As we have made it clear in our Press Release, “Urgent Call to All Eritreans Worldwide“, our goal is to strengthen the existing grassroots movement in different parts of the world and to empower those Eritreans in cities that are yet to be organized to have a say in ending the suffering of their people. We are not reinventing anything but rather qualitatively modifying or expanding the scope of the grassroots movement beyond its localized horizon. All that we wanted to do, realizing the dire situation in our country is to accelerate the process of organizing Eritreans all over the world so that we can elect legitimate Global Leaders in the shortest possible time. Maybe we are trying to make the Wheel that you claim to have invented to go a little faster and more efficiently but we have no intention to either slow you down or replace you by any logical evaluation.

Let’s admit, however, that our resistance could not rectify our problems no matter how long it has been there and how many groups it comprises. Hizbaw Mele’al has been in existence, for instance since the Lampedusa tragic incident some three years or so ago. Yet the progress that has been made to elect Global Leaders has been slow if nonexistent. Hence, all that we wanted to do was to facilitate the process of organizing Eritreans in the Diaspora. Instead of welcoming the initiative honestly aiming at helping your objective, it is sad to see you giving it a wrong interpretation and trying to pour a cold shower to a movement that is gathering steam, hopefully with incremental momentum.

Folks, we simply cannot afford to procrastinate the resistance at this juncture in extreme abuse of human rights and exodus, and maximum resource exploitation by the regime and the foreign investors at home. We are not only going to prisons without due trial, deserting the country for life in asylum but also risking the cleansing of our resources in billions. We need to stop fragmentation for no result other than suffering and organize ourselves under dependable global leadership as soon as possible to secure freedom after the dictatorship. This is not time to dwell with the old failed style of resistance but of winning action with new mentality and inclusive political strategy. Our methods of struggle should therefore continue to develop forward with new ideas and creativities that we should all be open to accommodate for the sake of our desperate society.

As you know, a hard working crew from the Global initiative appeared at Assenna for interviews and many people listened to the events. The interviews were necessary at this time when people are keenly following the development trying to differentiate the qualitatively modified strategy (global initiative) from the existing strategies (regional) in the resistance. The taskforce transmitted the initiative’s very important messages to the people.

They taught the fact that someone must neutrally facilitate the unity of our fragmented activists (individuals, groups and the political parties) under global leadership because the society has dearly paid the void’s negative consequences in terms mobilization, strength, efficiency, time, helping the refugees, financial and intellectual resources, and of course international assistance and recognition as well. They said that the new initiative is driven to correct the defect in full cooperation and equal significance with the existing elements of the resistance.

They praised and acknowledged the relentless effort of Hizbawi Mileial in motivating Eritreans to locally organize in their respective areas of residence. They said they want to see the effort continue to motivate Eritreans in other places do likewise. They, however, assertively suggested the need for the global initiative to get the chance of monitoring the legitimacy of the committees in unison with all other groups in contrast to the principles of the grassroots strategy, which fully believes in the democratic motto, by the people to the people. The taskforce further stressed on the importance of having the chance of monitoring the number of voters per committee in order to help maximizing people’s participation for better legitimacy, still in contrast to the principles of grassroots based democracy.

Hasn’t INFILTRATION been one of the strongest excuses of failure to all elements in the opposition camp? Don’t we collectively have to modify our resistance to stop the problem at the foundation level of mobilizing our communities? What is the problem with purifying our communities from the threat of opportunist politicians and the regime by strictly accommodating the distinct roles of the people and the political parties in the process of our democracy?

We see nothing wrong with this modest request for cooperation based on our vicious experience of infiltration and betrayal, so we need to monitor our committees to guarantee we no longer face the problems in the future. This drive must be understood as enhancement of the past efforts through equalized involvement not as depreciating their values with motivation to dictate. The essence of learning about how the committees were organized from the hard working organizers is a basic right of any Eritrean thereof and willingness to comply reflects how a subject in the situation practically respects the values of democracy. We have a reason to request this privilege from our political activists and vise versa for the bright future of the society depends on how we work together respecting our rights to guarantee the freedom of our people through secular democracy.

Our intention as openly declared in the interviews is simply to strengthen the existing groups through unified centralism. It is to glow the dimly and narrowly contained struggle in limited focus; to help the resistance break the so far forbidden walls of diplomacy between the Eritrean people and the international community (US, UN, EU, AU, IGAD, etc.) through universal voice instead of the scattered voices of the past that failed to produce tangible result till this moment in time.

We want to maximize the productivity and momentum of our people through genuine relationship and cooperation with the existing groups minus any form of competition and interest in political power.

To this effect they promised to develop the fragmented resistance to one having the capacity of working all over the world in uniform style through well organized and centralized chain of command comprising at least seven functional entities, departments or ministries so to say. This will elevate the opportunity of utilizing our resources more efficiently so that Eritreans anywhere in the world would have the chance to contribute according to their capacity, education, profession and/or experience. It will also help us confidently maneuver our diplomatic activities for material assistance to our refugees and moral and political support to our democratic dream.

Despite all this, the Representative of the People’s Movement for National Salvation further said the following misleading and incorrect statements;

“.. We do not support any attempt to form a global leadership that attempts to marginalize the role of the existing Eritrean political organizations. It is very important to keep in mind that our movement is firmly grounded on the bottom-up approach and will not support any attempt to thwart this fundamental belief in a rush to form a global leadership before building a strong foundation at the local level.”

Simply we are not rushing to form global leadership before accomplishing regional leadership for we know that regional initiative is a mandatory prerequisite to global leadership. But we believe the ultimate goal of the opposition should be to form one so that we can function together with uniformity and substantial diplomatic understanding with the international community; with clear understanding that we have been very slow doing this because of lack of strategic unity. Nor are we organized to marginalize the role of the existing organizations as you accused us but only to empower them through well organized global leadership.

Don’t you think a firmly grounded movement on the bottom-up approach should support other movements alike for better efficiency, unified effect and faster resolution of the problem on the ground? Shouldn’t it open its doors for new ideas instead of rejecting other elements concerned about a common issue that equally belongs to the people? Would not this attitude contradict the generic philosophical essence of grassroots movement in favor of my way or no way state of consciousness.

If you read our Press Release and have listened to our radio interviews and our PalTalk presentations, what we stated is the Global Leaders, representing the Eritrean civil society in Diaspora, in consultation and collaboration with the Opposition Political Parties and Forces of Change inside the country will be expected to prepare the necessary blue print/road map to end dictatorship and transform our country to democracy. In this drive we are currently doing maximum effort contacting the people through PalTalks and Assenna, directly appealing to different individuals and groups using other means of communication for cooperation expecting transparency at least in terms of feedback with full explanation either to support or reject. We did this to Hizbawi Mele’al, for instance and we responded as follows for the record to clarify the misunderstanding in between;

“1. We fully recognize the grassroots movement that Hizbawi Mele’al has started in several cities within the US. This is a good start you have made and we encourage you to continue what you have started.

Finally, we believe that the only way we can strengthen our struggle against the dictatorial regime that is oppressing out people is by working together. We hope you will show the courtesy of responding to our email this time, hopefully positively.”

This is the official position of GIEEGM. In light of the argument hitherto presented in this opportunity we modestly extend our invitation for support to all groups that we so far directly contacted including the People’s Movement for National Salvation. We also invite all Eritreans to accelerate the promising movement’s momentum  by giving their names to any member of the initiative or directly through our email gieegm@googlegroups.com. We further modestly remind all members of the opposition camp to publicly communicate with us for any reason so that our people stay aware of our activities as much as possible. We are trying our best to get your official support during this Independence Day and please act and distribute the word. Happy independence day!

To be continued