The state of Eritrea is now in a dysfunctional status by all standards of measurement, and must be saved.

When the Eritrean independence was realized in 1991, after over 30 years of torturous war with Ethiopia, hundreds of thousands of human lives and untold material values were sacrificed.  This war was termed as one of the longest wars of independence in the history of the continent of Africa, and almost every Eritrean household had paid with the lives of their loved ones.

Even though the goal of the armed struggle was to bring national independence, unqualified freedoms and democracy for every single Eritrean to enjoy, it fell short on its expectations.  The national independence part of the goal was indeed achieved due to the heroic sacrifices and unparalleled spirit of nationalism of the Eritrean People.

The remaining elements of the goal, namely the citizens’ inalienable rights for freedom and democracy were stolen by the self-proclaimed “president for life”, Mr. lsayas Afeworki, and his handful accomplices.  Ever since, the political and socio-economic conditions of Eritrea have been deteriorating by the day, and the trend is still continuing further down without signs of return.

The unsuspecting majority of the Eritrean people, being blinded by their obsessive spirit of nationalism, had trusted lsayas Afeworki. He was left unchallenged by any contending united political opposition, and he single handedly ruled the country with brute force, and cunning political manipulations.

Even though there have always been many Eritrean political  opposition groups  and civic organizations whose efforts should be acknowledged and appreciated, their uncompromising disunity (feuding) has been one of the reasons why the home grown dictator has continually survived in power, without any serious political or military challenges.

Eritrea is still without any national constitution to be governed with. There are no parliamentary elections, free court of justice, there is no freedom of speech and movement, there is no tolerance for religious differences and freedom for organizing. Thousands of our people are now living in underground prisons for unknown reasons, and without any opportunity to appear before any court of law. This is the government which mercilessly shot and killed over 10 disabled war veterans in 1994.  Their only crime was that they expressed their disappointments with the government’s announced plan to remove them from the public social services program at Mai-Habar. The question is, what was the Eritrean publics’ reaction to this massacre? It was indifferent!  Standing up for our patriots during such act of cruelty would have been a great opportunity to demonstrate the content of our nation’s character and depth of compassion.

This is the type of government, which, by defying logic and commonsense, shamelessly denied the opportunity to many well qualified Eritrean university professors from the Diaspora to passionately provide their free professional services. As the government started meddling in the university’s day to day internal affairs, the university students resented such intervention and started to show their opposition with knowledge and courage.

The students’ enlightened voices were perceived by the government as an imminent political threat to their governance and they decided to callously close the only University in the nation. While such government action was a disgrace to the nation, the Eritrean people’s reaction was termed as business as usual, which was a breach of public morality. Some public collaboration with the students’ efforts should have been the most appropriate response.

The paramount duty and responsibility of a president of a nation should be the socio-economic, public health, safety and security of the state, but such concepts are void from Isayas  Afework’s heart and mind.

On the Eritrean national economic planning system, just from the inception, the economic planning system in Eritrea didn’t take the interests of the common people living in the country into consideration. “Altruism or the public good” concept doesn’t exist in the national economic planning agendas.

The values of everything, which includes of materials and commodities offered for public consumption and trade are systematically priced so high that the only economic survivors are those who get continuous financial support from the Diaspora, with the exception of those who play their cards through corruption, nepotism or bribery, which is quite rampant in present- day Eritrea.

While all private and public lands have been confiscated by the government without any compensation, most of the land, in, and around Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, is sold by the government to the highest bidder, in preference to those from the Diaspora on condition of a strong political alignment.

One of the highlighted scenarios of grave concern to a certain community in the suburbs of Asmara, was pertaining to a historical public grave-site that was forcefully confiscated by the government, and by taking out the human remains, which included that of war our veterans, was used for the purpose of building some villas to be sold to investors from the Diaspora, who are loaded with US dollars. Unilaterally removing human remains from public grave- sites without the subject community’s input and consent isn’t only wrong in our culture, but it is also a grave mistake to sell residential homes mainly to investors, when first priorities should be accorded to first time home buyers, as owner occupants. That is one of the glorified examples of how much Isayas Afework’s government disrespects its citizens, if it can consider them as one?

No employment opportunities for the young and the seasoned. Every man or woman above 16 years of age has to go to a meaningless, never ending, so called national military service. And the result of it, a great number of these young men and women have been fleeing their country, leaving  their loved ones behind, only to end up being perished in the Mediterranean Sea, and  the Sinai desert’s deadly human trafficking.

This has appalled the whole world, but an added aggressive public engagement and loud cries of  Eritreans the world over, could have resulted in getting more hearing ears. More alarming is the present status of the thousands of innocent voiceless Eritreans herded in the Israeli concentration camps. The state of Israel has in defiance to proposals from some compassionate Western countries to accept them as refugees, has hinted to send them back to Eritrea. A coordinated continually practiced street protests by Eritreans the world over, must be in order, but it is now long overdue.

Moreover, many families in Eritrea are now living without enough food to eat, no enough running water for household consumptions, no electricity, and no adequate medical services. Practically speaking, the country doesn’t have any normal system of governance except being ruled by intuition.

The public health system in Eritrea is completely broken without any medicine, logistics, no nutrition for babies and children, and an acute shortage of doctors and nurses.

As a result, patients of dire medical needs are unreasonably and unnecessarily dying in large numbers for lack of adequate medical help, which includes those dying in operating rooms due to sporadic electric service interruptions, which shouldn’t be morally and legally tolerated.

On the diplomatic fronts, Eritrea has no peace or political alliances with its neighboring countries. On the geo-political and economic arena, Eritrea is seen as an outcast due to Isayas Afeworki’s pattern of erratic behavior, and his direct or indirect political interventions in neighboring countries’ internal affairs without solving his country’s immense human right’s violations.

Now is the darkest moment of Eritrea’s history since its independence. The self-proclaimed Eritrean leader, in wanton disregard of the Eritrean peoples’ hardships, voiced opinions, and hard questions, he is destroying  the country beyond repair by playing politics of divisiveness, along the peoples’ differences in ethnicity, gender, religion and regionalism as well as their political divide. Isayas Afeworki has successfully capitalized on such sectarian dynamism.

Out of the ordinary, there is no separation between state and religion. Out of the thousands of Eritreans rotting in the underground prison cells, a considerable percentage are religiously prosecuted.

More troubling is that every sector of the Eritrean economy is controlled by the government without providing any opportunities for entrepreneurs, traders, academics, farmers, etc. Opportunities for free market business practices and philanthropists to even provide material and in kind donations are totally absent.

Since there is no defined economic policy with necessary checks and balances, nobody knows about what the annual national gross income and expenses are, as well as how much budget goes to each public service sectors.

Many Eritreans, who wanted to invest their financial resources, ingenuity and skills for the development and growth of their country, were bluntly denied that opportunity. Most of these people were eventually forced to leave the country they loved with their immense resources and skills to many African countries, the middle East, and on a limited scale, to Western countries. This exodus has been continuously taking place at a time when Eritrea and Eritreans back home, sorely needed them the most.

While many humanitarian organizations, peace loving individuals, and governments the world over are expressing their outrage on the acute human rights violations, arbitrary arrests and prosecutions in Eritrea, we, Eritreans on the contrary, are not showing enough opposition in unison. We cannot and should not morally accept the status quo, by standing on the sidelines. History will judge us on this!!

Eritrean nationals need to understand and embrace the realities of the day, and make a move to search our individual souls, and by reclaiming our lost values and ideals, get engaged in peaceful national discussions and honest negotiations in order to save our country from its ruins. Yes, we have indeed, lost our values and culture, when values are supposed to be non-negotiable.

It is understandable that the vast majority of the Eritrean people are now discouraged and disappointed by the lack of contending national united political front.

Thankfully, a brand new Eritrean Grass Roots Mass Movement (EGRMM), is now forming from the bottom up approach, with a renewed vision plan, reconfigured strategies and escalated vigor and energy.

What  makes  this new organization different  from  all  the other  Eritrean opposition  groups, is that it starts at the grass roots level, by including all strata of  the society , with  a creative, visionary concept of “one person, one vote” strategy,  starting  at  the local  level,  and  continues to be national , and  international, on a centralized path to fruition.

This movement will be guided by a uniform By Laws   and one leadership style that carries it to the finish line. The organizational mobilization process  at the local  level  is  on the basis of equity and  equality  which  evolves from open dialogues, mutual  respect  and  tolerance for our differences.

This approach guarantees that each member will have equal voice and equal right on everything relating to individual’s rights, with no exceptions. Just for the purpose of narrowing down differences in interests of members, there is no room for collective or group membership.

However, it has to be clarified that the intension of the EGRMM isn’t to become a substitute for any or all the Eritrean opposition groups. On the contrary, it gives an opportunity to all hues of our society to overcome divisiveness, and join hands together to a more practical political platform.

Such an open invitation to all Eritreans to join the vibrant Mass Movement is timely imperative in order to preemptively save our country before it is too late.  And this is the hour, the day and the moment!

Eritrean Mass Movement for Unity and Salvation

Long live Eritrea, and Eternal life to our Martyrs

Seattle, Washington.

Our Unity and eventual Victory is Imminent!