[AI] Asmarino Independent

ICER Alert on Afar

There is human catastrophe unfolding in Yemen  at this very minute. Two hundred and forty four Eritreans ninety five percent of whom are Afar citizens of Eritrea are in prison some for almost one year. Their crime is simply for entering Yemen without document. Their claim for political asylum until situation at home is improved was completely ignored by the Yemeni authorities and the UNHCR is on the sideline simply watching helpless.

As it is true with most Eritreans, this particular ethnic group is driven out of their traditional areas, prevented from leading their subsistence existence which is fishing on the Red Sea and forcibly conscripted in the open ended military National Service which has become scourge ....

Desperate Situation of Eritrean Afar Refugees in Yemeni City of Al-Hudeyda

Regrettably, the 300 Afar refugees are languishing in Al-Hudeyda prison where their lives are trapped in a serious threat. Apart from consistent warnings of forcible return to Eritrea, they are facing communicable diseases caused by contaminated food and water. Amongst them are around 50 Afar refugees are in a grave danger of losing their lives to this disease outbreak.

Unfortunately, the ongoing political uncertainty in Yemen exasperated the situation of Red Sea Afar refugees. Going on almost a year in captivity, they haven’t had any access to UNHCR and Human rights organizations, representatives of Yemeni government or any access to medications and basic needs, which is guaranteed to them under UN Geneva convention on rights of refugees.

Yosief Ghebrehiwet on Smerrr Paltalk on Saturday, May 12

On Saturday, May 12, at 12:00 PM (Los Angeles Time) or 21:00 (Berlin Time) Yosief Ghebrehiwet will give a presentation at Smerr Paltalk. The topic is "The Fallacies of the Democracy Project and Nationhood in the Eritrean Context" In this presentation, the following points will be discussed:

1. What is wrong with the Democracy Project as practiced by the Opposition? On this part, more than a dozen fallacies will be discussed.
2. After discussing the notion of "nationhood" in the Eritrean context, this question will be addressed: What is being done to hold Eritrea together as a nation?
3. After looking at the rationale of the past (the Eritrean revolution) and the present (the opposition) movements regarding (1) and (2), we will look at this question: Given the above fallacies and failings, how do we anchor the Eritrean nation in the future?

ICER APPEAL: Save Eritrean Refugees from Human Smugglers

The International Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER) would like to appeal to all the political groups in particular to those whose operational base is Ethiopia to give focus on the issues affecting refugees in particular to the shady operation going on in the refugee camps. Frankly, since their base of operation is located stone throw away from Eritrea where the bulk of the refugees originate from we believe they are better placed than most of us to influence events, at least in as far as regulating the flow of persons from the refugee camps in Ethiopia and the Sudan. ...

This being the case, therefore, why is it so difficult for the political parties and in particular those operating from Ethiopia where part of the illegal activities is occurring cannot act in earnest to stop it?  Is it because  they are too preoccupied dealing with the more burning issues, for example, the overthrow of the unrepresentative regime and replacing it with democratic one? ...

Eritrea: The President’s Illness?

The extraordinary story built around the presumed illness of autocratic President Isais Afewerki was meant to cover up his critical political ailment. This became more apparent in the wake of the demolition of three Eritrean army bases by Ethiopian infantry forces in mid March. There was no resistance of any kind from Eritrea’s 200-thousand troops guarding the 1000km-long border with Ethiopia.

Commander-in-Chief Isaias made no convincing waves in the name of national pride or national sovereignty for which he has gone to war in the past with each neighboring state at the drop of a hat. This time, the government, which has long espoused the idea of ‘might is right’, shamelessly confirmed its political and military weaknesses by brushing off the Ethiopian action as a US sponsored “ploy” to divert attention from unsettled boundary demarcation issues still leaving dusty, little Badme in the hands of Ethiopia.

In a flat country a hillock thinks itself a mountain

… but anyway there was a perfect opportunity for us all to roll our eyes and grunt ‘sew tira bilut rasu meta…!’ last week ( when I first started writing this)… over the days that followed International press Freedom Day the world has been learning the dire situation of freedom of press in Eritrea through the various editorials and items filed by freedom loving journalists across the globe… needless to say the engine behind all this are our friends at CPJ… (Committee to Protect Journalists)…their evidence is the fact that millions of Eritreans in Eritrea are denied information independently sourced ... Meanwhile Eritrea kept sinking progressively to the bottom of the Press Freedom Index and when it finally hit rock bottom CPJ alerted the world… and to our utter amazement Thomas Mountain came in huffing and puffing… claiming to be the Messiah of Eritrea’s press freedom… (excuse me while I go roll my eyes and exclaim… Sew Tira Bilut Erasu meTa!!)…

Eritrea: Fathers and Sons and the Grammar of Independence

In the usual relay race of life, fathers hand over the legacy baton to their sons, and those sons carry it over with all the care it demands with the intention of passing it over to their sons, and so on down to the next generation. In that “baton” are to be found all the heritage that the sons need to know to continue the life journey of their people: history, culture, customs, rule of law, language, religion, myths, stories, collective wisdom and other multi-layered legacies that would sustain their people for generations to come. Any abrupt and total break in passing it over would usher a disaster of epic proportion, for one loses the whole survival kit in the process. ...

Now, if you will, reverse the above mentioned process and imagine the sons contemptuously handing back the baton to their fathers, believing that there is nothing they could learn from it ...

Power Vacuum Seems to Be Eminent in Eritrean Politics, Are We Ready?

Eritrean organizations in the Diaspora and in the heart land, to be innovative, responsive and responsible require focusing on a number of leadership, power and influence issues. In a country where democracy prevails the leadership tries its best to inform, influence, and satisfy the peoples’ demands and needs. It is this attitude and practice that is absent in the Eritrean politics. The Eritrean opposition in general seems to lack the vision and management of change and the panic and helplessness observed in the Eritrean power politics in general with the rumor of death of dictator Isaias whether manipulated or not is vivid and clear.  Below are some ideas that I think will help to develop sound strategy, management and assessment of political situation and the need to re-organize.

Mea Culpa, not Defensive Rationalization, is the Right Thing to Do

In highly contentious political joking and tussling environment rumors, misinformation and counter misinformation have found their own niche with devastating long range impact to the nurturing of a healthy political process. The use of “unconfirmed” and “unsubstantiated” information in a journalistic narrative will downgrade the reputation of the news outlet that generated the news, no matter the heroic effort to temper the blow when the “unconfirmed news” is discredited by iron clad evidence to the contrary.

The motivation of the reportage or the reporting organ is not an issue for reporting “unconfirmed news” is one of the tools of modern journalism but the spin and exaggerated extrapolation that explodes out of control due to the trigger “unconfirmed information” and the ensuing collapse of all scenarios built on the original unconfirmed reporting imposes a moral responsibility to genuinely reassess the process of how we deploy and utilize “unconfirmed information” in our new digital media.