This is my last article on Girma Asmerom’s speech at the recent AU summit in Addis: the first was on Eritrea’s position on the border issue with Ethiopia, the second on the US and this one on Somalia.
    
It so seems like a happenstance takes place accidentally in our nature. In this Eritrean journey of life, I was sipping my wine in a communal bar feeling good when a kinda tipsy dude came in from outside and started messing with a loaded guy sitting next to me; they appeared to be friends and relaxed. Back and forth in the interaction, my neighbor picked up his glass, drank a bit,  and with stuttering or alcohol pressurized accent said that he could not feel the effect of boozing any longer and he does not know what else to do to excite his life. The dude then smiled sarcastically and told the guy “why don’t you have someone get you what WediAfom is downing in Asmara; that will keep you sane for a while”!!! 
     I call something  Melancholic Entertainment: oppressed peoples’ method of moving on by making the best out of misery.
    As you know, the destiny of the Eritrean society has been revolving only on one foreign political axis for over ten years, the Somalian issue, not for the betterment of that society but to prove that Eritrea can be a rebel without cause for the sake of devil’s advocacy. Afwerki wanted to be the only anti-democratic African power that challenges the world on Somalia at their and our expense to only find himself in unexpected solitude in beautiful Asmara. It backfired terribly in my opinion and check this out!!
The Eritrean press release in Shebait states; “Explaining Eritrea’s clear stance as regards resolving the Somalia issue, Ambassador Girma called on all external parties to back up endeavors towards bringing about a lasting and all-inclusive peace and reconciliation process in that country.”
Amazing is that they do not even back down from humiliating themselves in highly political arenas as in this. Of course no one there could take Girma seriously because Eritrea is a country that desperately needs RECONCILIATION; it has so far refused to go through such a process as of today. This unforgiving contradiction should have automatically disqualified Girma’s imagination of Somalian solution in the presence of nothing (no problem) to reconcile and solve in that country. The Somalians have reconciled through their democracy already, my brother! They have an elected president that took power peacefully in a clean democratic election, as this will soon be evident hereunder. 

What I am saying is that Eritrea should first mind its Reconciliation necessity; the Somalian Reconciliation agenda is non of its concern. 
Second; Eritrea has been repeatedly told to mind its business vis-a-vis Somalia by the international community to the extent of being sanctioned by universal commonsense. 
Third; the Somalian Reconciliation process is history since way back in 2008 specially after Sharif Ahmed was elected to succeed Yusuf in January 31, 2009 to democratically rule the country as Transitional Federal Government President until 2012. As anticipated, he then run for a second term and lost. 

The concrete Somalian situation 
“Somali citizens and political leaders welcomed the outcome of the presidential election in Mogadishu on Monday (September 10th, 2012), which resulted in a victory for academic and civil society activist Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, leader of the Peace and Development Party.    In his first speech to the nation, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said, “Now is the time for change in Somalia.” With his right hand on the Qu’ran, Somali President Hassan Shiekh Mohamud takes the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Aidid Abdullahi.   Former Transitional Federal Government President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed concedes defeat and congratulates the new president on his victory. “
Mohamud defeated former Transitional [] President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in the second round of voting, 190 to 79.
Analysts have described the election, the first of its kind in Somalia in over two decades, as an historic accomplishment for Somalia and the beginning of the country’s transition to democracy.
Political analyst and university professor Ahmed Moalim Ahmed said Mohamud’s victory is the start of a new stage in Somalia’s political transition.”
Another source of information says; “We got ourselves a new chief in Town. Incumbent president Sheikh Sharif handed over the leadership to Hassan Sheikh in a ceremony that had African Leaders and Arab representatives present with our Turkish counterparts. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took over the helm with the full backing of the people.” 
The people of Somalia elected their leader and the president accepted it and peacefully transfered power to his opponent, the winner by popular vote. This develoment was bckboned by Somalian intellectuals from all ethnic groups with all the freedom they need to communicate with and debate against each other in a multi-party democratic system. If this is not RECONCILIATION; what is?

Historical significance of Afwerki in Somalia
 The former president Sheikh Sharif was globally dignified for defeating Al-Shabab with the help of AMISOM, after which Somalia was democratized. The success of the Somalian democracy was, therefore, impossible with this group around.  Al-Shebab was the headache of the Somalian people and Afwerki as the best supporter of the group, the cause of incalculable damage to that society. The attention starved president did all he could do to fail the Somalian people’s journey to democracy because he did not want to be the only dictator in the region, though he could not avoid this predicament at the end. To this evil agenda,  Afwerki severely procrastinated the Somalian people’s struggle for democracy and caused the massive refugee crisis in that society as well. All the success story (reconciliation, healing, fair election, return of refugees) in the country started after the international community decapacitated his tenacity to destruct it through worthless groups as such. The sanction was an African Union initiated agenda that had to be necessarily imposed on Eritrea to stop it from arming Al-Shabab for Somalia to start a peaceful life; and it convincingly worked. 

I salute the Somalian intellectuals who gallantly struggled to this end and made a difference for their people to enjoy a democratic life for the rest of it. I congratulate my Somalian brothers and sisters for this historical achievement and I salute the leaders specially, the former president Hassan Sheik for saving Somalia from the darkness of anarchy by dislodging Al-Shabab out of the equation and handing power peacefully to the fairly elected president. Congratulations brother Hassan Shiek for accepting defeat in dignity and for implanting the seeds of Peace and Reconciliation in your country. You are a man of integrity who blessed yourself with this magnitude of spirituality like Nelson Mandela did in his society. I wish brother Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the new Somalian president the best in this extremely difficult assignment.

I appeal to this brother with genuine humility to forget or forgive the past and be part of the Eritrean struggle for freedom from Afwerkism like his people were the backbone of the Eritrean struggle for independence.
 In the mean time, I express my deep condolence to people affected by the forces of destruction through out the long years of tragedy, as a humanist.
I apologize to the people of Somalia for president Afwerki’s betrayal of their cause and for the extremely destructive role his repressive regime played in their society against the intention of the Eritrean people. I wish the Somalian people a peaceful and constructive future ahead and I hope our people will learn from their wisdom to democratize Eritrea as soon a possible, needless to state that the success of the Somalian people is victory to the struggle of our oppressed people for peaceful coexistence, freedom and democracy.

The next challenge:
who was who in the Somalian democratic development? To answer this question one needs to know who supports and opposes the Somalian reconciliation and peaceful democratic effort!!
According to Presidential inauguration ushers in new era for Somalia, By Mahmoud Mohamed in Mogadishu; September 17, 2012, solidarity came from the following nations;

“..Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh, Ethiopian Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn, the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Jean Ping, representatives from Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Rwanda, Brundi, Qatar, South Sudan, Iran, the United Nations, the African Union, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. The ceremony, [] was held under tight security and was attended by many international and regional figures including Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bakir Bozdag.”

Comment
 The Somalians and all East Africans do not want Eritrean interference anywhere because they know its destructive objective through experience; like people chasing a sick dog out of a neighborhood.  Afwerki, however, keeps on interfering, although only verbally today. Worse;  he appears to have been too far behind in psycho-political time of the region to let his representative make a fool out of himself in the AU Summit about Somalian Reconciliation and all inclusive solution 4 years after the issue was completely closed in 2009.
The fact remains that, all Africans and the whole world supported the Somalian election and smooth transfer of power by the civilized democratic process except Eritrea. Ironically, it has nothing to offer except the Al-Shabab, a rejected terrorist by the entire international community. Yet, Eritrea remains to be the only country on the planet that does not recognize democratic Somalia; nor does it shut up for a change!! 

It is crystal clear that Eritrea is terribly disturbed by Somalian democracy because it is the only country in the region that runs society through absolute dictatorship. Sudan being the second country in the list, its version of dictatorship is not as absolute as Afwerki’s. limited freedom of press is allowed in the country. Yet, Sudan supports the Somalian democratic evolution.
According to an information source; KHARTOUM, Somalia Jan. 1, 2013 (Garowe Online) – “Somalia ‘s president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, where he was warmly received by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, Garowe Online reports.
President Hassan ‘s official trip to Sudan is part of ongoing trips to East African countries, including recent visits to Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda, and Ethiopia, as all four countries are IGAD member states and have their forces deployed inside Somalia. President Hassan has also visited Turkey on a state visit since his election in September 2012.”

CONCLUSION

It so seems like business has flourished everywhere to the extent Eritreans are doing well in different African countries. East Africans are living in a relatively peaceful and constitutional arrangement; traveling back and forth and supporting each other except the sanctioned and isolated Eritrea. Our country was an isolated island and Afwerki was alone in Asmara, folks when the East African leaders were partying together in flesh or in spirit during the Somalian Democratic inauguration. Likewise Girma Asmerom was the sole African diplomat who was conditioned to stay out of the all inclusive continental party on the occasion.  
To rap it up, the political situation in our country is very serious; Eritreans can no longer sustain the pressure of absolute dictatorship. Although, the world has stopped Afwerki from being adventurous elsewhere he is wasting the time and life of our society with nothing else to offer except dictation and isolation. As tough as our survival had been, we can not lag too much behind our neighbors in education and political life further than we currently do. The tortoise has been moon-walking backwards for the last 12 years of restless confrontation from its earlier static position ladies and gentlemen, while our neighbors are marching forward in economy, technology and politics. No external force can help the Eritrean crisis at the end of the day except Eritreans. Once again, this necessitates an all inclusive (internal + external) united front comprising all resistance groups based on honest desire to challenge the task completely free of domination. Let intellectuals, academicians and the people involve freely in public debates to exchange ideas and to cultivate qualified leadership that can represent the society in the universal arena. ASMARINO, ASSENA and AWATE can together organize this and they should start doing it soon. The concept of destructive competition entrenched in  the Eritrean mentality has to die for new ideas to emanate for the sake of the country.