic violations cannot bring themselves to call on their beloved government to give their fellow citizens the minimum due process.  Instead, the call is �Ayyednak ya ra�ees!�  Kill them all, let God sort them out.  

What is worse, they expect us, the dissidents, to just fold up and disappear.  This, to me, is proof that, despite their constant bragging, they have no clue what Eritreanism means.  If people from the 60s, 70s and 80s are still carrying their wounds, how do they expect people who were wounded in the 90�s and the 00s to forget their injuries?  Do dissidents have a shorter life span?  Do they expect people to look at the mighty PFDJ and say, �too big of a hurdle.  I give up!�  Then they have no clue what Eritreanism is all about.   The lesson of Eritrea is: the bigger the odds against you, the more intense the drive to succeed. 

The PFDJ is leaving an ugly legacy that threatens to undo its contribution towards the liberation of the Eritrean land.  This is unfortunate, because it is mostly a self-sustained injury that it is trying to dress up with overdoses of gwaylas and festivals.  In 1974, to dramatize the dichotomy of Haile Selassie�s rule, Ethiopian TV showed two images: victims of the Wello famine contrasted with a birthday party bash for one of Haileselassie�s dogs.  Now, in 2002, we see two contrasting images: of Semere Kesete in Addis testifying about the dungeons of PFDJ and a PFDJ-sponsored festival of people dancing.   It is surreal.

I will make one prediction: I don�t know how long it will take but when freedom and justice reigns in Eritrea, the PFDJ-organized �festivals� will be remembered the same way liberated people across the globe associate stale images of military might marches of their deposed, authoritarian governments.  One word: repulsion.   

Read about arba'Aa the play here