From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Jun 28 2010 - 15:24:48 EDT
ERITREA-NY Times exposes American diplomats engaged in recruiting, harboring
and transporting of Eritrea's youth
Sophia Tesfamariam,
Jun 28, 2010
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, $200000 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. UNHCR 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 South Africa 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!
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