News from Durban (“hara meriet”)

Tesfagabir B. Tesfu

The so called Ambassador of Eritrea to South Africa, Salih Omar, was embarrassed by the courageous Eritreans living in Durban/South Africa in a foiled meeting he tried to held on 17/05/2015 at the beach hotel.

When the ambassador told the participants his meeting is about “The challenges and successes of Eritrea from 1998-2015”, he was forcefully reminded to start the meeting with a one minute silence I commemoration to those who perished in the Mediterranean sea. The ambassador pretended he was planning to do it at the end of the meeting but the participants successfully forced him to start the meeting with a one minute silence.

As he tried to continue with the meeting, the participants demanded to get the full agenda and they told him very powerfully that the new Eritrean identity document is not a priority for Eritreans living in exile.

Since the ambassador did not want to reveal the content of the agenda, one of the participants decided to write the agenda and handed it to him. He wrote the agenda as follows:

• The Libya tragedy
• Xenophobia in South Africa
• The demolition of houses in Adi Keih and other areas
• The new Identity Document
• Sanction
• General

When the participant tried to hand the “agenda” to the ambassador, the ambassador smashed the piece of paper and to the dismay of the participants, he said: “Temasegolu” and that kind of utterance was a shock to every participant.

The ambassador was told very clearly he must come aboard of the “Freedom Boat” because he can not just be a puppet of the dictatorial regime while the Eritrean people are suffering to death.

There was a point when the ambassador said: “ab meadi weyane zterekbe weyane eyu, abana bota yeblun” and one of the participants shouted: “I am woyane but allow me to fight for Eritrea, there is nothing wrong with being woyane, you were working with woyane for years and years before independence”

Most of the participants said they are disappointed to hear that the Eritrean regime considers those who gave their life to the mediteranean sea as “ILLEGAL African Migrants” and to the disappointment of the participants, the ambassador said:

“What proof do you have if those perished are Eritreans in deed … etom aba bahri ztelequ Ertrawyan kemzkonu entay meregagetsi alekum” and when one of them said:

“My brother is one of them” – the ambassador didn’t know how to respond.

“We are Eritreans who have no where to go, during the Xenophobic attack in South Africa, you never came in person to enquire about us while the delegates from the Ethiopian embassy came to console their people lamented another disgruntled participant.

The participants reminded him that this is South Africa and it is a democratic country hence they demanded to have a say in the agenda and this argument continued for two solid hours (from 19h00 – 21h00) and when the ambassador made it clear that he was not going to start with the Libya tragedy, more than 95% of the participants walked out of the venue and the ambassador was left only with three participants.

As the participants were leaving the venue, they chanted:

“Durban Hara Meriet Eya” – you cannot come all the way from Pretoria and dictate us, enough is enough!!!”

VIVA DURBAN VIVA!!!

DOWN DOWN DICTATORSHIP!!!