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Part 11

 The Eritrean Democratic/National Alliance (EDA/ENA)  Opposition Body made-up of Organisations concerned

                     1.- with human/social issues and

                     2.- with politico-ideological issues:

To our view, the major reason which has so far been keeping apart and hindering the Eritrean opposition organisations from joining their forces together, confronting the Eritrean PFDJ’s dictatorial regime, defeating and dismantling it and bringing about democracy and democratic changes in Eritrea and to the Eritrean people, is their fundamental difference in basic issues. It was not even either accidental or momentary the fact that had led those organisations to splitting into two groups: “EDA/Block One” and “EDA/Block Two” and kept them apart for the entire year 2007, but indeed a deep and permanent difference and obstacle which will be unfortunately accompanying them for years to come. Neither the joint-congress which has been announced long ago, expected with anticipation and would have taken place already at the end of March 2008, but postponed for no very clear reasons, is likely to solve those fundamental differences in the basic issues occupying those organisations.

The “EDA/Block One” which is made-up of those organisations holding purely political and ideological issues and brandishing general banners like constitutional democracy, multi-party system, centralisation or de-centralisation of the social, political and economic powers and so on, but do keep ignoring that those issues are not the ones fundamentally guaranteeing the basic human, social, political, territorial and economic rights of the Eritrean people, of the Eritrean nationalities, of the Eritrean different folk-groups and of Eritrea itself. The PFDJ’s regime itself claims to be the Eritrean “People’s Front,” holding and promoting “Democracy” and “Justice,” but in actual fact it is openly oppressing and suppressing those fundament human, social, cultural and religious rights of the Eritrean people. Who in fact, can guarantee us that the “EDA/Block One’s” member-opposition organisations and their respective leaders would be any different from the PFDJ’s regime itself? Why has the “EDA One” included in its “Block,” the remnant and the renegade elements of the PFDJ’s regime, if it does not share their ideologies? Why have those elements been allowed to become now so active and are gradually taking over the control of the entire Alliance? Will this be the direction the new Eritrean alliance and the entire Eritrean opposition are likely to be heading for, following the anticipated congress?

The “EDA/Block Two,” which is characterised and represented by those Eritrean organisations and leaders standing-up and struggling, at least nominally, for the social, cultural, territorial, economical and religious rights of the Eritrean different nationalities/ethnic-groups, is to our opinion, the group which actually embraces those basic and fundamental issues and rights of the Eritrean people, but it has not yet been able to either impress with or impose the importance of those issue, partly due its political and diplomatic weakness and partly due to the incompetence of those organisational leaders who are being led to succumbing into the belief that those fundamental rights are not to be considered as issues of priority. They seem to have forgotten that a nation, Eritrea, is primarily formed and made-up of its multi-ethnic, multi-culturo-linguistic and multi-religious society and therefore, it is the rights of that heterogeneous society which stands at the forefront of any issue. If the “EDA/Block One’s” leaders like Ato Woldeyesus Ammar, are allowed to come up and get away with the preposterous statements like “we do not want and will allow Eritrea to fall into ethnic fragmentations,” the basic reality that the Eritrean nation and the Eritrean society are fundamentally made-up of “ethnic-fragmentations,” (separate ethnic-entities,) the basic rights themselves of those different ethnic-groups/nationalities, are being trampled upon, if they are discarded as negative and unacceptable ones. Ato Woldeyesus Ammar himself is the product of that Eritrean “ethnic fragmentation,” unless he knows alternative roots of his own origins.

The PFDJ’s regime of Ato Isaias Afwerki has been trying to destroy the Eritrean naturally formed “multi-ethnic social fabric,” create an amorphous Eritrean society and give it a false and forced Eritrean national identity, but this has not yet been materialised and will not materialised for a while, because this infringes upon the natural rights and cultural values of our populations. We can only affirm that such attempts are just intended to confuse and suppress the ethnic-identities of the Eritrean populations so that many of the top-leadership members of the PFDJ’s regime who are unble to claim clear ethnic roots and therefore suffering from ethnic-identity complexes can find a place in the Eritrean society.

The socio-political, ideological and strategic issues, the member-opposition organisation of the “EDA/Block One” have been proposing, promoting and defending so far are not any different from those being imposed by the PFDJ’s regime, at the moment in Eritrea. The geographical borders of the Eritrean regions have been not only redrawn, but also given new and neutral names so that the old and traditional names, which used to basically denote their connections and relations with the different ethnic/folk-groups and nationalities inhabiting them, have been disbanded and made sink into oblivion. Many members, particularly of the Eritrean-Tigrean ethnic component, traditionally supporting the PFDJ’s ruling body with which it shares ethnic, cultural, religious and even ideological affinities, are purposefully given a maximum and unlimited liberty to spread and settle in every Eritrean region, claiming identical, if not particularly more territorial property rights than the native populations themselves. Today they are the rulers of the Eritrean regions and of their populations and only they are dominating and controlling the social, the political, the military and the economic sectors in the whole of Eritrea.

Though, on the other hand, the PFDJ’s regime may appear to be forming a neutral Eritrea and a neutral Eritrean society, deep down it is indeed systematically “tigrignalising” the whole of the Eritrean nation and the whole of the Eritrean society, very aggressively imposing its language and cultural heritage. The “EDA/Block One” can therefore be said to be an extension of the PFDJ’s regime in the opposition, advocating those same principles of its own counterpart in Eritrea. It does therefore have its real significance the fact that today the remnants and the renegade members of the PFDJ’s regime have joined and are taking over and having a very heavy hand within the Alliance, the true form of which will surely be crystallised still more vividly after the next congress. One could safely state that the PFDJ regime’s socio-political, ideological and cultural legacy is being factually extended to the Eritrean opposition alliance in general and to the “EDA/Block One’s” member-organisations and to their leaders in particular. It is very unfortunate that the “EDA/Block Two’s” member-organisations and their leaders in general, but particularly the “Democratic Movement for the Liberation of the Eritrean Kunama” (DMLEK) and the “Red Sea Afar Democratic Organisation” (RSADO,) though claiming to be struggling for the basic ethnic, social, cultural, territorial and economic rights of their own respective people, have been and are being engulfed in the purely political and strategic issues, being brought forth as objectives of primary importance by the “EDA/Block One’s” leaders, specifically by the people like Ato Woldeyesus Ammar, Ato Mesfun Hagos, Ato Adhanom Gebremariam and Al-Said Abdella Adem. This can be regarded as the PFDJ’s junta abroad.

We Kunama are particularly disappointed and angered by the inability or unwillingness of the DMLEK’s top leadership which though well-informed on and very aware of the hardships being imposed upon the Kunama people by the PFDJ’s regime and by its regional authorities, particularly at the present times, is either deliberately paying a deaf-year or afraid to come out and openly accuse them of the “ethnic-cleansing” and of genocide that they are conducting against the Kunama people. The top-leadership of “ERKUKODISU” (DMLEK) is refusing to warn, threat and even take appropriate measures against the crimes and the criminal activities like “sequestrating, stealing” and forcefully entering every Kunama household and plundering the Kunama people of their crops; fining the Kunama families 50,000 Nakfa for each of their children and family members who have fled the country, due to the oppressive rule of the PFDJ’s regime. Why are, the DMLEK’s Chairman, Mr. Kornelios Adolay Osman, his deputy, Mr. Tewelde Minase and their entire comradeship, not officially using the language the PFDJ’s regime understands and tell it to stop ethnic-cleansing the Kunama race? Why are they not strongly raising their voices within the EDA/ENA itself? Are they afraid of the PFDJ regime’s elements, within the Alliance? Is the DMLEK’s leadership really struggling for the ethnic, social, political, cultural and territorial property rights of the Kunama people? Is the DMLEK’s leadership being threatened, tamed, corrupted or used by the “EDA/Block One’s” members, particularly by the PFDJ regime’s renegades, to keep an absolute silence, as regard to the Kunama people’s plights? We totally fail to understand the significance and the main mission of the DMLEK’s leadership within the Alliance, if it is not standing for and advancing those rights.

Finally, let us bluntly put it that the “EDA/Block One’s” members, and perhaps also the DMLEK’s Chairman and his deputy, share with the PFDJ’s regime of Ato Isaias Afwerki, not only identical socio-political, ideological and strategic principles, but also ethno-cultural, religious and territorial objectives and interests. As it is, contrary to the Eritrean people’s expectations, the Eritrean opposition Alliance will not bring about any real democracy, justice and the rule of law in Eritrea, unless it radically changes itself. The Eritrean opposition badly needs new leaders and leadership, which is genuinely intended to struggle for the basic and fundamental ethnic, socio-cultural, religious, territorial and economic rights of the Eritrean people. The purely political, diplomatic and strategic principles will surely be developed, improved and established once the Eritrean people have first been given security, peace and stability in their own natural geographical and cultural environments. These are the root principles any future Eritrea opposition organisation or leadership should be striving to pursue. Real “fragmentation” has been created, exists and operates within the regime at home, and within the Alliance abroad, which is not and should not be compared with the one which has naturally existed for centuries and functioned harmoniously, within the Eritrean different ethnic, cultural and religious communities.

The VKP/KAM: (May  15 , 2008).