Eritrea: Summer 2007 Part III of a continuous update…..
Eremias Woldemikael
November 04, 2007
A personal account of a Trip to Eritrea
Summer 2007
Note: Originally, I had thought that I would make my account in three part installments. As you may have noticed, due to the length of the previous parts and the remaining writings; and the continuous changes in issues related to the topics I discussed, I have left the ending for this series open ended. I have found it necessary to write an Epilogue and I have also decided to write about the comments and feedback. I have received from Eritreans and non-Eritreans alike regarding this series. All will come soon. Stay tuned and keep on reading. For now, here is part III.
Beloved Uncle
My uncle is a supporter of the regime and he happens to be the person whom I love most. I love him not because of his political views but for personal reasons. My uncle unfortunately is least educated and pure-hearted man who had been kidnapped and conscripted with his nephew to join the EPLF in the 80’s. While his nephew that is part of division 525 had been exposed to many of the struggles between and ideologies of Jebha and Shaebia, my uncle was merely a 4th grader peasant when he was taken to the fields. He was given a political indoctrination in Sahel [the northernmost mountainous province of Eritrea that had served as a main base and hideout of EPLF for decades]. He is highly curious, but talking to him was like talking to a rock or a highly scripted American political operation robot-without the political scheming and demonizing. He seemed brainwashed, uninformed, and was deprived of the oxygen of outside information. I believe he had taken what he was taught in Sahel during the independence struggle straight to his mind and soul. To him, the official explanations given for the slowness of internal government reforms, as effects of “Werar Weyane”, are believable. His solution to the imprisonment of people without trial is waiting. His solution to the economy is waiting, and the causes for Eritrean problems are Weyanes and Americans, oh, one more thing, the booming Ethiopian economy was also in trouble.
I wanted to explain to him my humble Macroeconomics lessons from college, but he is not familiar with the concepts of Entrepreneurship, Free Enterprise, GDP, Inflation, Free Market, Subsidy, Price Control, Capital, Labor, supply and demand curves etc. I could not explain to him why the government’s policies may be contributing to all the problems in the country. However, I will always love him, and I do not hold the ignorance of my uncle against him. I sincerely believe that if he knew better he would do right by his people. I so much wished I could educate him. I wish he understood English or have access to any other non-governmental information.
I am told that he was at the Adi-Abeito prisons when the massacre occurred few years ago. I do not know what he was responsible for and I hate to see him be part of and be an enabler of a brutal regime. Unlike my uncle who does not understand his actions and believes he is doing the best thing for his country however, there are cynical men and women who have seen a better life and live under better systems that continue to back tyranny. Such Hypocrites are not willing to have themselves or their children endure the lives of ordinary Eritreans. Yet, they are evil enough to wish, witness, and sentence innocent others to such an abyss of misery. I wonder how they sleep at night. Yes, I am talking about Sophia Tesfamariam and the likes of her.
The real culprits and Enemy of the People
Most contemptible are the words and deeds of those who know better and should know better, yet they either enable or aid the government in its butchery and robbery. These are the real culprits. The “Princess of Eritrean Darkness” in the Diaspora is Sophia Tesfamariam, but there are others who live inside Eritrea, too.
Such charlatan individuals often make their wives give birth in foreign lands and take their children to the countries of their birth outside Eritrea at least once a year to secure the children’s foreign citizenship. This is done so that the children would be exempt from national service because they are citizens of another country. Yet, they advocate and claim that conditions for ordinary Eritreans and the future of Eritrean children are tolerable. One of these people is the man who is heading the useless Eritrean Free Zone Authority that has managed to attract no foreign investment. His name, I believe is Dr. Araya Tsegay. I hope such people will someday answer for their part in oppressing the Eritrean people while they secure citizenships in other countries for their kids. I hope the days of reckoning are near and those that are enabling the butchers of Asmara will be equally held for their crimes.
Something Positive
After reporting most of the negative conditions in the country, I feel like I have to report on the positive things I noticed. For the record, there was one good thing that has not changed for the worse over the years. That is Safety. Throughout my trip, night or day, I had no fear of being attacked by criminals or gangsters. I even encountered and greeted one of the Ministers of Eritrea sipping cappuccino at the Sunshine hotel at night alone. Without hyperbole, Asmara or the rest of highland Eritrea is probably one of the safest or most crime-free areas in the world. This is a testament to the deeply- rooted, family and honor-based culture of Eritrea than anything else. Luckily, that has not vanished.
“Ba’ath Party of Eritrea” policed by 'Chelsea, Arsenals and Eznis (Listeners)'
Like the ba’ath party of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the criminals in Eritrea are Isaias, his government, and his one and only party. The only groups the populations especially the youth seem to be afraid of are the regular government police, military police, and the National Security Agents. The regular police and Military police are known as Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, referring to the color of their uniforms that roughly resemble the blue of Chelsea and Red camouflaged Arsenal British soccer clubs’. The National Security agents or Ezni, [literally meaning ear to signify listeners], do not wear uniforms, but the people seem to be able to identify them by their behavior and demeanors. They are supposed to be secret agents, but I was amazed with the ease people were able to identify them. One can never verify, but the people whispered Ezni when they suspected someone to be member of the Secret Agents.
Mass Round ups on Independence Day
I was able to discover and witness on four occasions why people were terrorized by them. These events occurred on the night of Independence Day, Kenya-Eritrea soccer game day, and two other random days. One night when I was going home, as I was passing through the nightclubs around Photo Zula where visitors from the Diaspora hangout, I witnessed four MPs (Arsenal men) beating up kids that were selling gums, peanuts, and eggs on the street. When I asked why they were being beaten as if they could not feel any pain, the Arsenal men's reply was that the kids were being loud and disturbing the neighborhood. That did not make sense to me because the loudest thing in the area was the music that was coming out of the clubs, but I realized that these people were accountable to nobody. They could do whatever they desired, and I was being warned by the people around me to just hush and go do my own business. I followed the people’s advice and went on with my business, but I could not forget the kids who were enduring painful beatings because they made noises to sell gums and peanuts to support themselves and their families.
Ironically, on the night of the Independence Day which signifies freedom, the young people were preparing to celebrate. But, the government had its own plan for them. When the young people came to celebrate, they were rounded up and sent to Adi-Abeito prisons. Among them was a different cousin of mine who also was a former fighter after he had been kidnapped into conscription in 1990. He had been demobilized and was working in the ministries, but the Arsenal and Chelsea personnel in collaboration with the Listeners took him and hundreds of young men to the prisons summarily. He spent there two nights before he was let out. Those that were not let out were sent to the notorious Wi’a.
Further Round Up
I believe it was on the weeks preceding the Kenya-Eritrea game at Asmara stadium, the only media outlets in the country (state-owned newspapers, TV, and Radio) had been encouraging people to come out and support the national team by purchasing tickets. When the young people went to enjoy the game and support the team, the security agents again waited and ambushed them. They conducted their mass round up operation. Such gatherings were preferred, but they were not the only times the security agents conducted their mass rounding up.
One random day, I witnessed a group of men in what looked like a large Mitsubishi truck. I thought they were criminal prisoners, but the people around me were nervous and uneasy. When I asked why were the people on edge, they revealed to me that the security agents had just conducted their mass round up and those men I saw on the truck surrounded by men with guns were its victims. To the people, it was not the rounding up itself that troubled them, but it was the arbitrary nature of it and the uncertainty that follows after it. Often times, people with a legitimate case and official reasons for not being in the endless national service program were lost in the bureaucratic jungle and sent to places they need not and should not be sent.
Tormented Conscience and Troubled Soul
It is a bad time to be a young person in Eritrea. However, to be a young, conscientious, relatively educated, lower ranking former fighter of EPLF who is still part of the defense forces and has to raise his children is the worst. Since they are the ones that are most likely to interact with the bitter post-independence generation of youth and the average people in general, they get the worst of all possible situations. On one side, they get none of the benefits or profit the higher ranking officers obtain. On the other side, the resentment and frustration of the people is expressed to them. On the third side, their own conscience is troubled by the discrepancies of the idealism of what they fought for during the independence struggle and what has come of it. Add to this the daily grind of military service as a lower ranking soldier or officer away from one’s family and one can clearly comprehend the misery of being one of these persons.
Through out my visits to relatives’ house, my 525 commando cousin dreaded accompanying me and seeing the relatives. This was because the relatives unloaded their problems to him as if he was committing the transgressions himself or he would be able to solve them. Moreover, they know that they can get away with saying what is on their mind with him. To them, he was often the closest government representative to whom they can speak without the fear of retaliation. They know that he will not punish them for anything because they are his family. He was serving as a benevolent psychotherapist and a symbol of unforgivable tyranny at the same time. As I earlier stated, he can not even get the privilege of being a civilian and complaining or acting as a victim along with the people because he sees himself and is seen by the people as part of those who brought the entire regime from the jungles of Sahel and therefore responsible for what happened ever since.
This was vividly demonstrated to me on two separate occasions. One day, we went to see our aunt, and she started complaining about what the generals were doing in uprooting people out of their residential houses so that the military officers could take the houses. My cousin does not even qualify for such programs, yet our aunt pounded at him with every particular one of her vocabularies to get him to understand that such policies went against everything his father had died for, he had fought for, and civilians like her had expected from their own brothers and sisters. He agonizes and is tormented and sorrowfully regrets his share of years in the jungle. As men and women opine that their mothers had given birth to “monsters or wild beasts” thinking that they were having humans, there is nothing the powerless and disunited former fighters can do, but curse the day they were born.
Another lighter occasion but still is a lingering statement about the position of people like him was made by a comical friend of his who works at an Internet Café. We had gone to check e-mails on the 20th of June, a Memorial Day known locally as Martyr’s Day. We found out that the Café had closed early for the holiday. When my cousin asked our friend why he closed early that day, his reply with a funny gesture was, “We don’t want to be fined by you people.” We laughed at his comment, but for my cousin it was a reminder of his ill-defined position in the society. His friend thinks he is kind and friendly enough to be one of the people or sympathizes with them. Yet, he is also in name and profession one of the others (oppressors.) He is neither with the oppressed nor the oppressors. Yet, he endures daily the burden of the betrayal caused by his bosses and comrades.
Blame for Ethio-Eritrean War
The most interesting conversation I had inside Eritrea was a three-way discussion between cousins, i.e., the Commando, the Asmara University alumnus (AUA), and me. It was when we were discussing who is to be held responsible for the senseless “border” war that took place between PFDJ-led Eritrea and TPLF/EPRDF-led Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000. By now, any interested reader of issues in the region probably has heard that war being described as “two bold men fighting over a comb.” During a peace agreement signed in Algiers in2000, the two governments had arranged for Boundary and Claims Commissions to judge multiple issues about the boundary and the start and conduct of the war. The Boundary Commission rendered its decision in 2002, and the Claims Commission gave its decision in 2005. While everyone in Eritrea seems to know about the Boundary Commission’s work, not many knew about the Claims Commission’s decision. My AUA cousin seemed to know about it, but my Commando cousin seemed not to know about it. It was a shock to him when I asked how Isaias and company justify starting the war. His reply was that the Weyane (TPLF) started the war on Eritrea. I replied that I thought that question was settled by the Claims Commission and Isaias’ government had accepted the decision although it did not like it. “The commission has given us Badme and the war was started over Badme.” He said. My AUA cousin wanted to say something realizing the sensitivity of the issue of the war. He knew about the complexity of the issue and the way many Eritreans think about it. He said, “I know the court in The Hague has decided that Eritrea was to blame for starting the war. I also know that our government has accepted the decision. However, that does not mean the Eritrean people believe the decision was correct.” “Well, we have accepted the decision of the boundary’s commission as the decision of a just court. We can not just suddenly say this is a decision of an unjust court when it is against us. We can not have it both ways.” I said. My AUA cousin seemed to agree, but my Commando cousin seemed unhappy about the whole conversation. “If Badme is our land and we fought over an occupied land of ours, how could it be the case that we invaded or started a war? We defended our land, Right?” He asked.
In a confused, but desperate attempt of denial that the decision had taken place or the Eritrean government accepted it, my cousin seemed not to want to believe any of it. At times what he was denying was not even clear. Sometimes, it was the event of the decision or the content of the decision that indicted Eritrea for starting it or the whole war business.
To many Eritreans the war is known us “Werar Weyane” meaning “Invasion of Weyane”. In Tigrinya (the language of the Tigray region of Ethiopia and highland Eritrea), Weyane means Revolution. It is a shortened name of Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF.) The Eritrean government talks daily about Werar Weyane and my cousin desperately wanted to believe that the war had been justly fought and Eritrea was not an aggressor. I do not blame him. Too many lives were sacrificed and maimed because they were told that they were fighting a just war. The Claims Commission’s’ decision would make all those messages a lie and the war he and his comrades fought unjust.
Although, I perfectly know that it was a fantasy, I did not want to deny my cousin believing it if he wants and makes himself believe it. He has and still is suffering more than enough. He is enduring a suffocating life. I did not want to wound him any further by insisting on talking about the topic. There fore, seeing his sensitivity, I changed the topic.
Summer 2007
Note: Originally, I had thought that I would make my account in three part installments. As you may have noticed, due to the length of the previous parts and the remaining writings; and the continuous changes in issues related to the topics I discussed, I have left the ending for this series open ended. I have found it necessary to write an Epilogue and I have also decided to write about the comments and feedback. I have received from Eritreans and non-Eritreans alike regarding this series. All will come soon. Stay tuned and keep on reading. For now, here is part III.
Beloved Uncle
My uncle is a supporter of the regime and he happens to be the person whom I love most. I love him not because of his political views but for personal reasons. My uncle unfortunately is least educated and pure-hearted man who had been kidnapped and conscripted with his nephew to join the EPLF in the 80’s. While his nephew that is part of division 525 had been exposed to many of the struggles between and ideologies of Jebha and Shaebia, my uncle was merely a 4th grader peasant when he was taken to the fields. He was given a political indoctrination in Sahel [the northernmost mountainous province of Eritrea that had served as a main base and hideout of EPLF for decades]. He is highly curious, but talking to him was like talking to a rock or a highly scripted American political operation robot-without the political scheming and demonizing. He seemed brainwashed, uninformed, and was deprived of the oxygen of outside information. I believe he had taken what he was taught in Sahel during the independence struggle straight to his mind and soul. To him, the official explanations given for the slowness of internal government reforms, as effects of “Werar Weyane”, are believable. His solution to the imprisonment of people without trial is waiting. His solution to the economy is waiting, and the causes for Eritrean problems are Weyanes and Americans, oh, one more thing, the booming Ethiopian economy was also in trouble.
I wanted to explain to him my humble Macroeconomics lessons from college, but he is not familiar with the concepts of Entrepreneurship, Free Enterprise, GDP, Inflation, Free Market, Subsidy, Price Control, Capital, Labor, supply and demand curves etc. I could not explain to him why the government’s policies may be contributing to all the problems in the country. However, I will always love him, and I do not hold the ignorance of my uncle against him. I sincerely believe that if he knew better he would do right by his people. I so much wished I could educate him. I wish he understood English or have access to any other non-governmental information.
I am told that he was at the Adi-Abeito prisons when the massacre occurred few years ago. I do not know what he was responsible for and I hate to see him be part of and be an enabler of a brutal regime. Unlike my uncle who does not understand his actions and believes he is doing the best thing for his country however, there are cynical men and women who have seen a better life and live under better systems that continue to back tyranny. Such Hypocrites are not willing to have themselves or their children endure the lives of ordinary Eritreans. Yet, they are evil enough to wish, witness, and sentence innocent others to such an abyss of misery. I wonder how they sleep at night. Yes, I am talking about Sophia Tesfamariam and the likes of her.
The real culprits and Enemy of the People
Most contemptible are the words and deeds of those who know better and should know better, yet they either enable or aid the government in its butchery and robbery. These are the real culprits. The “Princess of Eritrean Darkness” in the Diaspora is Sophia Tesfamariam, but there are others who live inside Eritrea, too.
Such charlatan individuals often make their wives give birth in foreign lands and take their children to the countries of their birth outside Eritrea at least once a year to secure the children’s foreign citizenship. This is done so that the children would be exempt from national service because they are citizens of another country. Yet, they advocate and claim that conditions for ordinary Eritreans and the future of Eritrean children are tolerable. One of these people is the man who is heading the useless Eritrean Free Zone Authority that has managed to attract no foreign investment. His name, I believe is Dr. Araya Tsegay. I hope such people will someday answer for their part in oppressing the Eritrean people while they secure citizenships in other countries for their kids. I hope the days of reckoning are near and those that are enabling the butchers of Asmara will be equally held for their crimes.
Something Positive
After reporting most of the negative conditions in the country, I feel like I have to report on the positive things I noticed. For the record, there was one good thing that has not changed for the worse over the years. That is Safety. Throughout my trip, night or day, I had no fear of being attacked by criminals or gangsters. I even encountered and greeted one of the Ministers of Eritrea sipping cappuccino at the Sunshine hotel at night alone. Without hyperbole, Asmara or the rest of highland Eritrea is probably one of the safest or most crime-free areas in the world. This is a testament to the deeply- rooted, family and honor-based culture of Eritrea than anything else. Luckily, that has not vanished.
“Ba’ath Party of Eritrea” policed by 'Chelsea, Arsenals and Eznis (Listeners)'
Like the ba’ath party of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the criminals in Eritrea are Isaias, his government, and his one and only party. The only groups the populations especially the youth seem to be afraid of are the regular government police, military police, and the National Security Agents. The regular police and Military police are known as Chelsea and Arsenal respectively, referring to the color of their uniforms that roughly resemble the blue of Chelsea and Red camouflaged Arsenal British soccer clubs’. The National Security agents or Ezni, [literally meaning ear to signify listeners], do not wear uniforms, but the people seem to be able to identify them by their behavior and demeanors. They are supposed to be secret agents, but I was amazed with the ease people were able to identify them. One can never verify, but the people whispered Ezni when they suspected someone to be member of the Secret Agents.
Mass Round ups on Independence Day
I was able to discover and witness on four occasions why people were terrorized by them. These events occurred on the night of Independence Day, Kenya-Eritrea soccer game day, and two other random days. One night when I was going home, as I was passing through the nightclubs around Photo Zula where visitors from the Diaspora hangout, I witnessed four MPs (Arsenal men) beating up kids that were selling gums, peanuts, and eggs on the street. When I asked why they were being beaten as if they could not feel any pain, the Arsenal men's reply was that the kids were being loud and disturbing the neighborhood. That did not make sense to me because the loudest thing in the area was the music that was coming out of the clubs, but I realized that these people were accountable to nobody. They could do whatever they desired, and I was being warned by the people around me to just hush and go do my own business. I followed the people’s advice and went on with my business, but I could not forget the kids who were enduring painful beatings because they made noises to sell gums and peanuts to support themselves and their families.
Ironically, on the night of the Independence Day which signifies freedom, the young people were preparing to celebrate. But, the government had its own plan for them. When the young people came to celebrate, they were rounded up and sent to Adi-Abeito prisons. Among them was a different cousin of mine who also was a former fighter after he had been kidnapped into conscription in 1990. He had been demobilized and was working in the ministries, but the Arsenal and Chelsea personnel in collaboration with the Listeners took him and hundreds of young men to the prisons summarily. He spent there two nights before he was let out. Those that were not let out were sent to the notorious Wi’a.
Further Round Up
I believe it was on the weeks preceding the Kenya-Eritrea game at Asmara stadium, the only media outlets in the country (state-owned newspapers, TV, and Radio) had been encouraging people to come out and support the national team by purchasing tickets. When the young people went to enjoy the game and support the team, the security agents again waited and ambushed them. They conducted their mass round up operation. Such gatherings were preferred, but they were not the only times the security agents conducted their mass rounding up.
One random day, I witnessed a group of men in what looked like a large Mitsubishi truck. I thought they were criminal prisoners, but the people around me were nervous and uneasy. When I asked why were the people on edge, they revealed to me that the security agents had just conducted their mass round up and those men I saw on the truck surrounded by men with guns were its victims. To the people, it was not the rounding up itself that troubled them, but it was the arbitrary nature of it and the uncertainty that follows after it. Often times, people with a legitimate case and official reasons for not being in the endless national service program were lost in the bureaucratic jungle and sent to places they need not and should not be sent.
Tormented Conscience and Troubled Soul
It is a bad time to be a young person in Eritrea. However, to be a young, conscientious, relatively educated, lower ranking former fighter of EPLF who is still part of the defense forces and has to raise his children is the worst. Since they are the ones that are most likely to interact with the bitter post-independence generation of youth and the average people in general, they get the worst of all possible situations. On one side, they get none of the benefits or profit the higher ranking officers obtain. On the other side, the resentment and frustration of the people is expressed to them. On the third side, their own conscience is troubled by the discrepancies of the idealism of what they fought for during the independence struggle and what has come of it. Add to this the daily grind of military service as a lower ranking soldier or officer away from one’s family and one can clearly comprehend the misery of being one of these persons.
Through out my visits to relatives’ house, my 525 commando cousin dreaded accompanying me and seeing the relatives. This was because the relatives unloaded their problems to him as if he was committing the transgressions himself or he would be able to solve them. Moreover, they know that they can get away with saying what is on their mind with him. To them, he was often the closest government representative to whom they can speak without the fear of retaliation. They know that he will not punish them for anything because they are his family. He was serving as a benevolent psychotherapist and a symbol of unforgivable tyranny at the same time. As I earlier stated, he can not even get the privilege of being a civilian and complaining or acting as a victim along with the people because he sees himself and is seen by the people as part of those who brought the entire regime from the jungles of Sahel and therefore responsible for what happened ever since.
This was vividly demonstrated to me on two separate occasions. One day, we went to see our aunt, and she started complaining about what the generals were doing in uprooting people out of their residential houses so that the military officers could take the houses. My cousin does not even qualify for such programs, yet our aunt pounded at him with every particular one of her vocabularies to get him to understand that such policies went against everything his father had died for, he had fought for, and civilians like her had expected from their own brothers and sisters. He agonizes and is tormented and sorrowfully regrets his share of years in the jungle. As men and women opine that their mothers had given birth to “monsters or wild beasts” thinking that they were having humans, there is nothing the powerless and disunited former fighters can do, but curse the day they were born.
Another lighter occasion but still is a lingering statement about the position of people like him was made by a comical friend of his who works at an Internet Café. We had gone to check e-mails on the 20th of June, a Memorial Day known locally as Martyr’s Day. We found out that the Café had closed early for the holiday. When my cousin asked our friend why he closed early that day, his reply with a funny gesture was, “We don’t want to be fined by you people.” We laughed at his comment, but for my cousin it was a reminder of his ill-defined position in the society. His friend thinks he is kind and friendly enough to be one of the people or sympathizes with them. Yet, he is also in name and profession one of the others (oppressors.) He is neither with the oppressed nor the oppressors. Yet, he endures daily the burden of the betrayal caused by his bosses and comrades.
Blame for Ethio-Eritrean War
The most interesting conversation I had inside Eritrea was a three-way discussion between cousins, i.e., the Commando, the Asmara University alumnus (AUA), and me. It was when we were discussing who is to be held responsible for the senseless “border” war that took place between PFDJ-led Eritrea and TPLF/EPRDF-led Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000. By now, any interested reader of issues in the region probably has heard that war being described as “two bold men fighting over a comb.” During a peace agreement signed in Algiers in2000, the two governments had arranged for Boundary and Claims Commissions to judge multiple issues about the boundary and the start and conduct of the war. The Boundary Commission rendered its decision in 2002, and the Claims Commission gave its decision in 2005. While everyone in Eritrea seems to know about the Boundary Commission’s work, not many knew about the Claims Commission’s decision. My AUA cousin seemed to know about it, but my Commando cousin seemed not to know about it. It was a shock to him when I asked how Isaias and company justify starting the war. His reply was that the Weyane (TPLF) started the war on Eritrea. I replied that I thought that question was settled by the Claims Commission and Isaias’ government had accepted the decision although it did not like it. “The commission has given us Badme and the war was started over Badme.” He said. My AUA cousin wanted to say something realizing the sensitivity of the issue of the war. He knew about the complexity of the issue and the way many Eritreans think about it. He said, “I know the court in The Hague has decided that Eritrea was to blame for starting the war. I also know that our government has accepted the decision. However, that does not mean the Eritrean people believe the decision was correct.” “Well, we have accepted the decision of the boundary’s commission as the decision of a just court. We can not just suddenly say this is a decision of an unjust court when it is against us. We can not have it both ways.” I said. My AUA cousin seemed to agree, but my Commando cousin seemed unhappy about the whole conversation. “If Badme is our land and we fought over an occupied land of ours, how could it be the case that we invaded or started a war? We defended our land, Right?” He asked.
In a confused, but desperate attempt of denial that the decision had taken place or the Eritrean government accepted it, my cousin seemed not to want to believe any of it. At times what he was denying was not even clear. Sometimes, it was the event of the decision or the content of the decision that indicted Eritrea for starting it or the whole war business.
To many Eritreans the war is known us “Werar Weyane” meaning “Invasion of Weyane”. In Tigrinya (the language of the Tigray region of Ethiopia and highland Eritrea), Weyane means Revolution. It is a shortened name of Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF.) The Eritrean government talks daily about Werar Weyane and my cousin desperately wanted to believe that the war had been justly fought and Eritrea was not an aggressor. I do not blame him. Too many lives were sacrificed and maimed because they were told that they were fighting a just war. The Claims Commission’s’ decision would make all those messages a lie and the war he and his comrades fought unjust.
Although, I perfectly know that it was a fantasy, I did not want to deny my cousin believing it if he wants and makes himself believe it. He has and still is suffering more than enough. He is enduring a suffocating life. I did not want to wound him any further by insisting on talking about the topic. There fore, seeing his sensitivity, I changed the topic.
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