From: Eri News (er_news@dehai.org)
Date: Wed May 20 2009 - 17:24:54 EDT
Contributed Articles
NASCENT ERITREA JOINS THE U.N: Witnessing the Birth of a Nation
By Elias Amar Gebrezgheir
May 20, 2009, 5:38pm
28/05/1993
11:30 am
Washington DC
May has always been a special month to me. I was born in May -- just a little over three months shy of that historical date when the indomitable spirit of Awate rebelled against tyranny, and he took to the hills with his comrades and fired that first shot at Mt. Adal, heralding decades of strife and resistance. I fled into exile from the war raging in my country, trekking on foot and trucks for almost the entire month of May, across mountain territory and the desert into the neighboring Sudan. The 30-year war in Eritrea ended victoriously on May 24, 1991. Other significant events in my life seem to be happening in the month of May. Therefore, it came to me as the fulfillment of destiny, when in May of 1993 I was honored to be a member of the Eritrean delegation to the ceremony of Eritrea's admission as a member nation to the United Nations. Besides myself, the delegation included seven other members of the Government of Eritrea's Embassy to the U.S. and Canada. Our delegation was led by Ato Ahmed Haji Ali, w
ho was then the First Secretary of the Eritrean Embassy in Washington. As the regular General Assembly Hall was undergoing repair, this meeting was held in an alternative conference hall. It was the 104th meeting of the 47th General Assembly Plenary, May 28, 1993.
At about 10:30 A.M., our delegation was escorted inside the hall to designated seats on the right hand the side of the hall. The seats of member nations extended in a semi-circular fashion across the hall. On the balcony above, serving as the visitors' gallery, I could see over 200 of my compatriot Eritreans, men and women and children of all ages, some dressed in traditional Eritrean clothing, most waving our new flag, and though they were far off from were I was sitting, their sense of excitement and great expectation was palpable -- feelings shared by every member of the Eritrean delegation. As we sat waiting, every now and then some UN officials or diplomats from different countries would come to where we were sitting to congratulate us and exchange words of welcome. Among the well wishers was Mr. Samir Sanbar, the Lebanese diplomat who headed the UN observers mission to verify the referendum in Eritrea. A month earlier, in a free and fair referendum which was monitored by the UN, the Eritrean people had
overwhelmingly voted for independence.
Sitting and waiting for the session to begin, many thoughts were racing through my mind in a sort of flash-back: The price that we as a people paid to get to this historical juncture . . . The venerable Eritrean patriot Sheikh Ibrahim Sultan's prophetic words to the UN 44 years ago in 1949 that unless the desire of the Eritrean people for freedom and national independence were satisfied, the Eastern African region would be plunged into untold war and misery . . . The imposition by the new UN, with the collusion of the U.S. and other Western countries, of the sham "federation with Ethiopia" that was forced upon the Eritrean people against their wishes . . . The Cold War logic behind the words of the-then U.S. Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, that "from the point of view of justice, the opinions of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, strategic interest of the U.S. and considerations of security and world peace make it necessary that the country has to be linked with our ally, E
thiopia." Words that served as the rationale for, first, the federation and, later, the annexation of Eritrea by Ethiopia . . . The betrayals, the double-dealings, the ensuing conspiracy of silence by the international community . . . The opportunistic changes of position by the Soviets, who initially supported the independence of Eritrea in the 40s, but later switched to the side of Ethiopia after the fall of emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, providing massive arms support to the military dictatorship . . . The necessity for waging the armed struggle when all peaceful avenues were closed and the UN doors slammed shut in the face of Eritreans . . . A struggle against all odds, a struggle against the "mighty" by a small but courageous people . . . The high price -- extremely high by any historical measure -- that we had to pay to achieve our natural right to self-determination -- 65,000 of the best sons and daughters of Eritrea had to pay the ultimate sacrifice to get us here to this point . . . Was all this ne
c
essary? Was it avoidable? Or was this what the experts meant by "historical inevitability?" Was it justifiable that we as a people should be pounded to near extinction before we could qualify for membership in this "august" body of the UN? . . . This should have come 45 years ago, minus all the suffering, the pain, the destruction, and the ravages of war that Eritrea was subjected to . . . These and many other thoughts flashed through my mind in that short period of waiting. Yes, all these years we had been patiently waiting, and now the waiting was to come to an end.
Shortly thereafter, the UN Secretary-General Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali strode by and took his seat at the center of the tribune, which was on a raised platform at the center front of the hall. Presiding over the meeting was the representative of Bulgaria. After taking the roll call of the member nations, he called the meeting to order, announced that the first item of the agenda was to consider the applications by Eritrea and the Principality of Monaco to become members of the UN, and to act on draft resolutions by which it would decide to admit the two states to membership. The draft resolution by which the assembly would admit Eritrea was sponsored by the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Lithuania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Spain, Tunisia, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The President of the General Assembly then announced that the following countries had added their names to the list of co-sponsors to the draft resolution on t
he admission of Eritrea to the United Nations membership: Algeria, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bhutan, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Gabon, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sudan, Surinam, Sweden, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yemen.
Finally, the President uttered the following magical words:
"The General Assembly,
--Having received the recommendation of the Security Council of 26 May 1993 that Eritrea should be admitted to membership in the United Nations,
--Having considered the application for membership of Eritrea,
Decides to admit Eritrea to membership in the United Nations!"
At which point the hall broke into thunderous applause. All the Eritreans sitting in the visitors gallery stood up and broke into wild cheers, ululations and rhythmic clapping, and we were carried over by this spontaneous wave of emotion and stood up and cheered and clapped. I was fighting hard to keep the choking emotions that swelled up in my throat, and my eyes were beginning to moist. I must say that the august body of the General Assembly, which was unaccustomed to such wild displays of joy and excitement, was taken by surprise and was rather infected by the mood. The delegates of UN member countries generously responded to the Eritreans' enthusiasm, before the President of the General Assembly had to call the meeting to order by tapping his gavel several times at the table. He then called on protocol officers to escort the leaders of our delegation to the seat assigned for Eritrea amongst the family of nations. As the UN protocol officers accompanied the chairman of the Eritrean Delegation, Ato Ahmed H
aji Ali, and his deputy, Ato Abraham Yohannes, marching proudly to take Eritrea's proper place, we broke again into cheers and applause.
At that moment the last verses of our national anthem kept playing in my mind, and as I clapped I was softly whispering that appropriate finale:
ieritra! ieritra!
ab Alem kwehaba gbu`e kbra::
Eritrea! Eritrea!
Take thy proper place of
Honor in the world.
Hurray! With that final resolute march, Eritrea had at long last taken its proper place in the world and become the 182nd member nation of the UN. This was the proudest moment of my life, as I am sure it was the same for every Eritrean in that hall that day.
Statements of welcome were given by the representatives of various regions of the globe: From Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, and the U.S., as the host country, they all welcomed Eritrea. Some admired the courage and heroism of our struggle, others expressed a future of hope and peace. Others remarked on the peculiar situation of the two new members Eritrea and Monaco, their similarities and differences, and their simultaneous admission, they said, was a demonstration of the universality and nobility of the UN Charter. All, of course, diplomatically forgot to mention that the UN had failed, for close to 50 years, almost since its inception, to shoulder its responsibility towards the people of Eritrea.
After these welcoming messages, it was the turn of the Chairman of the Eritrean delegation to speak. Ato Ahmed Haji Ali, speaking on behalf of our country and Government, thanked member states for supporting Eritrea's application for membership in the UN. He pointed out that in the recent UN-monitored referendum, 99.8% of the Eritrean people had voted, in a turnout of 98.5% of eligible voters, in favor of independence. Membership in the organization was of special significance because of the role the UN finally played in helping to decide Eritrea's future. He hoped the community of nations would also play an active role in supporting the reconstruction effort of Eritrea, a country which was suffering from the devastation of 30 years of war. But, perhaps because of the excitement of the occasion or the long wait for this opportunity, the Eritrean chief delegate was reading his country's statement rapidly, and a UN staff had to give him a note to slow him down so as to enable the translators to catch up with h
im. To me, however, this was an appropriate metaphor for the nascent nation, symbolic of its vitality and eager energy to make up for all the lost years of war and quickly catch up with the rest of the world. After he ended his speech, and we all broke again into another round of applause, Wedi Haji -- as he is affectionately known among his Eritrean comrades -- instinctively raised the clenched fist, a habit from revolutionary days, in a gesture of victory and a salute to the cheering Eritreans in the balcony, as he proudly walked back to the seat of Eritrea.
The President then announced that the flags of Eritrea and Monaco would be raised at a ceremony which would take place in front of the delegates' entrance immediately following the adjournment of the plenary meeting. After the adjournment, many delegates from member countries flocked to our place to congratulate Eritrea on becoming a new member and exchange a few pleasantries.
As we all trooped outside to raise the new flag of Eritrea, I couldn't help but marvel at the irony of the situation which brought us inside the halls of the UN, when until recently we were loudly calling on the very UN from the outside to shoulder its responsibility and break the conspiracy of silence. Many were the cold days of winter and hot days of summer when we held demonstration after demonstration in front of the building of this representative organization of the international community to demand attention for our struggle and the plight of our people: starting with the early Eritrean student movement in 1970 to denounce the massacre of civilians in Ona and call on the UN to take action; later in the mid 70s as the struggle raged on back home and the human rights abuses and atrocities by the Dergue-- as the Ethiopian military junta was known--multiplied; 1982 on the eve of the 6th offensive--the infamous "Red Star Campaign" by Ethiopia--to protest the nerve gas and chemical warfare preparation by th
e Dergue to destroy the Eritrean revolution "once and for all;" later in the mid-80s as famine was used as a weapon of submission by the Dergue , and the UN stood idly by; 1988 to protest the massacre of Sh`eb and call on the UN to break its habitual inaction and conduct the referendum as the only peaceful solution; still, as late as 1990, to protest the bombardment of civilians in Massawa and the destruction of the lovely port city, calling on the UN to use Massawa as free port for the transport of relief food.
Now, as we prepared to hoist our flag, the loud calls of hundreds of Eritreans from the outside were not shouts of anger and protest. They were rather echoes of joy, celebration and dancing. This time, the crowd was not shouting from the opposite side of the street, with policemen on guard. This time there were no policemen to restrain the crowd. This time the Eritreans were gathered on the curbside adjacent to the UN, freely walking about, waving their new flag, smiling broadly and hugging one another with tears of joy in their eyes, dancing to an impromptu guaila, and urging us to begin raising the new flag, for which we all have waited a lifetime.
As if on cue, the UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali appeared on the podium in front of the flag-poles just outside the UN building. To his left was lined up our Eritrean delegation, and to his right the delegation of Monaco. He read a brief statement of welcome to both nations in English and French. He mentioned the long journey of struggle by which Eritrea arrived at this juncture, and hoped that its future would be peaceful and bright. After that, the uniformed UN personnel neatly retrieved the Eritrean flag from the metal box attached at the bottom of the flag pole, and as we held our breaths and placed our hands to our hearts, our flag was slowly being raised up. All eyes were glued to that flag as it ascended to the top of the flag-pole. From the outside, our Eritrean compatriots broke into wild cheers and ululations as they caught the first sight of their country's flag.
The sun never shone brighter than at that moment, and the sky was never such a clear and cloudless blue. As a soft breeze swept by, the new flag of the new member state of Eritrea took its first tentative waves in a dance of the flags of nations. Everything was so peaceful, everything so serene, and I felt so complete and full of human dignity. For a brief moment, I thought I heard thousands of voices singing in unison the sweetest tune of Eritra ever heard this side of reality. With my hand still crossed upon my heart and tears unashamedly trickling down my cheeks, I murmured softly in Tigrinya, "rest in peace our martyred comrades, be at ease. The cause for which you have given your dear lives has reached its final goal." It was, indeed, a glorious day for Eritrea and the happiest day of my life.
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