Eritrea: Summer 2007 Part I of III
Eremias Woldemikael
October 27, 2007
A Personal Account of a Trip to Eritrea
Summer 2007
Last week, I put an excerpt from this article on the article titled "The Eritrean question." Some may find this part of the next three parts repetetive. I ask my readers to bear with me. I assure you that there is something new in all of the articles although they are interrelated and overlapping
Disclaimer: The accounts I provide in this report are taken out of a hand-scripted journal I kept during my trip. With few exceptions, I purposely provide no dates and names. I do this in the hopes of protecting people whom I love and those families, relatives, and friends who still live under the yokes of the government. They did not know and I did not ask for their permission to use their accounts, nor did I plan to write this report in public. The journal was supposed to be a private note for myself. All of these stories were told to me by families, relatives, and personal friends of mine who were certain that I would not betray them to the government.
1. Introduction
Recently, I read an extensive report of a trip to Eritrea by Sophia Tesfamariam who is an ardent and a blindly loyal supporter of the sole party that is ruling the tiny Northeast African country. I too had traveled to the country around the same time, and I thought I give a report about my own observations and experiences of that country.
From the outset, I must point out that my travels were limited to the Southern and Central regions, although these regions are the most densely populated. The two regions are where more than 45% of the Eritrean population and most of the dominant Tigrinya and Saho people of Eritrea live. Moreover, the Tigrinya people are probably the source of the majority of Eritrea’s Diaspora population. I returned to Eritrea from the west after I had left for educational purposes ten years earlier.
2. Observations, Experiences, and accounts
My observations first started with the Eritrean Airlines. I was excited to see the much talked about and advertised lone plane of the Airline. What I found was a wet-leased plane of the Turkish Atlas Airline with Turkish signs, flag, and magazines. The airport in Asmara was awfully quiet. It looked as if my plane was the only one that did business in the country. When I stepped out of the plane, besides the pleasant weather and dust of highland Eritrea, nothing was familiar.
Bathrooms and Buildings
After passing the bored and exhausted emigration officers, I visited the restrooms while waiting for my luggage. That experience was probably the summary introduction to my whole trip. The once hailed clean city, Asmara and its facilities were getting dilapidated, and no one was attending to it. The airport restroom which may be the first orientation to a tourist or any type of visitor to the country was leaking water to the floor from many corners. Moreover, there was not a paper towel or tissue to be found in the area. I may have been disappointed after spending years of my time in the West. However, the buildings and roads of the city told the same story. The beautiful buildings of Asmara I once knew seemed to be lacking renovation or repair work.
Death by Dehydration, Execution, and Drowning
Two of my cousins and my cousin-in-law picked me up at the airport. Later I was told by one of my cousins that the cousin-in-law was wearing his Kabbot (long coat) to indicate that he was mourning. My cousin-in-law had just returned from Sudan after having gone there to identify the body of his nephew. His nephew died while escaping from Eritrea’s relentless national service program. The young man died of dehydration, and by the time his uncle reached Sudan, the body had decomposed and it was impossible to identify him. For identification he could only rely on the words of his nephew’s fellow escapee that had relayed their story to the Sudanese authorities and sent messages to the next of kin. My cousin-in-law returned home alone. He only put some marker of the burial ground in Sudan.
Later on, I was discovering that this young man was not the only one who perished trying to find a better future outside of his country. Many youngsters have been shot along the border by the government’s patrols. Many more have perished on the deserts trying to reach Libya. Those who make it to Sudan and Libya have been returned back to Eritrea by Libyan and Sudanese officials despite their pleas for asylum. Those who board on the boats of traffickers have been drowning in the middle of the Red and Mediterranean seas trying to reach Yemen, Malta, and Italy.
50, 000 Naqfa or Jail
As I strolled around Asmara, I was constantly asking myself if this was the Asmara I knew and if the people had always been that thin? To be sure, the people of the Eastern part of Africa are known for their slender figure and I did not expect the buildings to be in better conditions than my first departure. However, at least from the numerous reports of Asmara being the Architectural-gem of 20th Century Italian designs, I expected it to be somewhat in the same condition as when I left it.
As it is customary, I was going around and visiting relatives that included a large clan of uncles and aunts who lived through out the two regions, inside and outside of Asmara. When I went to visit one of my elderly uncles in Asmara, he greeted me affectionately, and then he started to tell me what he was facing. In the aftermath of the Ethio-Eritrean war in 2000, two of his sons had left the country to the West by marrying two young women. They left with the full knowledge and approval of the government. A third son had also left the country to Kenya in the last two years after he was designated unfit for military and national service program. Despite all of these however, government officials were hounding the old man to produce his sons or pay 50,000 Naqfas each - a total sum of 150,000 Naqfas ($10,000) or face jail. Apparently, this was a policy that was imposed on the parents of escapees who left the country. I believe it was 15,000 Naqfas for those that remain in the country but never go to the national service. My uncle had been expecting his two sons to send the money with me. He was visibly unhappy when he found out that I had only come to say hello to him and not give him the sum of money his sons were supposed to send.
Wealth of the Colonels
As I traveled further south passing through Debarwa, I saw a remarkable growth. Once a relegated city of bygone days of glory, as headquarters of the former “Baher- Negest” (rulers of the sea), Debarwa is filled with exquisite villas now. The [open-secret] reason for a glowing scene of development and new growth however was revealed to me soon. One of the residents of the villages around Debarwa revealed to me that those marvelous villas were owned by the Colonels. Apparently, the Colonels of the Defense forces had grown so corrupt they were able to build villas and luxurious houses while the rest of the country was barely getting by. The old perceived ethos of transparent and clean record of the fighters of Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was no more. In the old days a businessman was supposed to be rich. Now, the rich people in Eritrea are Generals and Colonels.
Hierarchy of power: President, Generals, and Colonels….without Sebhat
I was soon discovering how the country was being administered. The country was a pretense of civilian rule. While the Dictator Isaias Afeworki held on to power (presidency) on the top, underneath him were the five Operational Command generals. Apparently, in his scheme of marginalization of potential rivals, not even the renowned Defense Minister Sebhat Ephraim had any clout. Sebhat’s own cousin described his situation to me. She said, “He has been relegated to the sides. He is useless and powerless.” All the Ministers and regional governors had also been declared useless. Now, the useful people are the Generals, Colonels, and Lt. Colonels, led by the most feared and notorious man in the country. His name is Phillipos. That honor had belonged to the mindless and undereducated general nicknamed “Wichu” in previous days. Now, talks around the nation are that Wichu had fallen out of favor and in his usual habits of recycling and reshuffling Commanders and Ministers who might pose a threat; Isaias had rotated him to the Gash-Barka region, away from the most important and most populated, Southern Command.
Commando Division 525
A few days later, one of my cousins who had picked me up at the airport was opening up to me. His father had been “martyred’ in the 70’s, then he was kidnapped in the late 80s into conscription by Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Abduction and subsequent political indoctrination were a common form of recruitment for the EPLF or Shaebia [shortened form of the Arabic name of EPLF, later PFDJ, meaning People’s] as it was commonly known. The rebel organization finally succeeded in its aim of splitting Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1991. The organization renamed itself People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) in 1994.
My cousin had wanted and still wants to be demobilized from the defense department to raise his five kids, but the government has refused to release him of military duties. He was designated to be part of the elite Special Forces of the regime known us Division 525.
Ideology of “Sakitism”
He told me a clever story or joke that is familiar in the streets of Asmara. It was a common joke about governance in Asmara. He started by saying that a man was sharing his knowledge about political ideologies that govern the world. The man stated, “The world was governed by two dominant ideologies. One was Socialism which rules China and others, and the other one was Imperialism [Western Capitalism] that rules America and Europe.” When the man was asked where Eritrea belonged in these categories, he replied, “Ah, Eritrea is governed by `Sakitism’.” In the slang expressions of Tigrinya, "Sakit" signifies aimlessly, haphazardly, or impulsively. There fore, Eritrea was an exception having its own category.
Leaving aside the joker’s crude understanding of the complex ideologies that are ruling the world, the story was amusing and on point in describing the unpredictable nature of the Eritrean system of government. This also said much about the sympathy of the people including members of the [non-service members] regular military.
Country with no Laws, Parliament, Courts or Independent Media = “Thug-ocracy”
In Eritrea, there is no Constitution to guide the action of either the government or the people. The government that is in power is unelected and Transitional. The National Assembly which was composed of 75 unelected members of the Party and 75 elected regional representatives used to rubber stamp the whims of Isaias Afeworki though it has not even met since 2001 to do just that. Nothing has been heard about the parliament or national assembly in the last 6 years.
The comrades and ministers of Isaias who asked for the implementation of the drafted Constitution and questioned his competence in the aftermath of the Ethio-Eritrean War are still jailed. Their condition remains unknown with no visit by the Red Cross or family members. Some credible websites have recently reported on the death of some of the ministers, one general and a well known journalist. Isaias, his Generals, and Colonels are ruling the unfortunate people according to their pleasure. Basically, Isaias Afeworki’s government is accountable to no one. Not even to international bodies and powers does he listen anymore. His only friend in the world seems to be Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya.
The jokester lacked the words to describe this type of government. I am tempted to call it Banditry, but I am afraid the old bandits of Eritrea who roamed the highland with strict honor codes against entering a household headed by a woman would be undeservedly tainted. I could call it “Thug-ocracy”, but I am sure the urban youth of America who pose in the costume of gangstas would be unhappy. Anyway one describes it; there is no legitimate government in Eritrea. There are only men with guns that are forcing people without guns to obey.
PFDJ: Neither People’s, nor for Democracy, nor for Justice
Those in power describe their organization as People’s Front for Democracy and justice. However, as Voltaire had described the Holy Roman Empire as “Neither, Holy, nor Roman, nor Empire”; Isaias’ party is neither people’s nor for democracy nor for Justice. In fact, it is against all of these descriptions. There are three types of people in the country, and all of them are waiting for its demise. As my 70 years old uncle said, the old, the young and the children are tired of it. The old people are tired of raising their children in hardship only to hand them over to a government that had done nothing to help raise them. The young are tired of a government that makes it impossible to be able to live normally and fulfill their traditional human activities of going to school, starting a family and witnessing the growth of their children. They are also tired of a government that makes individual self-initiative or pursuit of happiness impossible. Wives are tired of the government that makes absent-husbands out of their men. The children are also tired of seeing their fathers after enduring years of hardship without them.
To and From Death Valley
Soon, I came to hear about the potential rotation of the troops in the Southern Command. Divisions such as the 26th and others were to be transferred to Assab. The units that had been in Assab had been there for at least the last 6 or 7 years. One of my cousins had been drafted to serve as a simple soldier 10 years ago despite being holder of Baccalaureate degree from Asmara University with 4 years of experience in one of the ministries. Now, he was dreading further transfer away from his family and field of training. Another uncle who is a father of 4 and almost 42 years old was looking forward to being close to his family and out of Assab after more than half a dozen years.
What a life? What a contradiction. I sympathized with both of them. I know Assab quite well, and I had lived there as a child. Assab is a region that is rivaled only by the Death Valley of California in its harshness. It is one of the lowest, hottest, most humid and hostile areas of the world.
Sole Psychiatrist in Jail, homeless, beggars, Church and Hospitals
In the early 90s Eritrea, the sight of beggars, homeless, and mentally ill in the capital and other towns had become rare. Compared to other African and some Western countries, Eritrea is still less peppered with such scenes. However, there are now in significant numbers of them to make one notice in the youth-starved towns. When I pointed to my commando cousin about a mentally ill man who seemed to be grumbling about the government, he said, “Oh, yes, the city is full of them these days. It is as if they are the only ones who live here. They pop up in all directions. Women are begging wearing very clean clothes, too.” I was wondering what one would do for such people, but as we went home, I found out what the government was doing for them. It has jailed those who used to care for them in one way or another.
One of my cousins that received me at the airport had been religious ever since the day I knew her. Unlike most Eritrean Orthodox youth who simply inherit their faith from their families as part of their culture and are usually casual about it, she had been an active and devout member of the Medhane –Alem Church that is next to the Mekane-Hiwet Hospital. Three of the distinguished members of that congregation were: the only Eritrean Psychiatrist who was also an Ordained Priest of the Church by the name of Fitsum Ghebrenegus, another bright Physician and ordained priest named Tekleab, and a distinguished Theologian and Priest named Ghebremedhin.
I had generally known that the government was persecuting Pentecostals and interfering in the Orthodox Church affairs. However, her detailed story of how and why these three distinguished Medical and theological intellectuals of the country had been imprisoned since 2004 came almost as a shock to me. I had heard about the imprisonment of Dr. Fitsum, and heard a little bit about Fr. Ghebremedhin. But, the imprisonment of Dr. Tekleab shocked me, and I was ashamed for not knowing about it because I thought of myself as a regular follower of Eritrean affairs.
I had known Dr. Tekleab while he was in Mendefera. He was a lights-skinned muscular and confident fellow who swayed to the sides as he walked. He was a picture of a well-fed man that sparked with cleanliness and fashionable suits that fit well on his wide shoulders. With all these, he somehow exhibited a calm humility with his silence. He was the type of man I wanted to be as I was growing up. He had treated me for Malaria after I was infected during one of my service programs. Dr.Tekleab was too gentle to be imprisoned. He was like one of those innocent fat kids whose only concern and weakness in life is food. He seemed almost like a sheltered child whom one would want to further shield him from being harmed. As there is no official court or prosecutor who accuses or indicts people, no body knows what his and the other two individuals crimes. The insanity of it all however is not lost to me. Eritrea probably has less than 60 trained Physicians for its 3.5 Million people. Yet, Isaias and his cronies hunt Professional healers like they have unlimited supply of them.
The new Pentecostal churches’ persecution was almost condoned by the population of Eritrea. People said that they had brought it on themselves, and nobody had made them convert from Orthodoxy. Yet, as the “SS” of Isaias run out of religious minorities to targets and victimize, they moved to the main church to even reach the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. I am reminded of the poem “First Hitler attacked…” that is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller.
Summer 2007
Last week, I put an excerpt from this article on the article titled "The Eritrean question." Some may find this part of the next three parts repetetive. I ask my readers to bear with me. I assure you that there is something new in all of the articles although they are interrelated and overlapping
Disclaimer: The accounts I provide in this report are taken out of a hand-scripted journal I kept during my trip. With few exceptions, I purposely provide no dates and names. I do this in the hopes of protecting people whom I love and those families, relatives, and friends who still live under the yokes of the government. They did not know and I did not ask for their permission to use their accounts, nor did I plan to write this report in public. The journal was supposed to be a private note for myself. All of these stories were told to me by families, relatives, and personal friends of mine who were certain that I would not betray them to the government.
1. Introduction
Recently, I read an extensive report of a trip to Eritrea by Sophia Tesfamariam who is an ardent and a blindly loyal supporter of the sole party that is ruling the tiny Northeast African country. I too had traveled to the country around the same time, and I thought I give a report about my own observations and experiences of that country.
From the outset, I must point out that my travels were limited to the Southern and Central regions, although these regions are the most densely populated. The two regions are where more than 45% of the Eritrean population and most of the dominant Tigrinya and Saho people of Eritrea live. Moreover, the Tigrinya people are probably the source of the majority of Eritrea’s Diaspora population. I returned to Eritrea from the west after I had left for educational purposes ten years earlier.
2. Observations, Experiences, and accounts
My observations first started with the Eritrean Airlines. I was excited to see the much talked about and advertised lone plane of the Airline. What I found was a wet-leased plane of the Turkish Atlas Airline with Turkish signs, flag, and magazines. The airport in Asmara was awfully quiet. It looked as if my plane was the only one that did business in the country. When I stepped out of the plane, besides the pleasant weather and dust of highland Eritrea, nothing was familiar.
Bathrooms and Buildings
After passing the bored and exhausted emigration officers, I visited the restrooms while waiting for my luggage. That experience was probably the summary introduction to my whole trip. The once hailed clean city, Asmara and its facilities were getting dilapidated, and no one was attending to it. The airport restroom which may be the first orientation to a tourist or any type of visitor to the country was leaking water to the floor from many corners. Moreover, there was not a paper towel or tissue to be found in the area. I may have been disappointed after spending years of my time in the West. However, the buildings and roads of the city told the same story. The beautiful buildings of Asmara I once knew seemed to be lacking renovation or repair work.
Death by Dehydration, Execution, and Drowning
Two of my cousins and my cousin-in-law picked me up at the airport. Later I was told by one of my cousins that the cousin-in-law was wearing his Kabbot (long coat) to indicate that he was mourning. My cousin-in-law had just returned from Sudan after having gone there to identify the body of his nephew. His nephew died while escaping from Eritrea’s relentless national service program. The young man died of dehydration, and by the time his uncle reached Sudan, the body had decomposed and it was impossible to identify him. For identification he could only rely on the words of his nephew’s fellow escapee that had relayed their story to the Sudanese authorities and sent messages to the next of kin. My cousin-in-law returned home alone. He only put some marker of the burial ground in Sudan.
Later on, I was discovering that this young man was not the only one who perished trying to find a better future outside of his country. Many youngsters have been shot along the border by the government’s patrols. Many more have perished on the deserts trying to reach Libya. Those who make it to Sudan and Libya have been returned back to Eritrea by Libyan and Sudanese officials despite their pleas for asylum. Those who board on the boats of traffickers have been drowning in the middle of the Red and Mediterranean seas trying to reach Yemen, Malta, and Italy.
50, 000 Naqfa or Jail
As I strolled around Asmara, I was constantly asking myself if this was the Asmara I knew and if the people had always been that thin? To be sure, the people of the Eastern part of Africa are known for their slender figure and I did not expect the buildings to be in better conditions than my first departure. However, at least from the numerous reports of Asmara being the Architectural-gem of 20th Century Italian designs, I expected it to be somewhat in the same condition as when I left it.
As it is customary, I was going around and visiting relatives that included a large clan of uncles and aunts who lived through out the two regions, inside and outside of Asmara. When I went to visit one of my elderly uncles in Asmara, he greeted me affectionately, and then he started to tell me what he was facing. In the aftermath of the Ethio-Eritrean war in 2000, two of his sons had left the country to the West by marrying two young women. They left with the full knowledge and approval of the government. A third son had also left the country to Kenya in the last two years after he was designated unfit for military and national service program. Despite all of these however, government officials were hounding the old man to produce his sons or pay 50,000 Naqfas each - a total sum of 150,000 Naqfas ($10,000) or face jail. Apparently, this was a policy that was imposed on the parents of escapees who left the country. I believe it was 15,000 Naqfas for those that remain in the country but never go to the national service. My uncle had been expecting his two sons to send the money with me. He was visibly unhappy when he found out that I had only come to say hello to him and not give him the sum of money his sons were supposed to send.
Wealth of the Colonels
As I traveled further south passing through Debarwa, I saw a remarkable growth. Once a relegated city of bygone days of glory, as headquarters of the former “Baher- Negest” (rulers of the sea), Debarwa is filled with exquisite villas now. The [open-secret] reason for a glowing scene of development and new growth however was revealed to me soon. One of the residents of the villages around Debarwa revealed to me that those marvelous villas were owned by the Colonels. Apparently, the Colonels of the Defense forces had grown so corrupt they were able to build villas and luxurious houses while the rest of the country was barely getting by. The old perceived ethos of transparent and clean record of the fighters of Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) was no more. In the old days a businessman was supposed to be rich. Now, the rich people in Eritrea are Generals and Colonels.
Hierarchy of power: President, Generals, and Colonels….without Sebhat
I was soon discovering how the country was being administered. The country was a pretense of civilian rule. While the Dictator Isaias Afeworki held on to power (presidency) on the top, underneath him were the five Operational Command generals. Apparently, in his scheme of marginalization of potential rivals, not even the renowned Defense Minister Sebhat Ephraim had any clout. Sebhat’s own cousin described his situation to me. She said, “He has been relegated to the sides. He is useless and powerless.” All the Ministers and regional governors had also been declared useless. Now, the useful people are the Generals, Colonels, and Lt. Colonels, led by the most feared and notorious man in the country. His name is Phillipos. That honor had belonged to the mindless and undereducated general nicknamed “Wichu” in previous days. Now, talks around the nation are that Wichu had fallen out of favor and in his usual habits of recycling and reshuffling Commanders and Ministers who might pose a threat; Isaias had rotated him to the Gash-Barka region, away from the most important and most populated, Southern Command.
Commando Division 525
A few days later, one of my cousins who had picked me up at the airport was opening up to me. His father had been “martyred’ in the 70’s, then he was kidnapped in the late 80s into conscription by Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Abduction and subsequent political indoctrination were a common form of recruitment for the EPLF or Shaebia [shortened form of the Arabic name of EPLF, later PFDJ, meaning People’s] as it was commonly known. The rebel organization finally succeeded in its aim of splitting Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1991. The organization renamed itself People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) in 1994.
My cousin had wanted and still wants to be demobilized from the defense department to raise his five kids, but the government has refused to release him of military duties. He was designated to be part of the elite Special Forces of the regime known us Division 525.
Ideology of “Sakitism”
He told me a clever story or joke that is familiar in the streets of Asmara. It was a common joke about governance in Asmara. He started by saying that a man was sharing his knowledge about political ideologies that govern the world. The man stated, “The world was governed by two dominant ideologies. One was Socialism which rules China and others, and the other one was Imperialism [Western Capitalism] that rules America and Europe.” When the man was asked where Eritrea belonged in these categories, he replied, “Ah, Eritrea is governed by `Sakitism’.” In the slang expressions of Tigrinya, "Sakit" signifies aimlessly, haphazardly, or impulsively. There fore, Eritrea was an exception having its own category.
Leaving aside the joker’s crude understanding of the complex ideologies that are ruling the world, the story was amusing and on point in describing the unpredictable nature of the Eritrean system of government. This also said much about the sympathy of the people including members of the [non-service members] regular military.
Country with no Laws, Parliament, Courts or Independent Media = “Thug-ocracy”
In Eritrea, there is no Constitution to guide the action of either the government or the people. The government that is in power is unelected and Transitional. The National Assembly which was composed of 75 unelected members of the Party and 75 elected regional representatives used to rubber stamp the whims of Isaias Afeworki though it has not even met since 2001 to do just that. Nothing has been heard about the parliament or national assembly in the last 6 years.
The comrades and ministers of Isaias who asked for the implementation of the drafted Constitution and questioned his competence in the aftermath of the Ethio-Eritrean War are still jailed. Their condition remains unknown with no visit by the Red Cross or family members. Some credible websites have recently reported on the death of some of the ministers, one general and a well known journalist. Isaias, his Generals, and Colonels are ruling the unfortunate people according to their pleasure. Basically, Isaias Afeworki’s government is accountable to no one. Not even to international bodies and powers does he listen anymore. His only friend in the world seems to be Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya.
The jokester lacked the words to describe this type of government. I am tempted to call it Banditry, but I am afraid the old bandits of Eritrea who roamed the highland with strict honor codes against entering a household headed by a woman would be undeservedly tainted. I could call it “Thug-ocracy”, but I am sure the urban youth of America who pose in the costume of gangstas would be unhappy. Anyway one describes it; there is no legitimate government in Eritrea. There are only men with guns that are forcing people without guns to obey.
PFDJ: Neither People’s, nor for Democracy, nor for Justice
Those in power describe their organization as People’s Front for Democracy and justice. However, as Voltaire had described the Holy Roman Empire as “Neither, Holy, nor Roman, nor Empire”; Isaias’ party is neither people’s nor for democracy nor for Justice. In fact, it is against all of these descriptions. There are three types of people in the country, and all of them are waiting for its demise. As my 70 years old uncle said, the old, the young and the children are tired of it. The old people are tired of raising their children in hardship only to hand them over to a government that had done nothing to help raise them. The young are tired of a government that makes it impossible to be able to live normally and fulfill their traditional human activities of going to school, starting a family and witnessing the growth of their children. They are also tired of a government that makes individual self-initiative or pursuit of happiness impossible. Wives are tired of the government that makes absent-husbands out of their men. The children are also tired of seeing their fathers after enduring years of hardship without them.
To and From Death Valley
Soon, I came to hear about the potential rotation of the troops in the Southern Command. Divisions such as the 26th and others were to be transferred to Assab. The units that had been in Assab had been there for at least the last 6 or 7 years. One of my cousins had been drafted to serve as a simple soldier 10 years ago despite being holder of Baccalaureate degree from Asmara University with 4 years of experience in one of the ministries. Now, he was dreading further transfer away from his family and field of training. Another uncle who is a father of 4 and almost 42 years old was looking forward to being close to his family and out of Assab after more than half a dozen years.
What a life? What a contradiction. I sympathized with both of them. I know Assab quite well, and I had lived there as a child. Assab is a region that is rivaled only by the Death Valley of California in its harshness. It is one of the lowest, hottest, most humid and hostile areas of the world.
Sole Psychiatrist in Jail, homeless, beggars, Church and Hospitals
In the early 90s Eritrea, the sight of beggars, homeless, and mentally ill in the capital and other towns had become rare. Compared to other African and some Western countries, Eritrea is still less peppered with such scenes. However, there are now in significant numbers of them to make one notice in the youth-starved towns. When I pointed to my commando cousin about a mentally ill man who seemed to be grumbling about the government, he said, “Oh, yes, the city is full of them these days. It is as if they are the only ones who live here. They pop up in all directions. Women are begging wearing very clean clothes, too.” I was wondering what one would do for such people, but as we went home, I found out what the government was doing for them. It has jailed those who used to care for them in one way or another.
One of my cousins that received me at the airport had been religious ever since the day I knew her. Unlike most Eritrean Orthodox youth who simply inherit their faith from their families as part of their culture and are usually casual about it, she had been an active and devout member of the Medhane –Alem Church that is next to the Mekane-Hiwet Hospital. Three of the distinguished members of that congregation were: the only Eritrean Psychiatrist who was also an Ordained Priest of the Church by the name of Fitsum Ghebrenegus, another bright Physician and ordained priest named Tekleab, and a distinguished Theologian and Priest named Ghebremedhin.
I had generally known that the government was persecuting Pentecostals and interfering in the Orthodox Church affairs. However, her detailed story of how and why these three distinguished Medical and theological intellectuals of the country had been imprisoned since 2004 came almost as a shock to me. I had heard about the imprisonment of Dr. Fitsum, and heard a little bit about Fr. Ghebremedhin. But, the imprisonment of Dr. Tekleab shocked me, and I was ashamed for not knowing about it because I thought of myself as a regular follower of Eritrean affairs.
I had known Dr. Tekleab while he was in Mendefera. He was a lights-skinned muscular and confident fellow who swayed to the sides as he walked. He was a picture of a well-fed man that sparked with cleanliness and fashionable suits that fit well on his wide shoulders. With all these, he somehow exhibited a calm humility with his silence. He was the type of man I wanted to be as I was growing up. He had treated me for Malaria after I was infected during one of my service programs. Dr.Tekleab was too gentle to be imprisoned. He was like one of those innocent fat kids whose only concern and weakness in life is food. He seemed almost like a sheltered child whom one would want to further shield him from being harmed. As there is no official court or prosecutor who accuses or indicts people, no body knows what his and the other two individuals crimes. The insanity of it all however is not lost to me. Eritrea probably has less than 60 trained Physicians for its 3.5 Million people. Yet, Isaias and his cronies hunt Professional healers like they have unlimited supply of them.
The new Pentecostal churches’ persecution was almost condoned by the population of Eritrea. People said that they had brought it on themselves, and nobody had made them convert from Orthodoxy. Yet, as the “SS” of Isaias run out of religious minorities to targets and victimize, they moved to the main church to even reach the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. I am reminded of the poem “First Hitler attacked…” that is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller.
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