Dedication: I dedicate this work and the following articles to the vibrant YiAkl movement worldwide. I congratulate the movement for its latest historical conference in Dallas (December 2019).

Once more, my presentation on the Sudanese experience to democracy had to wait because of the current topics discussed in this work: Recognition, YiAKL’s Latest and Unified Grievance on the condition of our refugees in Sudan and Israel.

Recognition: I have listened to Dr. Bereket H. Selassie in few panel discussions and book signing events before and after independence. But I don’t know him enough beyond brief contact in the background of a friend who knew him closer, though I lived dignified by his personal and professional achievements and outstanding contribution to the Eritrean society time unbounded. My consciousness fails me to present the Scientific Sudanese journey to democracy in the next appearances without expressing my gratitude for the extraordinary Doctor’s multidimensional talent and experience; and for his leadership in the Constitutional Council that produced the Scientific Eritrean Constitution in independent Eritrea.

It may be asking too much from the Doctor that well deserves honorable discharge from the struggle but his destiny did not allow it to be so. The precious brother was born into the troublesome era of federation, lived through the independence struggle and firmly standing today for the freedom and democracy of the Eritrean people. He is working with Eritrea Focus that tantalized us with a guideline to INTERIM CONSTITUTION to only leave us waiting for it with salivating expectation. I believe he deserves to close his overall achievement by blessing the Eritrean people with a document to that effect with his group or otherwise; sorry to ask what Eritrea Focus has been doing since its first promising appearance many months ago. It has been too long since we heard from the group on the momentous question of the Eritrean people!

Dear brother Doctor; you are a very simple man and a distinguished Author of many books. You are the cream of creams, the teacher of teachers and a well-seasoned intellectual Icon, a “leading scholar on African law and government, Professor of African and Afro-American Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and also [an] instructor at the University of North Carolina School of Law”. I would not get into your rich experience which is beyond the capacity of this project but in my opinion, you are the best intellectual asset on the immediate challenge of the Eritrean people. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW is your baby Kibur Doctor and you used it to produce the modern Eritrean Constitution in 1997 and to establish your intellectual quality that the world acknowledges with maximum respect.

Now you see us staggering to experiment on Interim Charters without solid intellectual background and experience. You are witnessing the vibrant YiAKL movement doing its best without concrete conceptual direction beyond removing the regime and achieving democracy in its obscure form. In the flip, the regime is falling apart. His internal turbulence is exploding on the society and will continue the damage until he explodes out of the way. The endless drama of misery in different dimensions of the society reflects the future of the regime vis-à-vis the people.

The secular enemy’s latest offense is directed to our refugees in Sudan behind a fabricated excuse of Islamic Terrorism and the Eritrean Orthodox Church that suffered a forceful confiscation of its “29 Catholic Church health centers and seven schools that have been serving people of all faith for more than a century”. The latest news in ATV; ስርዓት ህግደፍ ኣብ ዝተፈላለዩ ከተማታት ኤርትራ ምስ ኣሰናን ደለይቲ ፍትሕን ትተሓባበሩ ኣለኩም ብምባል ኣማኢት መንእሰያት ኣሲሩ further testifies the dictatorship’s diminished value inside the country and its readiness to collapse any time soon.

Kibur Doctor; we are slowly approaching the transitional phase of the struggle but I don’t think we are ready to democratize the society by the law. We don’t have a concrete conceptual unity on the matter to comfortably and confidently face the phase with a certain degree of confidence. Anything can take place after the dictator the way the situation is going. Yet, we cannot afford to fail again brother Doctor, while we have a universally acknowledged mind power like you who can put it on paper with minimum effort.

Please make another history on the layers of history you made; energizing, at least Eritrea Focus if not all other civic groups into writing a collective version of Transitional Constitution for our incoming transitional government {that we cannot afford to complicate} before we arrive at that political stage with the current confusion on the matter. To be honest with you, I don’t understand why it is taking this long considering the situation can change any time soon. You gave us the Constitution that we shall use forever; and please go for it Kibum Doctor and settle your magnificent legacy with this exceptional gift to your people. God bless you! END

YiAKL Latest: The vibrant YiAKL movement is accelerating with strong momentum greatly optimizing the people’s hope more than any time in the past, though the ultimate strategy needs a good message to crystallize into a potent weapon for permanent solution in Eritrea. I believe the movement can complete its global unity by first quarter of 2020. I hope it will establish a specified strategy for success and simultaneously work on unifying our Professionals, Intellectuals, Civic societies and the Political Parties based on it. I heard the issue had been discussed and agreed upon by the movement’s successful conference in Dallas (December 2019). But here is one of its latest achievements publicized on 12/13/2019

ጋዜጣዊ መግለጺ: ኣሳናዲዊት ጉባኤ ባይቶ ኤርትራውያን ዲሲን ከባቢኣን:

[Objective]:  “ኩሎም ኤርትራውያን፡ዋላ ሓደ ከይተረፈ” ኣብ ትሕቲ ዝብል ጭርሖ፡ ህዝቢ ኣካል ናይዚ ጉባኤን ወጺኢቱን ክኸውን ነቲ መስርሕ ንኽውንኖን ብኩሉ ኣጋባባት ብምጥቃም ንኽሳተፍ፡ ብኣካል፡ ብደብዳቤ፡ ብስልኪ፡ ብረድዮ፡ ብቪድዮን ብኢመይልን፡ ኣብ ህዝባዊ ርካባትን ምልዕዓልን ክትዋፈር እያ። ዝተወደበን ዘይተወደበን፡ መንእሰያት፡ ደቂ ኣንስትዮ፡ ዓበይቲ ዓዲ፡ ስብ–ሞያን ክኢላታትን፡ ሲቪክ ማሕበራት፡ ንግዳውን ማሕበራትን ትካላትን፡ ሃይማኖታውን ትካላት፡ ናይ ደገመ–ርክብ (reunion)ማሕበራት፡ ኮታ፤ ኩሉ: ኣብ ሓርነት፡ሰላምን፡ፍትሒን ዲሞክራስን ረብሓ ዘለዎን ዝቃለስን ተቐማጣይ ዲሲን ከባቢአን ናተይ ኢሉ ከም ዜጋ ዝሳተፎን ዝውንኖን ጉባኤ ኢና ክንውድብ ዓጢቕና ዘለና።”

Comment: Simply fantastic. We have to understand the effect of solid unconditional unity in Washington DC to the Eritreans in the rest of the world. Success in DC means half of the game accomplished as well witnessed during the struggle for independence and beyond. The DC model can transcend into the rest of the world because of its material volume, political and diplomatic weight. The thousands of Eritreans in the US and particularly in DC can use their volume and voting right to pressurize elected officials into morally and materially helping the situation out based on how we professionally address the opportunities. I, therefore congratulate the DC Bayto for projecting a potentially decisive objective and God bless you.

“ክንምስርቶ እንብገስ ዘለና ህዝባዊ ባይቶ፡ ሓያል ውደባ ከም እስትራተጂ ዝወስድ፡ ንዘሎ ናይ ህዝብና ብርኩት ኩሉ ሸነኻዊ ጸጋታት ተጠቒሙ፡ ኣብ‘ዚ ዓይንን ማእከለን ፖለቲካን ዲፕሎማስን ዓለም ዝኾነ ከባቢ፡ ንህግደፍን ጨፍላቒ መሓውራቱን ፊት–ንፊት ኽገጥም ዝብገስ ዘሎ ህዝባዊ ውደባ እዩ።”

Comment: Sounds beautiful indeed: you are talking about a solid people’s Bayto that monitors every political game in the struggle. You are taking about an all-inclusive people’s power that neutrally embraces all Eritreans at equal level of the relationship; an unconditional unity to change the situation.

But I think we should see the term STRATEGY from the broader angle of the Eritrean people’s immediate political challenges. We have two immediate challenges that need two simultaneous strategies to overcome in my opinion!

The first challenge is removal of the regime which requires said ሓያል ውደባ ህዝቢ (unconditional unity). This alone can only produce a temporary solution based on reformist political policies.

The second being replacing it with a genuine democratic system via neutral transitional government which requires ሓያል ውደባ ሓፈሻው ፍልጠት about the subject matter in question as universally understood to be. The knowledge should then guarantee Conditional Unity between the people and the political parties based on the democratic laws abiding the union. This is the key that permanently solves the problem by fundamentally transforming the system into sustainable democracy.

The first strategy should then direct attention to the following points:

1)            Achieving global leadership in order for YiAKL to uniformly coordinate its activities worldwide; removing the dictatorship by any means necessary staying in place without time constraint. All YiAKL elements around the world should be conditioned to work under a democratically elected global leadership for the people to be locally and internationally synchronous and effective.

2)            The professional, academic, intellectual and diplomatic branches of the society can either be organized under a dedicated committee with their affiliations and independence intact, or as the movement’s organized portion with their autonomy in place.

3)            Encouraging the political parties to re-organize under a common framework (EDA or else) and concentrate on their respective programs and internal activities with constructive interference in the political business of the people.

But the main strategy (the second) has to focus on the immediate challenge after the dictatorship; on the quality of the incoming transitional government of the country. It has to focus on adequate theoretical preparation for neutral transitional government that secures genuine constitutional democracy in Eritrea. Because the quality of the transitional government dictates the terms of our political future (whether we will repeat dictatorship or achieve genuine democracy by the book), the preparation in this context can only be empowering the people with specific KNOWLEDGE of the matter in its most fundamental form. This Knowledge should aim at aligning our ideas of the matter into one direction because of its academic, lawful and universal nature. Therefore, YiAKL should also focus on:

1)             Erecting Public Awareness Division concentrated on raising the people’s consciousness about the meaning of transition to democracy and its normal procedures. What are the universally accepted requirements necessary for a given government to be considered legitimate, proper and democratic? This would better serve the cause if supported with research papers on other societies’ experiences and the science behind the concept. The knowledge required here in relation to the people may be the basic principles of transitional government as a subject matter but it has to be done professionally to materialize in the diplomatic paradigm of the challenge.

2)            Selecting individuals who can teach the subject through the social media with dependable control based on different experiences (African countries in particular). This can be done under said Public Awareness Division in (1) in cooperation with YiAKL’s Media Team. A lesson plan can easily be organized and dispatched on weekly basis to Eritreans around the world. It can also be organized in series at one shot level of the effort, to be accessed by Eritreans worldwide through the YouTube technology, time immaterial. We can complete this project sometime in the early 2020 if we start it today because it can be done with few individuals through the social media and with minimum effort. This will help empowering the people to define the minimum points that they will accept from any organized group that may immediately replace the dictator after his disposal.

3)            The effort should teach about the specific roles of the people and the political parties in transitional governments to simultaneously harmonize and empower both elements of the society. This should eventually create CONCEPTUAL UNITY between the Civic Groups on the one hand and with the Political Parties on the other. This is, of course a long term plan (the time depending on how YiAKL prioritizes the matter) but something that can be achieved in 2020 as a requirement for our society’s smooth transition to genuine democracy.

4)            Organizing a creative and qualified Advisory Group to suggest ideas and actions based on the situation. I do believe this should be done as soon as possible.

5)            Organizing capable and vibrant Diplomatic Branch to attract international attention as much as possible. This may be something that will come in the progression based on the accomplishments of the movement in regards to the points discussed above. The movement will have to show something concrete in terms of efficiency and material essence to win diplomatically.

6)            Organizing independent or neutral intellectuals to work on and produce research based materials about transitional government as a subject and using the collective output as YiAKL’s political strategy and material means of CONCEPTUAL UNITY for all Eritreans in the opposition camp. I believe this has to be done by neutral individuals that have no affiliation with the political groups to avoid conflict of interest as witnessed in the failed SINIT experience that in my opinion ended up serving Party politics at the expense of the people. Independent or neutral elements can do it in shorter period of time and with minimum resources because the Political Parties should not be allowed to perform the duties of the people and the vise versa. This notion has to be assertively communicated with maximum respect to the Political Parties.

To summarize, there is no doubt that Yeakel can and should achieve a lot by 2020 (working under global leadership at minimum). But it must immediately start studding the concept of Transitional Government as its main project. It should organize public debates on the matter to conceptually align the resistance overall in the same strategic vision. Our people must know where they are getting into and what challenges they will face ahead of getting there to avoid unpleasant surprises. Minimum Knowledge of transitional government should be transferred to the people for us to succeed forming a genuine democracy in the country. YiAKL should also empower individual assets such as Dr. Bereket to play a big role in this project considering the time-sensitive factor of the reality. The people should then carry the financial burden of all these things by contributing money to the cause. END

Information: “Joint Protest Action [and] Joint Statement on the conditions of Eritreans in Israel” by five prominent Eritrean opposition organizations.

There is no comfortable setting for any displaced refugee community without organized representation from its elite class to check and balance a given situation to this effect. It is unfortunate but natural for our refuges in Sudan to suffer the consequence of our weakly bonded Civic Groups that have no capacity to collectively transmit their voice beyond local boundaries. Too Many possibilities to contact the Sudanese officials on this matter but too scattered the elite class to effectively do it in a package. Too much action by the lifeless dictator to control their lives but too weak a resistance to counter balance the offenses with impacting voice.

I feel sorry for the latest news on the Sudanese government’s violence against the Eritrean refugees but I believe the problem will continue in the absence of a strong unified elite class that can address such issues internationally. That parasite will not stop hurting the people within his reach using intimidation and sabotage across the borders and the neighbors cannot protect our refugees at the expense of their interests. I feel sorry even more about the bloodshed between Eritrean refugees in Israel. It was just intolerable to hear about, although I don’t know the details to fully grasp the situation.

What appears clear from all these experiences is that our refugees have been suffering in many countries including Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan and Israel without impacting Civic, Legal and Political defense mechanism. Therefore, ፍረ ሕምቀትና ትም ኢልና ንስሕና.

Yet, some Eritrean groups have promptly reacted condemning the Sudanese authorities’ mistreatment of our refugees. It is possible for few other groups to have responded in similar fashion but the following civic and political groups have sent their grievance to the related local and international authorities based on their press release on Togoruba Website. They are “Eritrean National Council for Democratic Change (ENCDC); Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP); United Eritreans for Justice (UEJ); Unity for Democratic change (UDC) and  Eritrean National Front (ENF)”

These groups have further issued a Joint Statement (December 17, 2019) on the latest fatal violence between Eritrean refugees in Israel (see full reports in Togoruba and EritreaRising  Websites). They condemned the tragic violence, asked for justice and also reminded Israel to carry its burden of responsibility on the condition of our refugees in the country.

Great job indeed, thank you for the actions and I hope they will make a difference and encourage other Eritrean groups to react similarly. I also hope you will further penetrate other groups into joining the club for any other challenges in the future. God bless you! END

            To wrap it up, democratic societies are expected to support and safeguard international refugees within their  territories from moralistic point of view but they don’t necessarily have to do it to be considered democratic in view of national interest. Israel, for instance is a democratic country that cannot boast of being friendly to international refugees. Likewise, USA is a democratic country but unfriendly to refugees from central and South America. This should also apply to some European countries in relation to international refugees in general.

In light of this reality, we should separately see the Sudanese scientific journey to democracy without mixing it with their unacceptable actions against our refugees. As unfortunate as it is, their model to democracy should be independently looked upon, based on its universal merit and we should be open to learn from their experience in this aspect. I, therefore condemn the offense against our refugees while supporting their method of transiting the country to democracy. I had to establish this understanding with my readers before presenting my work on their journey to democracy, which will be next in line unless something interferes in between. Mary X-Mas and Happy New Year!