"Citizens for Peace in Eritrea" or "Citizens for War in Eritrea"?
By Yohannes Kiros
December 03, 1999

Professor Asmerom Legesse is again out on his propaganda tour in Europe, presenting his old stuff to European countries. Although the man has brought his hogs to the wrong market, the motive this time is to raise funds and milk money from the emotionally degenerated and hawkish Eritreans, residing abroad. These people have been the capital source for the war effort of the Isaias regime, which has been exploiting them not only for the last year and half but also as an income generation based on taxation for the last eight years. The morale among them is too low and the flow of cash as "free contributions" is on constant decrease. In order to boost their morale, which is on the edge of collapse and to let them borrow more money from the banks, the errand boy of Isaias and manipulator is on aid mission not for the deported or repatriated Eritreans but to the hungry rustlers and desperate soldiers, lodging alongside and inside the Ethiopian territories. 

It is unfortunate that these newly converted Eritreans, who had their education and career in Ethiopia are heard demonising Ethiopia, the country which fed them and insulting its people. Their attempt to portray Ethiopia as uncivilized, though the handling of the deportees and repatriates were taken care of with utmost civility, is doomed to fail. As to the statement by Asmerom and the alike that these people were deported only on ethnic basis or to use their more up-to-the-minute word "ethnic cleansing", borrowed from Yugoslavia and Rwanda, is an attempt to deceive naive people. The ethnicity problem they are talking about is simply to distance Eritreans or an attempt to find an Eritrean identity as a homogeneous group and show the world that they are completely alienated from the rest of Ethiopian ethnic groups. However, the fact is that five of Eritrea's major ethnic groups are also represented in Ethiopia. Thus, ethnicity as a major background for deporting people to Eritrea does not fulfill the campaign launched by an Eritrean government supported "NGO"-"Citizens for Peace in Eritrea". "Citizens for Peace in Eritrea" is not an independent organization created to ameliorate the existing conditions between both countries and initiate an atmosphere of reconciliation or find alternative means of peaceful negotiations as its name implies. But, instead it is an organization, which was set up by the Eritrean regime to serve as its mouthpiece for iterating and spreading inglorious and hateful propaganda. By writing distorted views and lies about the deportees, this "NGO" has caused so far more harm to peace and future understanding among the two peoples. Its rabble rousing can therefore be considered as a continuation of war and not peace.

These deportees, who were participating in illegal and subversive activities against Ethiopia and contributing money to Shaibya's war preparation, were not detained as these actions would have required many years of sentences in other countries, but were sent in the presence, observation and escort of the ICRC members following international conventions and agreements that have been the landmarks of the Ethiopian authorities. The deportees were among others the prolonged arms of Shaibya's cell structure with its tentacles in every corner of the country, ready to sabotage on the order of the leaders. Thanks to the intelligence service of the Ethiopian Police, Shaibya's members and contact networks from village to city levels were exposed. These implanted Trojan horses were and are still security risks for the peaceful life of Ethiopian citizens. No one knows better than the Ethiopians, the capability of Shaibya in taking to terrorist activities and actions as a method of liquidation, intimidation and blackmailing of its opponents. The leadership's characteristic aggressive behavior does not allow it to settle matters peacefully. The whole structure of Shaibya's education is based on myths of its militaristic adventures and anti Ethiopianism. In order to breed an Eritrean self identity throughout its struggle, it has suffocated the mind of Eritreans by rabid hate against and vituperation of Ethiopians, malignity, super-race mentality, (NB! the video tapes and cassettes distributed during its armed struggle), romanticizing the Italian rule, colonialism by Ethiopia before the entity called Eritrea was created, "cultural revolution"-by obliterating Ethiopian heritages including dismantling of Ras Alula's statue, the great general and noble son of Black Africa (note that it is forbidden to call your son after Alula in Eritrea!), who defeated both Egyptian and Italian invaders, etc. Not to take quick cautionary steps and dismantling the insurgents, would have resulted in nightmares and would have been considered hara-kiri by the public opinion. We have already observed how Shaibya is (was) exploiting the terrorist elements and the chaotic situation created in Somalia for recruiting its quislings, arming them and waging war in South-eastern Ethiopia to destabilise and disintegrate the country. What the situation would have been in Ethiopia if the armed terrorists of Shaibya and its followers remained intact, would be a question for future historical research.

Asmerom, the minion says that most of the Eritreans who are deported are those who "built up" and "civilized" Ethiopia with skills ranging from technicians, engineers, medical doctors, drivers, merchants, banking personnel, etc. If all these skills were produced under the colonialism and apartheid policy of fascist Italy, then he is reversing history as usual to fit Shaibya's repugnant propaganda. After all, if Eritrea has got all these skilled people coming to their own native country, why then resist a human resource to come and join in the building of a new nation? Wouldn't Eritrea accept its own citizens with open arms? Everybody knows that there cease to exist a province called Eritrea. Eritrea is now a country with its own flag and leadership. It has to stand on its own, use its own resources and take care of its "the salt of the earth". There is no formula in the world, where one country enjoys double citizenship without any agreement on this issue, benefit from or exploit the resources of Ethiopia as if it were part and parcel of the Ethiopian federal system. Ethiopia has a constitution like all other countries which defines the rights and obligations of foreign nationals, living in the country. If any foreigner is caught red-handed or is found to be a serious threat to the country, then Ethiopia has absolute right as a sovereign state to deport any person on the spot. The same is true of other countries and is not unique to the Ethiopian Constitution. If we look into cases of foreigners living in the US or Europe, first of all the person is convicted, serve a sentence of some years and then finally deported. A cursory glance to the laws of these countries gives us how the terrorist laws are formulated and are put into action without any primary appeal whatsoever. People are summarily put under house-arrest, bugged, humiliated, arrested or deported to their countries not to talk about the thousands and thousands of refugees who are languishing in the prison cells of these "human rights" protecting countries. 

The Eritrean regime which is not signatory to the Geneva Convention on treatment of war prisoners and civilians, has not allowed so far the ICRC to carry out its mandate in regard to the plight of Ethiopians in Eritrea. Ethiopians are suffering in the dungeons of Awushite (analogous to the Nazi's concentration camp of Auschwitz), many people are evicted from their homes, robbed and confiscated of their belongings, lost their jobs and living on the side walks of the roads. More than 50,000 Ethiopians have been sent on foot through the no-man's land, with all the hardships one can encounter through the desert or landmines, implanted by Shaibya. Al-Amin, the fascist member of Shaibya said once in Frankfurt that "the problem is not getting rid of this people, the problem for us at this moment is getting rid of their trashes". Thus, people who have been living and working in Eritrea have been scoffed at and dehumanized by this vulgar and arrant rogue. We have more than 360,000 people living in refugee camps (in their own country), unable to work on their fields, attend schools, get elementary services from the state and live a peaceful life. Children were killed in their classrooms, a whole community of the Irob people is either in concentration camps or left their homes to be plundered by the Shaibya army. Destruction of the infrastructure, shelling of villages, plunder of church artifacts and building materials are the every day life of the occupation army. The Afaris have either to leave their homes or be conscripted by force to fight against their brothers. Rape, macabre attack by the mob and police, container carnage, tortures, executions, , etc. are among the few ordeals which the Ethiopian population have gone through in Eritrea. All these ferocious actions were taken by an intransigent tyrant, who has bogged down in his war to disintegrate Ethiopia. Although Isaias is our continent's most atrocious dictator picking quarrels with four (Sudan, Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia) of his five neighboring countries and is solely responsible for all the human sufferings and death, appointment of him by an obscure US group together with such famous and great statesman as Nelson Mandela as personalities of the decade is not only ridiculous but also an opprobrium and morbid joke. To hear Asmerom's panegyric about his president and praising the oligarchy to the skies and as an example to be followed by Isaias' African colleagues was a sapience to be expected from a duffer professor emeritus. The person must have a thick skull to come with this bizarre idea of suggesting such a nonsense. The Greek mythology of Minotaur, confined in Crete of a monster half man and half bull, fed with human flesh (the flesh and blood of Eritreans and Ethiopians) is what can better describe Isaias for the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Isaias, the outlaw and villain has to be arraigned for his crimes against humanity and violations of International law.

We Ethiopians do not demand any kind of revenge. We know eminently the differences between an arrogant tyrant and his henchmen and the Eritrean people. There are more than 300,000 Eritreans living and working in Ethiopia. There is a popular consent that those who are and were involved in Shabiya's demoniac activity has to be deported to their country of origin, while those Eritreans who are innocent have to enjoy their indispensable rights to work and live. But in the long run after the settlement of the border issue and reversal to the status quo, the issue of Eritreans as foreign citizens has to be solved and regulated. Property ownership, participation in elections and other related issues as described in the Ethiopian Constitution have to be followed and applied strictly. Those few, who believe that they belong to Ethiopia and that their deportation was based on false allegation, have to be investigated on a case by case basis by a Commission and have to be given a chance to apply for Ethiopian citizenship.