The geographical changes  of the Eritrean regions, their new nomenclature and their new administrative centres, their administrators and their administrations are very negatively infringing upon the ecology/landscape of those regions and upon the history, the cultures and  the life-styles of their native populations .

According to our research works, the main reason the PFDJ’s regime of Ato Isaias Afwerki, from the very start of its rule, had decided to bring a radical change in the geography and in the geographical borders of the Eritrean regions, was to destroy the existing traditional “regional geographical and cultural borders” in order to create new, neutral, anonymous and purely “administrative zones.”

The regime gave new names to those administrative zones, in order to replace the old names, delete from the minds of their native populations and inhabitants, their ancestral, traditional and cultural affiliations, and create in the minds of their new inhabitants, a new awareness, a new feeling, a new and an only politically and illusively matured conviction that all Eritreans are “Eritreans” and that the whole of Eritrea is for “all Eritreans” and therefore that all Eritreans have an equal right to settle and live wherever and however they like.

The invented and conjured out new names of those regions are intended to disorientate the former native inhabitants, have and portray only geographical and symbolic meanings, devoid of every historical, cultural and human attachment, but at the same time, giving the new inhabitants, the opportunity to freely buy, possess and own every piece of land money can buy, totally regardless of the old, traditional and local land laws which had been very carefully and proudly kept and practised by the prime, former and native inhabitants of those “administrative zones.”

The regime’s administrators of the new “administrative zones,” hand-picked and appointed by the regime itself, out of its own loyal and faithful supporters, if not strictly and mainly from within the members of the ethnic and of the religious groups, presently characterising the ruling junta, are individuals and groups of individuals who are totally alien to those regions and unable to communicate with the local populations and are very ignorant of the customs and of the customary traditions and life-styles of the native populations of those “administrative zones,” but their primary duty is not either to associate with or care for the people they govern, but to only implement and protect their regime’s uncompromising, oppressive and dictatorial policies and keep it ruling.

The administrative policies of the regime’s regional administrators are to see that the first beneficiary of their administration is their regime. They are to conduct, implement and care for the kinds of social, political and economic developments which are dictated to them and therefore primarily favour the regime’s power. They are to constantly check and make sure that no public and private enterprises are being either initiated, promoted or even simply suggested and forwarded by the citizens, no matter how good and valuable those suggestions may be, but they are not to be provided by the citizens, though they may be very knowledgeable of the geographical and of the climatic conditions of those regions.

Very contrast to the above exposed regime’s policies, the VKP/KAM’s team retains that the regime’s entire revolution in the geography of Eritrea’s regions, the new names it has given them, the new administrative zones it has formed, the administrators he appoints and their administrative policies are very “negatively and very heavily infringing upon the ecology/landscape of those regions, upon the history, upon the cultures and upon the life-styles of the primary, of the former and of the native populations of those regions.”

The project of revolutionising the geographical borders of the former Eritrean regions had long and very carefully been planned by the former/present leaders of the EPLF/PFDJ’s regime who had their own very clear objectives to achieve. Traditionally, the geographical and the administrative borders of the former Eritrean regions had been drawn either strictly based on religious, historico-traditional and culturo-linguistic grounds: e.g. the Eritrean Highland (Kebesa) regions: Akele-Guzai, Hamasien and Serae, or on ethnic, religious and cultural identities and affiliations: e.g. Barka: the Beni-Amer and the other populations of the Beja origin; Gash: the Baria/Nara and the Kunama populations; Senhit: Bilen, and Mensa populations; Semhar: the populations of the northern Sahel and the Saho populations of the southern Sahel and the Afar populations of the Eastern Lowlands of Eritrea.

Such clearly defined traditional geographical borders, with their names strictly related to their ethnic, culturo-linguistic and religious identities, did not and could not be digested by the former/present leaders of the EPLF/PFDJ because of their own unclear ethnic-origin and identities. They could not fully associate themselves with none of the Eritrean eight/nine (8/9) ethnic-groups and therefore they were also unable to claim their proper origin from and affiliations with none of the Eritrean regions. The easiest solution to their own problems was to simply abrogate those old and traditional geographical borders and divisions, annul their names and break the ethnic, religious and cultural associations and affiliations and attachments of those populations to their own respective native regions. As a matter of fact, the very first decree/slogan the EPLF/PFDJ’s regime had issued was “there is no ethnicity in Eritrea:” meaning: all Eritreans are only Eritreans and therefore there exist no more ethnicities and ethnic-groups like the Afar, the Baria/Nara, the Bilen, the Kunama, the Saho, the Tigre, the Tigrian and so on.

The changes of the old names of those regions, paradoxically enough, into the Tigrigngna, one of the eight/nine Eritrean languages: Debub, Gash-Barka (Laalai and Tahatai Gash); Maakel; Debubaui-Kehi-Bahri and Semienaui-Kehi-Bahri, had been intended to confuse and disorientate firstly the native populations of those regions and give, those populations with no defined ethnic and territorial affiliations with those regions and populations, false incentives to claim for equal territorial property rights with the native populations of those regions. The obvious results of such very unwise plan were the creation of deep resentments among the native populations, very antagonistic attitudes towards the regime and to those land-seeking populations who are now being regarded as the PFDJ regime’s prime puppets and opportunist invaders of the native and ancestral territories and homelands of the prime inhabitants of Eritrea.

The policy of creating new “administrative zones,” and found new administrative capitals and centres were attempts to bring about forced mobility, forced amalgamations and homogenisations among the Eritrean populations, without regards to the distances of those centres and the serious inconveniences they create for the ordinary citizens, particularly for the rural populations. The administrative zones as well as their centres have been so artificially established that they cross over the regional, the ethnic and the cultural borders so as to force the various and different Eritrean ethnic-groups’ members lose their respective ethnic and cultural identities. The disruptions the forced amalgamations and homogenisations of the Eritrean different communities, deliberately being orchestrated by the regime, are fomenting and bringing about, among the native populations and the settlers direct conflicts, hatreds and even violent confrontations.

As the native populations do feel responsible to protect the nature and the ecology of their native homelands, the regime’s forces, together with their supporters and settlers are said to be instead seeking to only destroying the entire landscape of those homelands, by indiscriminately chopping down trees, building houses, roads, mining sites and polluting the entire atmosphere. In a large and fertile areas like the Kunama land, for instance, where almost all Eritrean ethnic-groups’ members have converged, are converging and continuously increasing and fiercely competing in grapping every piece of land they can put their hands on, the negative results of the regime’s land policy changes of such magnitude and irresponsibility have brought enormous damages, which, to our view, will only be and remain the causes of divisions and conflicts among the Eritrean populations, particularly in the Kunama land and in some other parts of Eritrea. Besides, it is to be noticed that the simple changes of the geographical borders of the regions, of their traditional names, of their administrative zones, of their administrative centres and administrations will never bring about changes in the minds of their native inhabitants; in their firm attachments to their native and ancestral lands and their claims for the property rights of their home territories.

The VKP/KAM: (January 5, 2009.)