EGS Symposium Program JUNE 20, 2009

Please participate in the June 19, 2009 DC Demonstration and Martyrs’ Day Commemoration  

The four day program organized around the upcoming June 19, 2009 demonstration and Martyrs’ Day Commemoration is designed to create a favorable opportunity for concerned Eritreans in North America to participate in wide range of ways to express their support to the people of Eritrea in their desperate hours of need.

This is a solemn opportunity for all concerned to loudly proclaim to our people: We have not abandoned you!  We need to say it in unison and say it so loud that it will echo throughout Eritrea.  The rest of the world needs to know that we have not forsaken our people. We need to march and commemorate together. 

There are no ideological or political criteria for participating in this demonstration. What is required is an honest recognition that the level of suffering in Eritrea has gone beyond what is humanly tolerable and it is time for people of goodwill and conscious to come together and say: Enough is Enough and Demand Change.

If our brothers and sisters can walk across the Sahara Desert and risk the Mediterranean Sea in leaking boats -  we can fly, drive, take a train or walk to be in Washington DC to register our unified support.
We owe our people this much.

Add your voice to this major event and make it count!

Please allow us to make some suggestions:

1. It starts with you- you decide to attend –your presence is the most important contribution-we need you to be in DC.
2. Make this a family event- Please do your best to make this a shared experience by communicating with your immediate and extended family members  and convincing as many of them as possible to join all of us in DC.
3. Reach out to your circle of friends and respectfully share the information about the upcoming major event –the emphasis is on respectfully and see how many can take a day or two off to express their support to the Eritrean people.
4. Find ways to distribute the fliers and post cards about the DC demonstration within your community at large-publicize the march and the Martyrs’ commemoration widely. 
5. Call other 10 (minimum) Eritreans in North America and inform them and encourage them to join you in DC. Call Eritrean’s in other states or in Canada- use this as an occasion for a family and friend’s reunion with national purpose.
6. All religious activists who stand for freedom of belief and reject the undue interference of the government in religious institutions please take a day or two off and support the march for freedom
7. Eritrean mothers and sisters – we cannot do anything worthwhile without your unyielding spirit and commitment –come and lead this historic march. Let us follow you
8. Veterans of Eritrea’s War of Independence please call each other and make a commitment to rendezvous in DC and be at the forefront of the June 19 Demonstration-be an example to the youth.
9. Eritrean professors and intellectuals – another generation is being exiled in droves destined for Diaspora- more brain drain -This was not your hope and dream- please come and protest. Come and join hand with the new generation and say Enough is Enough!  If not now when?
10. All former students of Asmara University – network and mobilize to join the DC march. Pease use your digital skill to reach out and encourage others to share this experience.
11. Former Eritrean journalists –those  who  were independent and  those worked for the government press- please come and extend an open support to your colleagues who are languishing in the Eritrean government’s dungeons- please stand with us and defend your fellow journalists. Come to participate, to cover the historic gathering and to lend your voice.
12. Former Eritrean diplomats –your people and country need to hear from you! Your skill is needed your voice is missed. Join us in DC and let the people know you rejected and abandoned the unjust government not your country or your people.
13. All Eritrean Websites – please make your domain available and extend help by widely publicizing this historic event at each stage
14. All Eritrean radio- programs – Share the spirit and spread the news of the event all over the world- make a Public Announcement (PA) periodically for the next 2 months reminding all those who care about the Eritrean people to come out and show their solidarity with the people.
15. Each State and cities where there is a concentration of Eritreans –please represent –  try to attend but if all fails and you cannot make it please send a delegate. 
16. All Eritrean’s who have asked for political asylum- do everything to be in this demonstration.  This is your march. Head on to Washington DC.
17. Friends of Eritrea- if there was ever a time to we need your understanding and help it is right now. We need your support. Pease come and march with us.
18. A special plea to those Eritreans and Eritrean Americans who reside in the metro –Washington area-all logistic and amenity favors your presence. If Eritreans are willing to fly from Seattle, Los Angeles, Toronto etc and drive from Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston and New York to DC, we can hope and pray that our brothers and sisters within 15 minutes drive from Washington DC can make a commitment to attend this historic march in large number. We are sure they feel the pain and suffering of the Eritrean people just like the rest of us. We appeal to you to take the lead and make their presence felt. Save a day for the people of Eritrea- let that date be June 19, 2009.
19. If you cannot participate –find ways to sponsor others to go, contribute for gas, hotel fees, volunteer to distribute fliers, mail post cards about the event to few friends, sponsor a van, pay for protest signs printing etc. find ways to be a part of the process.

 All Eritrean political and human right activists – take the humble road- focus on the need to make this event a resounding success and give the credit to the people- to those who are willing to take days off from work, travel long distance and join hands to show solidarity to the people of Eritrea. 

The suffering of the Eritrean people is everyone’s concern. Indifference will only exasperate the crisis being faced by our people. The more we come together the better chance that we can move in the direction of possible solutions. You are a stakeholder. Your voice is more powerful than you know. Promise to be there.  Your people will appreciate you. Your grand children will be proud of you. Bring a candle. Bring your camera.

EGS- Event Organizing Committee  

Eritrean Democratic Alliance North America Zone (EDA-NA Zone) :- It has now become obvious to all Eritreans in Diaspora that the present regime in Asmara is determined to dismantle everything positive that has made Eritrea and Eritreans a resilient law abiding and justice loving people. The damage on our society has reached the point if not reversed the very survival of our people and country itself is at stake.

It is high time that all Eritreans become proactive and make their opposition to this crime a widely organized public affair. There is nothing more direct and visible than organizing a widely attended public demonstration. All sectors of our Diaspora community have a national duty to pull together and make this happen.

To this end, EDA encourages all Eritreans in North America to start mobilizing and organizing their respective community to attend the Historic June 19, 2009 demonstration in Washington DC. Everyone who clearly understands the dire condition in Eritrean could not afford to miss this demonstration. It is time we stand up and defend our people.

We encourage all political organizations which are not members of EDA to take this historic event as a genuine vehicle of opportunity to fully participate in the June 19, 2009 protest march and help send a clear message of hope to the people of Eritrea. Please save June 19, 2009 and pledge to be in DC.

EDA believes the damages being done by the Eritrean Regime on Eritrea and the Eritrean people are too vast and too humongous to be left for chance and miracle to solve. It needs the conscious proactive participation of all of us in North America. This historic demonstration has to be the direct concern of all of us. Everybody’s input is needed. All sectors of our community are encouraged to make a worthy effort to attend this event. Let us start organizing for the march!

EDA-North America Zone

April 10, 2009