Eritrea Will Never Entertain Surrender as an Option

Eritrea Will Never Entertain Surrender as an Option

By Kidane Eyob

How can the West rationalize definitions of the following crimes responsible for the misery of   three African generations?

How is it that Africans, who fought for their European colonizers during the Second World War, were regarded as ‘heroes’ while Eritrean and other African freedom fighters, including Mandela, who fought for freedom were labelled as ‘bandits and terrorists.’

Why are Eritrean youth on National Service, safeguarding the sovereignty of their country and undertaking paramount nation building work to achieve food security, self-reliance and improve the standard of living of their people called ‘slaves’.

Why does the West perceive that it has the moral high ground to judge and define Africans particularly on sensitive issues such as slavery and human rights?

The reality is, however, they call Eritrea's national service slavery to undermine the real legacy of slavery; the true crimes against humanity that they know well as they are the perpetrators of the crime that they have not atoned for.

The West and the many human rights organizations that they finance are calling the Eritrean National Service ‘slavery’ not because they are genuinely concerned for the Eritrean people’s human rights but primarily because they wish to destabilize Eritrea. They want to see the Eritrean youth who are safeguarding Eritrea’s national sovereignty and playing a pivotal role in the nation building endeavors put down their weapons and leave their country rather than defend themselves, their people and their country.

This is tantamount to surrender and it never an option for Eritreans because it’s a betrayal to their martyrs and it goes against their traditional values and faith, Christianity and Islam religions that recognize self-defense to be sacrosanct. It is Eritrea’s inalienable right and that is exactly what they are doing; defending their people and their country.

At a time when the West and the minority regime in Ethiopia are attempting regime change in Eritrea by any means necessary and when Eritrea’s sovereignty is under occupation by the minority regime in Ethiopia they want see the Eritrean youth put down they weapons and surrender.  Their motive is clear and it has got nothing to do with human rights it is to destabilize Eritrea and enable the minority regime in Ethiopia to carry out a regime-change on behalf of the West.

The West and the various human rights organizations they finance cannot fool Eritreans and the people of the region. If they really care for the human rights, the solution is simple.

Tell the minority regime in Ethiopia to lift the declaration of war and accept the legally concluded, final and binding verdict and vacate Eritrean land immediately without any precondition as it is the root cause to the social, political and economic problems of the region.

If the West wishes to bring an end to this unnecessary brinkmanship the solution is simple and can be completed in a matter of days. However, the West is not interested in bringing a lasting solution to the fundamental problems plaguing the region. They would rather sustain and manage the chaos indefinitely without seriously mitigating the risks and consequences to the social, economic and security implications to the region and to Europe.

Hence, it is time for the West to recognize the severity of the situation and the fact that Ethiopian youth are frustrated and demoralized by the irresponsible Western foreign policies towards the Horn of Africa. Failure to contain the situation is frustrating Millions of young Ethiopians to the point that they are not afraid to risk their lives to cross the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea for a better life in the West. Recent trends highlight these developments clearly. On November 28, 2015, The VOA Tigrigna program reported, "Ethiopian Towns Rocked By Protests." In the same day, Sudan Vision Daily reported,

"High level Sudanese police official disclosed that the number of foreigners residing in violation of the law in Khartoum state has reached three million. Two million are from the neighboring Ethiopia." 

Until now many of them were granted asylum claiming to be Eritreans. In the West Eritreans are granted "Prima-fascia" refugee status. Similarly, millions of Somalis and Sudanese are gambling with their lives seeking asylum as ‘Eritreans escaping slavery’.  In other words the West’s agenda for a regime change has failed and backfire on them because Eritrean identity has become a bait that is luring million from the region into Europe.

The fact is that, the West does not want to bring a lasting and legally binding solution to the Horn of Africa and they don’t really care about human rights particularly when it comes to Eritrea. They want a vassal state in order to control the region. To that end, for nearly a century they have tried everything to undermine the existence of Eritrea.

In 1950s and 1960s they forced Eritrea to be federated with Ethiopia, They then watched in silence and even supported the regime in Ethiopia financially and militarily when Ethiopia violated the federation, dissolved the Eritrean parliament, abolished the national languages and annexed Eritrea in 1962,

They looked the other way and gave Eritreans deaf ears when they were fighting for their independence and even called the freedom fighters ‘bandits’ and ‘terrorists’ while supporting the military junta the Derg regime in Ethiopia both financially and militarily to eliminate Eritreans fighting for independence,

After independence they did not want to politically, morally and financially support the Eritrean referendum in 1993 and they did everything they could to undermine the transition and transitional government of Eritrea,

In 1998 they incited and financed the minority regime in Ethiopia to declare war on Eritrea and bring about a regime change. When that failed they are doing all that they can to undermine Eritrea economically, politically, diplomatically and militarily.

To that end, the US and surrogates applied politically motivated illegal sanctions that are based on fabricated allegations without evidence, currently they are trying to sabotage the mining industry. In short, they are at hard work to undermine Eritrea’s effort towards development and food security; Eritrea’s golden principle of self-reliance and independent.

They want to ensure Eritrea's independent path does not succeed and influence the rest of Africa. These colonizers feel offended and threatened by Eritrea’s independent political, economic-policies, aspiration for self-reliance and food security. Hence, instead of recognizing and assisting Eritrea's efforts, they are trying to label her ‘’The North Korea of Africa’’.

The list goes on and on, and it is evident that there is a sophisticated, concerted and well-orchestrated campaign to destabilize Eritrea’s efforts towards self-reliance and economic emancipation. At present, the West is simultaneously using different tools, methods and agents including but not limited to the following:-

1. calling the National Service ‘slavery’ in order to deceive the international community, 


2. granting Eritrean youth "Prima-fascia" refugee status in the West so Eritrean youth leave their country and become victims of human traffickers in their effort to reach Europe ,


3. imposing politically motivated illegal sanctions in order to sabotage Eritrea’s economic development, 


4. keeping the demarcation of the border hostage so as to force the Eritrean government to submission, 


5. economic sabotages particularly in the mining industry to discourage foreign investment,


6. Western Corporate media obsessively portraying negative image on Eritrea and labelling Eritrea the ‘North Korea of Africa’. Considering Eritrea is a small country in Africa, one wonders why the Western Corporate media attention is not proportionate. Even China and Saudi Arabia with all their strategic, economic and political significance and their human rights violations do not get half the coverage that Eritrea gets.

If the West wants to bring lasting solutions in Eritrea and the region as a whole, the solution is simple, address the root cause of the problem and rather than ignoring the white elephant in the room stop fooling and uphold your responsibilities as guarantors of the EEBC peace deal.

The West must recognize that it is their legal and moral responsibility to see that the rogue regime in Ethiopia vacate Eritrea’s territories. The people in the Horn of African do not trust the West’s misguided foreign policy, reject their double standards and will not be fooled particularly after what they have witnessed in the Middle East in the last ten years so please stop the ‘crocodile tears’ and ‘human rights’ rhetoric.

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