On the beautiful winter morning of Monday February 22nd – Eritreans old and young including disabled ones on a wheel chair, from all over the western United States of America- as far from Colorado in the east Seattle to the North and Arizona to the south, flocked in front of the UN plaza in the beautiful hilly- port city of San Francisco.
The demonstration was a fitting to be held in San Francisco, a city known for its Liberal ideas in the nation – alongside of its status as the financial hub for the Western United States and the birth place of the United Nations. Similar demonstration has been reported in number of major cities around the globe.
These are Eritrean Americans who have been settling here in the US since the last thirty plus years, now with children and grand children’s they have blended with the community for good. As adapted and accomplished citizens of America they understand the validity of their conscious participation in helping to bridge the relationship between Eritrea and the U.S.A.
After all these are the grassroots whose attachment to Eritrea is deeply-rooted into their soul. Almost all of them have a relative or two that have been martyred during the libration war; not to mention the personal experience most have of the brutal war. Consequently, they have a vested interest in the welfare of their people they left behind and the security of Eritrean nation.
They were jubilant to show up and be among their fellow Eritreans in support of the people and government of Eritrea. They show you their warmth filling with a right hand shake and a shoulder clench. A culture emanated during the libration war, because the left hand is busy with AK-47.
They are happy to see you in this crucial juncture of the Eritrean history. I have even seen many Die-hard E.L.F members, wrapped with Eritrean flag and chanting slogans. This manifests Eritreans resilience to outside pressure and unwillingness to be broken down. Once again Eritreans showed their impenetrable strength: their unison.
Eritreans consider the January 2010 resolution-1907 of the UN Security Council on Eritrea for unfounded reason, is unjust and unfair treatment of a member nation.
The issue at hand was the “arms flow” to Somalia: The truth of the matter is Somalia is already awash with arms for decades, way before all this drama of finger pointing.
How would it not be possible to control or capture the arms that these war lords and bare-foot Somali guerrilla fighters, including the pirates smuggle to the country?. While hundreds if not thousands of naval fleets armed to the teeth and with the state of the art Radar system, streaming through the red sea to the Gulf of Aden across the Indian Ocean to monitor the arms flow.
Is it not Possible some of these same naval ships who are floating freely along the 3025 thousand kilometers of the Somali costal line, with all opportunities to dump as much arms as they like, be the ones who does it?
On the other hand the porous border with Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti -a total of 2340 km is a natural Bastion for arms smuggling. Not to mention Ethiopia’s government open arms supply to certain warlords and the US government recent arms deal to the so-called government in Mogadisho.
In the face of all this to blame the little Eritrea which is thousands of kilometers away from the theater, with no border that links it with Somalia is simply hogwash.
Awet n’hafash!
