NOVEMBER 10, 2013
The assault Eritreans endured day and night would have knocked any nation- big or small. If defeating Eritrea was difficult yesterday, it is impossible TODAY!
By Amanuel Biedemariam,
After a bloody civil war between the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and The Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) in the early 1980s, the EPLF became the sole representative of the struggle to liberate Eritrea.
Many Eritreans were in the dark, uncertain about the developments. Until 1978, the ELF was the most prominent movement in Eritrea. The ELF established the Eritrean struggle. The Leaders of Eritrea today were once in the ELF.
In 1981, after the EPLF defeated the ELF, it became the only organization fighting for the independence of Eritrea. Many left for Sudan and everywhere around the world to seek refuge. And some joined EPLF to fight Ethiopia.
For most Eritreans and the supporters of the ELF, those were dark moments of uncertainty. Eritreans were confident but uncertain about the direction of the struggle.
The struggle experienced an upward trajectory with a string of visible success until 1978, when the EPLF started strategic withdrawal from vast areas. The strategic retreats, and later the defeat of the ELF coupled with economic hardship and drought Eritrea faced sent shockwaves.
The silence that ensued in the aftermath perplexed Eritreans all over. Information was scarce. Eritreans received news of the developments via newsletters, occasional publications, videos, and cassettes.
Then, Eritreans tried to get news, inspiration, developments, and moral lift from the front. Eritreans received occasional visits from the then comrades that gave briefings and revolutionary education to enlighten them about the struggle in a farsighted way that planted seeds for the future.
Eritreans were confident that victory was inevitable. However, if one was to ask any Eritrean then, when would they see independent Eritrea? Not in our life would have been the first answer.
That began to change after successive victories. In 1988 the EPLF crushed the massive army in Afabet, and provided a significant victory that provided a morale boost and cemented the belief in “The Struggle is long but Victory certain.”
After the EPLF destroyed Mengistu Hailemariam’s military offensive, commonly known as “Nadew IZ,” it broke the backbone of the Ethiopian military and beat its morals.
From that point on, victories piled starting from Massawa to Dekemhare, paving the way to Asmara and ascertained independence without ifs, buts, or qualifications. Furthermore, Eritrea’s success was not limited to the liberation of Eritrea. It went into Ethiopia, yanked the regime in Ethiopia, and helped place new leadership. In effect, EPLF conducted regime change, the first of its kind by an African country.
After the dust cleared, Eritrea successfully conducted a referendum giving Eritrea the certification of nationhood and hoisted Eritrea’s flag amongst nations of the world at the UN. Eritrea became a nation to the dismay of many that never thought that the front they called “secessionist” could come to power and became a significant global player instantly.
It was a hopeful begging for Eritreans. The circumstances have changed dramatically since. As a direct result of the US-supported TPLF aggression, the people of Eritrea
are forced to deal with what has become a war for the very existence of Eritrea. It started in 1998 and has gone through phases now.
The first phase was military; however, after the Eritrean forces repulsed the TPLF in a humiliating fashion, the power-to-be decided to take matters on their hand with the intent to undo Eritrea’s hard-won independence.
The US was fully committed. It spared no expense, and no stones were left unturned. The whole idea is to weaken the nation into submission. The US targeted the Eritrean economy and applied pressure using the sanction regime that it deceptively, wrongfully, illegally, and unjustly placed upon the people and government of Eritrea.
The US applied pressure on many countries to stop them from doing business in Eritrea. Wikileaks exposed how Germany pulled its funding for the Bisha mining project. Many projects that lifted Eritrea’s economy faced and kept facing unnecessary hurdles. The whole idea is to kill the economy, frustrate the public to revolt.
Secondly, their primary goal in the Diaspora is to kill Eritrean nationalism and stop supporting their nation. The Eritrean community abroad was targeted and bombarded with negative news and propaganda about Eritrea. They tried to weaken their resolve.
These sophisticated strategies have proven successful in many parts of the world. Eritreans, however, have shown unparalleled resilience to these schemes. They attacked Eritrea from all directions.
Washington miscalculated that pressure would push Eritreans to turn on against their government. That was the best-case scenario and a critical plan to separate the people from the government.
Eritrea is a relatively small nation with a relatively small-sized population. The enemies may see this as a weakness. However, the opposite is true. Eritreans are united, resilient, strong, astute, brilliant, aware, agile, and flexible enough to deal with all adversities thrown at them.
The assault that Eritreans endured thus far would have knocked any nation, big or small. The type, intensity, and level of aggression are unparalleled. The enemies traveled the distance to assault the psyche and morals of Eritreans. To defeat Eritrea, they have compromised their own legal and moral principles. They broke laws in the name of Human Rights and justice. They based their actions on lies. They broke International rules, manipulated institutions, used religion as a political tool, created human suffering, and used it as a political tool.
The US, EU, and the TPLF collaborated with anti-Eritrea criminals and used these individuals and groups as warriors who fight for the rights of Eritreans fighting injustice perpetrated by Eritrea.
The Awate.com, with affiliation to religious extremist groups, Asmarino.Com, a regionalist group, are tasked and funded as the leaders of the anti-Eritrean campaigns spanning over 12 years.
They used regionalist and religious extremists like Selam Kidane, an Ethiopian with a deep connection to Ethiopia’s former dictator Mengistu Hailemariam, who killed thousands of Eritreans. She, Elsa Chyrum, Meron Estifanos et al. are individuals who frequently travel to Ethiopia and meet with Ethiopian officials, including the late PM Meles Zenawi. Ethiopian authorities were happy to elevate these individuals and celebrate them. They became celebrities and used every opportunity for photo-up to promote their status as human rights activists. These are the individuals tasked with encouraging Eritrean youth to flee. They exploited the unsuspecting youth by luring them with false hopes of emigration to the West.
Eritreans hold Meron personally responsible for trafficking Eritrea’s youth into Ethiopia and Libya, and the Sinai. She works with the anti-Eritrea groups and represents them in Awassa, Ethiopia.
In an interview with Naz at Meskerem.net (another anti-Eritrean site), Meron explained how she paid human traffickers to encourage others to pave the way for others to do the same.
To create division and hate amongst Eritrea’s ethnic populations, Meron targeted the entire Rashaida population and vilified them as traffickers and criminals.
Their rap sheet is long. These shameless individuals exploit the name Eritrea as Eritreans when there is no way they can prove they are indeed Eritreans. On the contrary, they proved that they are more Tegaru Ethiopians. They went to Tigray and honored the TPLF dead soldiers who ransacked the sacred graves of Eritrean martyrs during the 1998-2000 wars.
They are individuals sponsored by the so-called international rights organizations and receive political and legal cover to push forward with impunity. They are tasked with organizing anti-Eritrean activities. It is also a public record that they vandalized Eritrean embassies.
In Washington DC and other major cities, they use religion to divide Eritreans and to blackmail Eritreans in the Diaspora emotionally. There are some notorious churches like Medhanie Alem church in Metro DC. The priests of these churches coordinated with individuals and international organizations to push the divisive agendas.
They go to every home in grief. And rather than consoling the families, they conduct political campaigns vilifying the government of Eritrea. The Orthodox Church of Eritrea has excommunicated and shunned these ex-priests.
To divide Eritreans, they used every possible opportunity and tried to find cracks or create them. For example, Awate.com pushed the TPLF’s agenda to separate Eritrea in two as the Highland and Lowland Eritreans. After world war II, the British tried to divide Eritrea in two by separating to regions of Eritrea. The southerl part as Highland belongs to Ethiopia and the Northern part as the Lowland to belong to Sudan. This is the plan of the TPLF for Eritrea in pursuit of Greater Tigray.
The plan is for Ethiopia’s illegal occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories, a significant source of regional instability and reason for Eritrean youth’s hardship to persist. The suffering of youth is one way they can attempt to create a crack.
Eritreans are in a disadvantaged position with minimal resources, minimal reach, and no political clout. No international system and laws exist to help them fight against the massive political powers scheming against them. There exists no viable force to fight these injustices. The list of things they associated with the excellent name of ERITREA is endless. They want to demonize and destroy the image without recourse.
These elements combine the crux of the plan and display it straightforwardly. They work to demonize and misinform relentlessly. They encourage youth flight, turn around, and use it to campaign against Eritrea. Recently, with the hopes of Lampedusa to give them some traction, the Awate gang and friends are using US media and fake petitions to appear as if fighting for rights and justice. However, the contradiction of their actions and rhetoric is ridiculous. They ridicule Eritrea’s economy while working hard to undermine efforts the people and government of Eritrea make towards economic freedoms by working with TPLF and the US, the very people that are trying to kill the economy by using illegal sanctions.
They support extremist groups to foment instability. While at the same time spewing lies about the stability of Eritrea to portray it negatively. The US, EU, and the TPLF use these individuals and groups to demonize Eritrean and Eritreans in the Diaspora.
They are violating the rights of the people of Eritrea in breach of international laws. Case in point, they are making illegal robocalls entice revolt. These are unregulated unlawful phone calls harassing innocent Eritreans. Imagine how Americans or the Brits would react if they received calls from hostile nations to incite rebellion.
These people are spewing lies deliberately, like Asmarino.com that lied about a mercenary army in Eritrea. Simply put, these criminals are representatives of the grand plan aiming to destabilize Eritrea.
The reality, however, the world is yet to discover the true nature of Eritreans. Eritrea is a nation that is founded in gallantry, established with the blood of dear that have graced a country with the eternal principle of selflessness. They will find that Eritreans did not die to chase a dollar or for individual gain. They will discover that Eritrea is real and far different from what is portrayed in deception by criminals committing real crimes against Eritrea and innocent Eritreans everywhere.
They will find the history of Eritrea is determined by Eritreans, not some media or PR strategy. They will discover that Eritreans, genuine Eritreans, always tell Eritrea’s stories. They will find the authentic voice of the people of Eritrea, as it should be.
To Conclude:
Eritrea is best at telling her own story. As articulated early in this piece, when the world thought Eritrea was done, Eritrea expressed its power with concrete actions and victories. Not empty threats, rhetoric, lies, or petitions. Eritrea was always able to control the situation on the ground and dictate the terms.
Yesterday, with every victory, the voice of gallant Eritrea was screaming louder all over. Eritrea won the battle for the hearts and minds of the masses. Today, as in the past, the voice of Eritrea is screaming victory. That will keep the enemies sleepless and make them throw the kitchen sink frantically. And worse, they know Eritrea is only starting.
