From: Ben Geb (asmara1020@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 28 2010 - 12:11:49 EDT
New York Times Exposes American "Diplomats" Engaged in Recruiting, Harbouring, and Transporting of Eritrea's Youth
By Sophia Tesfamariam, On 20 June 2010, in cities across the United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa, thousands of Eritreans remembered their fallen heroes. In events organized across the world, Eritreans renewed their solemn oaths to Eritrea’s beloved martyrs and pledged to continue their nation building endeavors undeterred, by the western media and the ugly campaigns against the government and people of Eritrea.
They also pledged to double their efforts to support the families of Eritrea’s martyrs and enhance their contribution to Eritrea’s development agenda. So when Jeffrey Gettleman picked this day to pen his anti-Eritrea piece in the New York Times, we thought it best to wait until our Martyrs Day commemorations were over to let him know how we feel.
So why did Jeffrey Gettleman and the New York Times choose 20 June 2010 to post the anti-Eritrea article? Because somehow, in their childish and immature heads, they believe that they can divert our attention. They pick our national holiday to undermine and insult because they have no respect for anybody.
For them it is a game-a stupid, not to mention tired old propaganda game. The truth of the matter is that neither Gettleman, nor those behind this illicit campaign, have any concern for Eritrea’s youth; they resort to such ugliness simply to add insult to injury, to make Eritreans angry, to hurt their feelings and most of all, to undermine the enormous role of Eritrea’s youth in Eritrea’s nation-building endeavors. After 12 years of lies and vicious attacks, Eritreans have become immune to them.
It is the American people that are being hoodwinked, for all others have long stopped relying on the US media for their news. When I read the article, I felt sorry for the Eritrean youth that was taken illegally out of his country and felt sick to my stomach when I realized that it was American diplomats that had arranged his escape. It made me sicker to read their sorry excuses for carrying out what is tantamount to human trafficking, the illegal recruiting, harboring and transporting of individuals for exploitative purposes.
Of course they tell us that they were doing it for Awet’s sake… those of us who have been following the good deeds of Americans in Eritrea know better. In justifying the trafficking and harboring of an Eritrean youth by an American diplomat and his contacts, New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman begins his article by writing the following:
“…all young people work for the government, sometimes until their 40…”
Mr. Gettleman, Eritrea’s youth are not working for the government. They are working for their country and people. The generation of Eritreans who fought and died to liberate Eritrea did not count their ages or their pay; they sacrificed everything for their country and their people. Rehabilitating their war torn nation, building roads, bridges, hospitals, clinics, schools and colleges is not “government work”, it is called nation building. I suppose living on handouts from American diplomats and living in the basement of an American family, playing basketball and dreaming about “the money and the cars and the girls” might be considered to be “sitting on top of the world” to some, but it is not for the majority of Eritrea’s youth who believe in hard work, discipline, self-respect, service to country and people, honor and respect for Eritrea’s Martyrs and fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of their people. Gettleman goes further to
insult the people of Eritrea and especially the youth.
He says: “…Mr. Awet, 20, who is now living in Amman, Jordan, is the embodiment of Eritrea’s lost generation…”
There is no lost generation in Eritrea. In my opinion, it is Awet who is lost and who has lost, not Eritrea. He is not the embodiment of Eritrea’s youth as they are pouring sweat and blood to develop their country and defend their people. Awet does not represent anyone except himself and those like him that choose to put their own selfish (not to mention shallow) needs ahead of that of their country and people. He is the embodiment of betrayal, conceit, corruption, deceit, and laziness, hardly the traits associated with the over 300000 gallant productive youth in Eritrea today.
Don’t try to justify Awet’s weaknesses by insulting an entire generation of Eritreans. Eritrea is not a lawless country and no one is above the law. More importantly, attitudes in Eritrea are not legislated and the Eritrean values of service, commitment, self-reliance, social justice etc. etc. that are engrained in the national psyche are a result of the over 100 years struggle against colonialism and it is not something that a young white American boy like Gettleman, brought up in a society where individual needs reign over community needs, can begin to understand or appreciate.
The people of Eritrea dreams and aspirations are not about shallow desires such as “the money, the cars and the girls”; it is about honor, dignity and about bequeathing the next generation a developed and prosperous Eritrea. Gettleman tells us that “Anyone who tries to buck this national program”-meaning anyone that evades the mandatory national service, will be punished. Only a society that does not care about its young allows them to do as they please. Let alone bucking an important national service program in which Eritrea’s cherished principles and values such as serve to country and people, self-reliance, commitment, sacrifice etc. etc. are instilled in the youth, here in the United States, if a child misses school, the parents and the child are punished for truancy.
In the US, if a child is charged with truancy, he and a parent must appear in juvenile court and if a child is found by police in public areas (shopping malls, music stores etc.) during school hours, he or she may be taken to detention or held in custody by police. In some states, the punishment for truancy includes detention in a juvenile detention center and face fines of up to $500 for every day missed in violation of state law and parents can be fined for contributing to their child's truancy (delinquency) and some even get their driver's licenses suspended for a year.
Eritrean youth may not have the luxuries of the west, but that is no reason to encourage illegal flight and human trafficking. Choosing to sensationalize the issue instead of reporting the facts, and trying to justify the illegal recruitment, harboring and transporting of Eritrean youth, Gettleman writes this:
“…This tiny country is spawning more refugees per capita than just about anywhere else in the world, according to United Nations statistics, and most of them are young men, and often the country’s most promising ones at that. …”
Tiny or not, Eritrea is a sovereign nation. I bet Gettleman wouldn’t describe Israel as being tiny, would he? After all, Israel is seven times smaller than Eritrea, and there are other US client States, such as Liberia, that are even smaller, yet the US media insist on labeling Eritrea “tiny” as if that is supposed to minimize our rights in this world. Getttleman ought to know, precious and beautiful things come in little packages. As for the most promising, isn’t that why they are being recruited, harbored and transported out of Eritrea, through DV visas, $200,000 scholarships or as in the case of the Eritrean students who were sent to South Africa for higher education only to end up being recruited by the National Endowment for Democracy and the US State Department to churn out anti-Eritrea reports?
As for the refugees, Gettleman tells us that he got his information from UNHCR; it’s a line that is used by all American journalists who are too lazy to investigate the facts on their own. Gettleman is insulting the intelligence of the American public who rely on such media for accurate information about their country and the world. He is not deceiving Eritrean, we do not rely on the New York Times for the truth; he is in fact deceiving the American public. Since he chose to lie about the facts, allow me to share with the readers some statistics from the UN in Geneva. UNHCR1 reported the following in 2010:
"…Major countries of origin for refugees included Afghanistan (2.8 million) and Iraq (1.9 million), which together account for 45 percent of all UNHCR refugees. Others were Somalia (561,000); Sudan (419,000); Colombia (374,000), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (368,000)…” According to the official UNHCR site: “…Iraq remains the top country of origin of the asylum applicants (13,200 claims) for the fourth consecutive year. Afghans (12,000 claims) and Somalis (11,000 claims) are the second and third largest groups as security conditions continue to deteriorate in large parts of their home countries…”
So where did Gettleman get his information from? More importantly, is it right for Gettleman and the New York Times to deliberate mislead the American public with such erroneous reporting? No, but it happens. The US media have absolutely no respect for the American people and feel no obligation to seek the truth or report it-that is not their job. Looking at the above facts, I would not be wrong if I were to surmise that it is the many US led, and US backed wars, around the world that are “spawning” the greatest numbers of refugees around the world, but Gettleman can’t see that, can he? Of course not…
The US-backed Ethiopian war of aggression and occupation of Somalia has left over 25,000 dead and over 3.5 million people have been displaced. The US-backed invasion and occupation of Somalia has created the greatest humanitarian disaster in the history of Somalia. The 1998-2000 US backed Ethiopian war of aggression and occupation of Eritrea cost the lives of over 120,000 Ethiopians when they were used as cannon fodder and minesweepers in the regimes wars of expansion and millions were displaced from their homes and villages. If I were Gettleman, I would take a closer look at the racist, Islam phobic policies advanced by the US State Department and stop pointing fingers at governments who are trying to build their war torn nations by instilling dignity and pride in hard work and service.
But Awet is not the first Eritrean that has been trafficked to the US. Last year, in the Washington, DC area, the bodies of six young Eritrean men were sent to Eritrea for burial. These were promising young men who were lured from places such as SouthAfrica where the government of Eritrea had sent them for higher education.
Instead of returning home and serving the people that educated them, they defected to the west, with the encouragement of the US State Department and its “officials”. Yes, their defections made the headlines. Like Gettleman, there were human rights groups and journalists eager to report about the defections. None reported of the loneliness and guilt that many felt once they arrived in the land of “milk and honey”, nor did they report of the suicides and untimely deaths that ensued.
None showed up at the memorial services, and none reported their deaths. Gettleman is wrong. Eritrean youth are not dreaming about leaving their beloved country; they dream about building a prosperous country where all generations of Eritreans can live in peace. Eritrea’s most productive and promising youth are being lured by the likes of Gettleman and the American diplomats turned human traffickers, with promises of a better life, to western capitals for political reasons…every Eritrean knows that…so who is it that Gettleman is trying to impress?
At a time when the US State Department is raising the issue of human trafficking and pointing accusatory fingers at Eritrea and other countries, its employees in Asmara are aiding and abating young Eritreans to commit crimes against their own country and people. Let us see what Gettleman, says about one such “diplomat”:
“….A big reason why he has gotten this far is Matthew Smith, a gregarious, athletic American diplomat who befriended Mr. Awet a couple years ago on a basketball court in Asmara, Eritrea’s capital, where Mr. Smith was working. Mr. Smith was impressed by the young man’s game, but more than that, he was moved by Mr. Awet’s burning ambition to break out of his hermetically sealed world…Mr. Smith matched up Mr. Awet with an American basketball coach in Amman who is now training him… ”
That sure sounds like recruiting, harboring and transporting to me…I wonder how many other Eritrean youth have been befriended, recruited, harbored and transported by Mr. Smith and his “coyotes”?
Judging from the code words used in Gettleman’s story, it looks like the smugglers or traffickers were also American. After all, “Coyote”, “Sunshine” and “Thunder” are hardly words used by Africans, or Eritreans.
The next time Hillary Clinton, and the incompetent US State Department she purports to run, produce the duplicitous and erroneous reports on Eritrea, she ought to be thinking about the contribution of her employees in Eritrea to the dangerous and illegal world of human trafficking.
Gettleman underestimates the dreams and aspirations of Eritrea’s youth. He writes:
“…Mr. Awet was lucky… he sneaked through Sudan and then on to Kenya and Dubai. He is now camped out in the basement of an American family’s home here, doing push-ups, working on his jump shot, playing on a Wii set with the family’s children and trying to get into an American college or prep school…”
Mr. Gettleman, everything that he is doing in the basement of that family home he could have done in his own home, with his own family and his own siblings. Someday, Awet will realize how much he has lost, and no amount of pipe dream about playing “basket ball in America” will fill that void, or erase the guilt and shame he has brought on himself and his family. As for the money, the cars and the girls, they will be meaningless in a country where he will always be considered a second class citizen, basket ball player or not. As for the young man that was lured out of Eritrea, Gettleman had this to say:
“…Mr. Awet’s name, in fact, means victory. He was born at home, by candlelight, in February 1990, on the eve of independence, right after a legendary battle…He was always big. He was selected to play for the national basketball team when he was 15, and earned the nickname King A. By Eritrean standards, he had an enviable life, with a wealthy merchant father, good grades and a touch of fame…”
So what made him believe he deserved more? Mr. Smith, his American friend? More than in any other piece that he has been producing on Eritrea over the last couple of years, this piece by Jeffrey Gettleman and the New York Times exposes the duplicitous and hypocrisy of the American diplomats stationed in Eritrea. If any foreign diplomat working in the United States engaged in such illicit activities, I bet they would be kicked out of the country and the sending nation would be forced to apologize.
But for some reason, American diplomats feel they can say and do anything they please including engaging in human trafficking while stationed in Africa? It is amazing to me how Gettleman goes out of his way to justify and romanticize the illegal flight of an Eritrean youth and the role played by his American “friends”. He missed the real story here. Reading it as an Eritrean mother, I read it as a story of human traffickers, the story diplomats who abuse their diplomatic immunity and the magnanimity of the people of Eritrea, diplomats who have seduced and ensnared impressionable youth to turn against their own people and government in exchange for trinkets such as Wii’s and MP3s. Jeffrey Gettleman and those who collaborated with him on this story, Mathew Smith of the US Embassy in Eritrea and Dan Franch of the Asmara International Community School, ought to be ashamed of themselves.
By encouraging illegal immigration and encouraging unnecessary separation of families and engaging in human trafficking and other crimes against the State of Eritrea, not to mention contributing to the moral decay of Eritrean youth, they have blemished the image of the United States and undermined the credibility and trust of all US diplomats serving in Eritrea, and elsewhere in the region.
In a future article, I will revisit the many groups and individuals that played a role in the US State Department’s 20 year-long unprovoked hostility towards the people of Eritrea. From individuals like Neil Skene, the “journalism professor” sent by the US State Department to teach journalism in Eritrea in 1999 and 2001. We will also look at the “journalists” that he recruited and how they were harbored and transported to the US.
I will also take a look at the various religious and other NGOS, such as Kevin Turner’s Strategic World Impact (SWI), a USAID contractor, Todd Nettleton and the Voice of the Martyrs (VoM), another USAID contractor, and Islam phobic groups such as International Christian Concern (ICC) that have been planting “underground” churches in Eritrea.
I will also take a look at the “professors” who have recruited students from Asmara University and more…it’s really an ugly story… but one that must be told. Eritrea’s youth have a right to know. In the end, when it is all said and done, Eritrea will be judged, not by the incompetent and lazy corporate media, or by morally corrupt and bankrupt foreign diplomats, but rather by the people of Eritrea.
I must say, I am almost grateful to Gettleman for telling this story…he confirms what I have always suspected…his story actually vindicates Eritrea…he just doesn’t know it.
The rule of law must prevail over the law of the jungle!! http://www.unhcr.org/4a3b98706.html
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