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*“Economic Development Means Promoting The Standard Of Living And Improving
The Quality Of Life Of Citizens” President Isaias Afwerki*
http://74.63.78.28/feb2012/eritrea_profile_26012013.pdf
Eritrea Profile, Saturday 26th of January, 2013
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*It is to be recalled that President Isaias Afwerki conducted an extensive
interview on the occasion of New Year with national media outlets on 28**th
**and 29**th **of December 2012. The interview focused on national
development programs, political and diplomatic developments in the horn and
Eritrea’s stance and outlook on different scenarios as well as other local,
regional and global issues. Seventh part of Excerpts of the interview
follows:*
*Your Excellency, Eritreans as a people have been repeatedly victimised due
to several lawless actions. However, as if that was not enough, hostilities
towards the people and government of Eritrea are escalating by the day,
with persisting campaigns that demonize the image of Eritrea. Also
coincident with this is the psychological warfare on Eritrean youth. There
have also been suggestions accusing Eritrea of “human trafficking” while
Eritrea has been is itself a victim of human trafficking. We are also
witnessing several economic conspiracies. Why all these hostilities? What
is the intended aim in the end? What do you say about the public and
diplomatic efforts that have to be exerted to overcome these challenges? *
They say history repeats itself. However, the fact of the matter is the
region that we are living in has its own nature. There is the fact of state
formation that had resulted from colonization. From that perspective we can
ask; are these hostilities new? Are they being repeated? In what way are
they being repeated? Ever since the time of state formation what challenged
Eritrea as a country and as a nation is not the condition of the Eritrean
people, it is rather the interests of others. The best understanding
therefore is obtained when one sees the bigger picture starting from that
point. Eritrea is one of the states that were first established in Africa.
And that is not boasting or twisting history; it is just the plain truth.
Eritrea is one of the countries that were formed at the beginning of the
expansion of colonization in the 19th century. Ethiopia, setting aside the
conundrum it entails, was not even there back then. The real challenge
arose during the period of the abolition of colonization. When countries
were being given their freedom and the right for self determination, the
people of Eritrea were denied neither their freedom nor their right for
self determination. The reason was the World War II victors, the allied
forces, which were led by America, impeded it saying that it doesn’t match
their strategies and interests of the world. We didn’t get our freedom
because we were victims of the strategy and interests of Washington or
America. Then the effort to meet the challenge that had resulted from this
condition followed. And that effort went beyond to ensure freedom and
secure the right for self-determination. Freedom didn’t come easy. If we
see the Cold War era, where the groups led by the Soviet Union and America
had their own strategic interests, the challenge was even tougher. Yet, we
waged an exigent struggle and achieved independence. Ethiopia got to its
real shape. The allied struggle of the peoples of Eritrea and Ethiopia
changed the map of this region. Two years earlier, a change (regardless of
what nature) had come in Sudan. The regime in Somali had collapsed and the
Soviet Union disintegrated due to Gorbachev’s doing. A global change
resulted. After the end of the Cold War there wasn’t any sort of strategy
taken as a principle in Washington. The world changed, whether their
perception of this change was right or not is another subject. But, how did
that affect our region?
The end of the Cold War encouraged an attitude of “adventurism” in America.
It spread out a mind-set saying “we are alone,” “there is no one else to
control the world,” “and from now we shall control the world for the next
hundred years.” Then, in every region, there came different sorts of
divisions of forces. Within this concept, history repeated itself in a new
dimension: ruling Africa through representatives or regional powers. You
put representatives in the north, south, west, and east as well as in the
Horn of Africa. This strategy therefore is the origin of the hostilities
towards Eritrea. One of the problems for this strategy was what happened in
Ethiopia. A regime came to power not only to change governance but to
change history as well. Because this regime was by nature not legitimate to
dwell or rule Ethiopia, an alliance of convenience came into being. Every
regime that came after the end of the Cold War had to endorse the will of
foreign powers and not its own political lines if it were to rule in
Ethiopia. We all know this. And so, the alliance of convenience came in
handy to serve the strategy. While we know how the US adventurous policies
in the past twenty years ended, the strategies it drawn for our region and
their implementation programs failed miserably. And the problem escalated
with the precarious situation of the existence of the regime in Ethiopia.
The prime threat came from inside Ethiopia, which had to be supported by
the Eritrean situation; so you make them both clash and once
* *
Eritrea gets marginalized, the regime in Ethiopia would be pampered and
cared for in a way it would serve its master’s the interests.
This was the strategy and the hostilities that followed were its result. A
number of recently published writings revealed the problems resulted from
of the mistreatment of issues in Washington. The complications which
appeared at the beginning of the border conflict in 1998 were among them.
The contemporary hostilities, therefore, are its continuations. And if one
sees history repeating itself in Spiral, one can see that policies of
belligerence and domination don’t work in Eritrea. It is not to imply that
it works in other places, however the situation in other places is not
matured. Intervention might be easy in other places but not here. Now,
under this situation, one should see the strategical importance of Somali
Sudan Ethiopia Eritrea and other countries in this region. As the Red Sea
is the biggest source of oil and other minerals in the world there ought to
be a regional power that serves this strategy. And if there is anyone that
challenges this regional power it should be weakened. One f the challengers
of the dominance and to be weakened is Eritrea. They tried everything war
through boarder conflict, political conspiracies, dividing the people
through religions and ideas, etc. It all failed. The economy of this
country was meant to be collapsed. But it didn’t, not for the discovery of
natural resources but for the endurance of the people and the development
programs undertaken in the past few years. All kinds of conspiracies were
plotted to prevent loan, aid and investment opportunities. Did it damage
our economy? Never. Leaving all aside, it was tried to prevent Eritreans
living abroad from sending the money that they had earned into their
country. But it was all in vain. So at last, there came the sanction in the
name of the Security Council.
If we ask why human trafficking was introduced into Eritrea, the answer is
simple. It was introduced to sabotage the National Service programs by
targeting the youth, the working power. In their view, in order to create
opposition abroad the youth should flee abroad first. To do that, pictures
were created, pictures that suggest that there are economic and political
woes in Eritrea but there are ample opportunities abroad. Smuggling the
youth is an organized trafficking. The United Nations, The Red Cross and
other non-governmental organizations are involved in it. They operated
openly by stationing their camps in Ethiopia Sudan and other neighbouring
countries. Papers were facilitated to send Eritreans abroad; this was never
done for other people. The aim at the end of this human trafficking is to
weaken Eritrea by filtering the youth out of the country and organising it
abroad as opposition. All the existing intelligence agencies operating
under the cover of the UN and other non governmental organizations did a
lot of damage backed up by the current technology. The head of these
operations is in Sudan, as it is easier to smuggle the youth into Sudan.
One can go to Ethiopia, Djibouti or even the sea but Sudan is the easiest.
And these organised operations have been there for over a decade. Human
trafficking is a crime by the laws of the UN. They claim “they have
economic and political problems.” But this is a human trade. It is
horrifying even to speak of the abomination of this a trade. It put
innocent Eritreans into all kinds of misery. Not only those who died and or
disappeared in the process, but even those who have got papers and left
abroad, are living in concentration camps. This was done to prevent them
from working and sending money to their families. Therefore, the sole
purpose of these operations was to get the youth out of their country and
to organize them into oppositions in short period of time, as they all had
taken military trainings. And it was further intended to bring them through
Ethiopia and open another war. But none of it worked.
There is no one that goes to betray his or her parents, people or country.
There could be a few but the tens of thousands that fell into the traps of
cross-border trafficking refused to comply with the offers given to them.
They are being subjected to numerous crimes as attempts are constantly made
to lure them to illegal contraband activities so as to deter them from
trying to find work, make a living, settle, and remit to their families. As
this is a crime even by international standards, it remains the
responsibility of this nation, government and people to take this matter
seriously and hold those responsible accountable.
There is nothing worse than human trafficking, as it steals the chances of
tens of thousands of youngsters. Wherever they are, one can hardly say that
these young people have a decent work and lead a good life. If you look at
it from a broader perspective, they have also lost their opportunities for
education and professionalism. So human trafficking is more than just a
cumulative crime, which is aggravated when taking into consideration the
political, economic, cultural and social opportunities that the youngsters
have lost.
And to hinder us from uttering these grievances, different attempts are
constantly made, such like the UNSC Sanctions resolution. But this crime
shall not remain concealed as we have detailed information of all the
parties involved. Setting aside the intended politics and strategies, which
need investigation, this crime was committed against human rights. Those
who committed the crime should be held accountable and the truth be known
to the world. The good thing is that, in spite of all the hardships and
challenges they face, the people that have been smuggled across the border
remained loyal to their people and country, which is a big blow to the
criminals.
When looking back at history, the fact that a small country should be made
to face endless challenges for generations is not a coincidence. This
people will never fall victim to their devious schemes. The traits of the
subservient regimes and those of their sponsors pose two threats: a people
and nation that grows stronger one ne hand and regimes that grow weaker and
plummeting towards crises. And it is in an attempt to change all this that
we are being victimized.
So where do we stand? What lies ahead of us? We need to not only assess the
years that have passed but work harder knowing that all issues will have to
be dealt with critically in 2013 and the years beyond.
*“Economic Development Means . . . *
*Continued From Page2*
Received on Wed Jan 30 2013 - 13:54:04 EST
