Date: Wed, 20 May 2015 21:35:31 +0200
(EritreaAt24 Series: May 20th) Tried, Tested and Molded by Fire
Military Warfare
Eritrea has endured a fair share of military wars under numerous forces of oppression for many decades since the 19th century, much of which is well documented. It would be a travesty to even attempt to list or nominate any one of them as the worst or merciless war. Each one of them has been inhumanly barbaric and heinous. No words can adequately convey an image in the mind of someone who has no personal experience of the level of atrocity perpetrated on the Eritrean people through the wars. Even the films do not seem to do justice in covering the terror that the wars inflicted on the people. The video below is one that gives me a sleepless night and one I view only if there is a dire need for reference.
Watch it-“War as you have never seen it before”
Time has not healed many of the physical or emotional wounds sustained in the port city of Massawa after the EPLF's successful Operation “fenQl” that liberated it from Ethiopian occupation. It is even more painful to think of the abominable criminals who remain at large and are still protected.
Psychological Warfare
What is not mentioned as often are the other forms of warfare that have been meted out on the Eritrean people. Psychological warfare has numerous facets and Eritreans have been tested and tried under each and every form imaginable; from the simple bribery to divide and rule tactics to inflicting extreme cruelty through a powerful propaganda machine, they have all been mercilessly applied. All were designed to ultimately degrade and break the human spirit. Acquiring the rights to ownership of Eritrean land was Ethiopia’s goal, never the welfare of the people – and as one of the governors used to say – ”...annihilating the people may be necessary if it gets us to own the Red Sea”.
Bribes: The last Emperor of Ethiopia was a master at winning hearts and minds of the most vulnerable. During his trips to Asmara in the 1950s he would toss Birr notes from his open top Cadillac as he was driven past people forced to line the streets for hours under the searing sun just to cheer him.
Instilling Fear: The Dergue regime’s unspeakable cruelty on civilian Eritreans during its reign of terror was meant to break the indomitable spirit and dehumanise the people. The Mariam Ginbi Prison in Asmara was soaked with innocent blood and with smashed bones hidden beneath the surface of the compound. At your peril of going through another sleepless night, watch the following:-Watch it
Mariam Ginbi Prison in Asmara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=41&v=FvLXi2Eapyk
As one former prisoner said – እቲ ቃልሲ የዋዓውዓና: የጓሃህረና እዩ ነይሩ ሹዑ - The struggle energised and fired us up – A people tested and molded by fire!
Cultural Warfare: The abolition of Eritrean languages, books, newspapers, educational institutions in the 1950’s together with everything else that incorporates our culture: food, music, literature, history, laws, customs, and enforcing the Amharic language and their way of life were impositions meant to rob future Eritrean generations of their dignity and identity.
Mixing birth heritages: With their skillful use of soft power, marriages between Amhara and Eritrean people was encouraged with the long term intention to dilute Eritrean identity and merge them with the wider Habesha basket of peoples. Those were the times when the culture of an underworld of prostitution flourished and children of mixed parentage born out of wedlock rose thereby breaking away from the traditional family structure.
Economic Warfare: Ever since the arrival of Ethiopian rulers in Eritrea, revenue generated through port activities and taxation were directly transferred to Ethiopian coffers, while industrial machinery, even telephone poles were transplanted to central Ethiopia “mahel ager” (መኃል ሃገር ). With the resulting rise in unemployment, young people were forced to seek their fortunes in Ethiopia.
Several decades later, with a new regime in place, when their leadership felt they no longer “liked the colour of their [Eritreans’] eyes” they promptly confiscated their homes and properties and deported 70,000+ people of Eritrean origin en masse back to Eritrea.
The late PM Melese Zenawi of TPLF regime
Needless to say, the ploys to impoverish Eritrea continue to this day.
The most vicious of these is the efforts deployed to deplete the country of her human resources, and not just by the Ethiopian regime. A complex international propaganda machine is unleashed enticing Eritrean youth to a life of grandeur outside of their country. The repugnant work of human traffickers and all the ensuing disasters befalling young migrants is quite chilling. There is no shortage of evidence (thanks to Wikileak cables and ongoing research) on the veracity of these activities and the identity of some of the perpetrators. There is no need to blame him as Mr Obama has openly declared responsibility for the increased migration and for the UN Sanctions:
Who else do we blame for human trafficking of Eritreans?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=Yy8xA6zc1wo
Environmental Warfare: The poisoning of rivers, the felling of trees, total clearances of woodland and the decimation of flora and fauna throughout the decades is a major contributor to the overall climate change and the encroaching desertification of the entire region.
These are only scraps of samples of a much larger, more complex narrative of the trials and tribulations that the Eritrean people have been subjected to at the hands of a multitude of forces. Against generations of all forms of human adversity the Eritrean people have not only emerged with exemplary survival skills but with an amazing dignity and a steely resilience, harbouring no malice or vindication towards their former oppressors despite their glorious victory in attaining independence;
The younger generations Yikaalo (ይክኣሎ) followed by Warsai (ዋርሳይ) are gradually being groomed to take on the baton "teQebelti Hidri" (ተቐበልቲ ሕድሪ) to maintain and move on, with equally committed perseverance as their elders, the safeguarding, stability and development of their young country.
To anyone who asks WHY is Eritrea such a target? A short, succinct answer is in
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/blog/2011/aug/3/we-should-learn-more-different-development-models :
Eritrea ....clearly does not fit with the geopolitical aims of the developed world governments, and at least as much the Eritrean government has said 'no thanks' to donor aid and dependency”. And “...there is indeed a Living Well, or 'Buen Vivir', movement which helps express some of that ....and which offers more learning on common goods and self-sustainability than the World Bank's Voice of the Poor or DFID's and others promotion of the Paris Principles ever will”.
Awet n’Hafash (Victory to the Masses)