Thank you, Irene, for serving our community with such informative & balanced story.

As an Eritrean I am disgusted and offended by these people appointing themselves representatives of Eritreans while they represent nothing but their own selfish interests. There is a current agreement between Eritrean youth that you should not take any political statements of people over a certain age or people who have left Eritrea long time ago make because (a) they are among the very few untouched by the atrocities committed by the regime in Eritrea  (b) they have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo or (c) they don’t have a clue what is going on.

I would like to make a point by point counter argument about the bold statements these three stooges have made to the best of ability:

Resolution 1907 is contentious because as Oakland resident Alazar Abraham says, it is “unjust, unfair, illegal, and has no foundation at all. It is allegation.” 

 I am not qualified to say whether the sanction is well founded or not; and neither are you, Mr. Alazar. If you are not one of the government stooges who has access to inside information, I say keep your opinions to yourself, sir.

There is also concern that if the community doesn’t respond to this resolution, future sanctions will be increasingly draconian. “If we don’t react, inside and outside, the United Nations Security Council will go for stronger sanctions and that we don’t want. First, annul this sanction, secondly, don’t try a second one because it’s gonna be bad.”

What is so bad about stronger sanctions? Are you blind that you cannot see the suffering of Eritreans in what has come to be called the largest prison in the entire world? If it means the acceleration of the rate of fall of this abominable regime, then so be it!

Hiwot Nemariam, a member of the National Union of Eritrean Women, says that “as an Eritrean-American, America’s stand against Eritrea has always been so unfair; I never have an answer for why the US government does that in particular to Eritrea.”  

I escaped recently enough from Eritrea to remember what the NUEW stands for. Just like the Eritrean Youths’ Union and other similar organizations, It’s nothing more than an Orwellian doublespeak  for an organization that has nothing to do with women’s’ rights. If anything, it is depriving women of their rights for the benefit of the regime’s own agendas. I also think America has done right by us since the UN deprived us of our independence more than half a century ago. I say , and many fellow Eritreans agree, that more damage has been done by the current regime than what Eritrea suffered under Ethiopian  occupation; right now real culprit is neither the Ethiopian government nor the UN but our own government.

Nemariam, owner of a Temescal café, says “I pay my taxes and I request this to my government. Susan Rice [U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations] says she’s trying to punish the government and not the people of Eritrea. We are doing this to show that the people are the government and the government are the people. We are one.” Nemariam would like to see the government change their policy. 

This is the statement that has upset me the most because the statement is wrong on so many levels. First off, the people and the government of Eritrea are not the same. Everyday thousands of Eritrean youth try to escape from Eritrea either to the Sudan or Ethiopia. Some succeed, some get caught and suffer a fate worse than death and some are shot by the Eritrean border patrol, who have received a shoot to kill order from our “dear leader”.  The people and the government of Eritrea are not one because despite its small population Eritrea contributes more than its share of refugees. The people and the government of Eritrea are not one because there our fellow Eritreans are incarcerated under inhumane conditions for speaking their thoughts. The people and the government of Eritrean are not one because young girls are drafted into the military and turned into sexual slaves by military officers. The people and the government are not one because mothers are crying because they are starving while their sons and daughters get drafted into the military and are forced to serve perpetually. The people and the government are not the same because young people are not allowed to leave their country or move from one place to another within their own country……

Mrs. Nemariam, I am at a loss to guess what thoughts were going on in your mind as you were making these incredulous claims. Just because you pay your taxes it doesn’t mean you are entitled to support and finance a terrorist organization. If you cannot sympathize and support your fellow Eritreans in their suffering, please at least do shut up and don’t mock them. It’s the least you can do.

The Eritrean journalist Milkias Yohannes who was among the many journalists incarcerated by the regime in Eritrea but who managed to escape to freedom described you and your fellow terrorist sympathizers as fellows in a recent interview:

MILKIAS YOHANNES: The insane Eritrean regime has sadly, many nutty followers and worshipers. Some are really crazy and beyond repair. Others are with low intelligence and low political consciousness. Still others are opportunists – and may even include PhD’s - some of whom are even pedophiles who lust for young under age and undernourished girls during their “patriotic visit” to Asmara. I will name some of them in coming days. So the Eritrean political arena is full of such devilish people and is crowded with shameless cowards. As long as their pedophilic covetousness is fulfilled, these cowards don’t care even if the whole nation is going to abyss. They are ready to accept anything. It has been quite a while since they have sold their soul and agree to lick the boots of tyranny. Even a prostitute has more dignity than these cursed creatures.