It is no surprise that the latest tragedy in Eritrea has to do with the mining projects that are sprouting all over the land – be it directly or indirectly. Selfi Democracy Eritrea has reported that on Thursday, April 08 and Friday, April 09, 2010, in the god mining areas of Hademdem and Fankon in the Gash-Barka region, in the altercation and scuffle caused by an unwarranted round up conducted by the Eritrean government to forcefully conscript workers into the army, one soldier was killed instantly. In retaliation, the Isaias regime unleashed a reign of terror for two days that killed 24 of those working in the mining area; and in its aftermath, there is a great tension building up in the surrounding area.
There are two vital pieces of information that are missing that we need to know to get the whole picture right, and both have to do with the nature of the mining project itself: Are any one of the number of Western mining companies involved in this mining project? Or is it one of those areas where locals are frequenting to extract gold on their own initiative? Either way it doesn’t bode well for the Western mining companies to be associated with such a brutal regime, especially since the tragedy has to do with the unscrupulous gold rush.
There are two things that the Isaias regime cannot tolerate in regard to the emerging mining industry in Eritrea: (a) it won’t tolerate any peasants or pastoralists or any other individuals to stray into any mining area to extract gold for their own private use; (b) and it won’t allow the mining companies to do much of the hiring.
In a news article, Poor Eritreans increasingly joining gold rush (Feb 03, 2010), reported by Jeremy Clarke it was reported that the poor of Eritrea are participating in the gold rush. Outwardly, this gives an impression of a magnanimous government and equally magnanimous companies willing to share their wealth with the poor of Eritrea. But anyone who knows this totalitarian regime knows that this wouldn’t last long. This is a regime that has been expropriating fertile farmlands from peasants and pastoralists at an alarming rate and confiscating food products from peasants at a time of famine. It was only biding its time. Given the presence of Western workers in these areas and the image problem that it has in the outside world at a time when the UN has imposed sanctions on it, it was searching for ways it could stop these small ventures without attracting much attention. There was no doubt that sooner or later it would resort to its brutal ways to terrorize these poor souls. One effective way of stopping that would be to apprehend anyone who strays into these areas and send them to the military service, irrespective of whether they have gone though that service or not.
This tragedy also raises a host of issues regarding mining and all the foreign companies – mostly Western – shamelessly lined up to do business with the brutal regime in Eritrea. We already know that Western mining companies like Nevsun Resources Ltd are letting subcontracted government-owned companies use extensive slave labor in their projects. Therefore the government is trying everything it can to prevent any workers from directly getting employed by the mining companies. And the best way it would do that is to use an old trick that it has perfected: to conduct unannounced raids in work places in search of “army deserters and conscription evaders”. Again, it doesn’t matter if the workers have already completed their national service and have been officially demobilized. Since the regime can always come up with an excuse to recall those who have already served in the military for years, no one of them has a guarantee that he/she wouldn’t be recalled to the army under any pretext.
In this latest tragedy, the totalitarian regime of Isaias Afwerki is setting the standard for the mining companies for years to come: First, it is telling the mining companies in no uncertain terms that most of the work should be done through government-owned companies. Second, the government is warning Eritreans not to seek direct employment with any of the foreign mining companies. The message is as effective as it is brutal: stay away, or! Once all potential workers are scared off, the mining companies will have no other recourse than to grant the government’s wish. This way the work will be done though slave labor; and the money will go directly go to the regime’s coffers.
The PFDJ (the ruling party) abhors competition, be it in politics or economy. It has bankrupted each and every private enterprise in the nation: through extensive use of slave labor, tax manipulations (for instance, exempting itself from any form of taxation), domain demarcation (it reserves certain competitive areas just for itself), etc. And when these types of manipulations don’t work, it is known to have resorted into its mafia ways of doing business: threats, extortions and killings. And that is exactly what has happened in Hademdem and Fanko.
The PFDJ can “talk” in violence only. In its latest killing spree, it is sending coded message both to its subjects (“Stay away from the gold! Stay way from the work!) and to foreign mining companies (“You deal only with me! I will get all the work that there is and all the share of the gold!). There is nothing that the Eritrean masses inside Eritrea can do. But shame to us, Eritreans in Diaspora, for letting this happen. And shame to the Western mining companies that are doing the regime’s bidding.
Comments
your master weyane/tplf is in bad shape.
believe me the ethiopian comming after you and your tigrain people. this time they will finish you. finish tigray generation.
agame tigray will soon will be wiped out from the face of the earth.
we, eritrean must work together with ethiopian to wipe agame tigray from the face of the earth.
what we eritrean got to do is work with majority ethiopian and bring adwa tigrain government down to thier knee & wipe them.
check it yourself how ethiopian hate weyane/tplf & chiwawa wedi adawa
time to unite bring down adawa chiwawa
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/
http://www/eppfonline.com
http://www.ginbot7.org/
http://www.ecadforum.com/
http://www.abbaymedia.com
http://www.eastafro.com/
http://www.ginbot7.org/
from arizona
Shabia Niewbela mkurad iyu amela
awet nihafash !
this only for the internet opposition to check. I hope you will learn something from this.
I guess PIA is trying to balance his hate for elections on one hand, and not to upset his buddy Al-Bashir on the other hand. Next month at Ethio election, however, we can expect EriTV and Gazetta Hadas Ertra to make lot of noices condemning Meles and his regime.
And then,
Mariam
what are you doing, this puppet Yonas Yohannes is disrupting our converstaion please get rid of him.
Derg era was better. They were trying to keep the population happy to win them over to their side. These idiot higdef want people to be slaves or die. And if you escape to Libya, Sudan or Egypt, they demand their return so that they could put them in horrible prison. What animal would do that?
HGDF can detain you and no relearse and can kill you at prison.
During derg Eritreans were never suffered hunger or slavery. infact, it was almost freedom.
HGDF is the most cruel and selfish regime in the world, even they are eating their colleagues body in prison. There are dictators in the world, but there is nothing cruel more than dictator IA and his HGDF puppets.
Can you look the Tigray kids in the countryside and the Eritrean kids in the countryside and compare and contrast them????
The Mekele Meles and Sebhat cadres and Addis Ababa high position office holders and some Meles dogs merchants look like twin pregnant woman due two weeks but the countryside of Tigrayans look like the same as 20 years ago when woyane arrived in Addis Ababa. The Tigray landscapes look like the same 20 years ago. What the hall Meles and his yes cardres have been doing the last 20 years??? Looting and corruption is the one grew in Ethiopia.
I don't expect the new generations born after 92 to understand this so this question is for the older folks (30+) who have known the life then.
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