January 26, 2002

 

Boston’s Meeting success or access ?

Eye witness account.

 

By Sewit Tensae

 

The meeting in Boston for few it was a success, for most of as it was an “access”. Now we know who are the concerned Eritreans and PFDJ impersonators (Wahyo). There is nothing wrong to organize such a meeting ,but you must clearly stand for what you believe in ,and be open and die for it. Whether it is bad or good what you stand for every one has his own term ,but it’s  shameful to be mediocre .

 

Wrong guess

The organizers thought the meeting may be disrupted and decided to hire two police officers plus one camera man, incase throwing chairs or violence occur. They were very    wrong  found things otherwise. All the fear & speculation they had in mind remained gossip .

Here is some of the things  ailed  to understand :-

 1st :-Most Eritreans are feed up the politics of the so-called G’s

 

2nd :-Most Eritrean found, it is irrelevant to attend the meeting to learn about the current situation in Eritrea ,from some one who had been lost for almost a year, now  to tell

them the current situation in the country which most of them visited recently.

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3rd:- Knowing the meeting was in the Interest of the G’s ,but not the majority of Eritreans they decided to stay home and do something else important.

 

Over all the meeting was a success to the minority organizers who were surrounded by fear from disruption by the majority Eritreans. But it was a good lesson to the concerned Eritreans  they witnessed the majority Eritreans had better things to do than disrupting the meeting,  and once again proved them wrong again to G’s and their supporters. The point they miss to understand is, most Eritreans have much bigger issue to take care of than what was prepared at stake in Boston by the power thirsty reformist.

While it had been said over and over by the concerned Eritreans, let us not judge but hear from both sides, yet the concerned Eritreans were judgmental on the majority Eritreans and hired two police officers, and I hope they learned their lesson again too.

 

Eye witness account.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 2:00 pm.  Due to the late arrival of the participant, at around 2:00 pm there were no more than 20 but less than 30 attendee including the “concerned Eritreans”. The X-ambassador was no show at 200pm, probably he had been told to arrive late. To those of us who seemed reformist to the concerned Eritreans, we were so anxious to see who would be the organizers / concerned Eritrean .At some point we had doubt among us, if this meeting was called by Eritrean or by some one else, based on the letter that was sent, plus looking at  the history of the sponsors of previous meeting of G-15. Bostonians have received the letters of invitation 10days prior to the date of the meeting, but it has been all rumors and guessing game who were the concerned Eritreans, because :-

a)      There was no  phone number on the letter

b)       There was no ones name on the letter among the 21 concerned Eritreans to contact.

c)      As if a big secret, no one came forward to say “it’s us we invited you”. Nothing harmful inside the letter, but it reminded us the anthrax letter and decided to give the same name among us. Nevertheless, We took our chances  and few of as had a chance to see the masked ones. Unlike the letter, they did not get a chance to be unidentified, but to go unmasked inside the hall.

 

Some of the organizers were our ordinary friends who were supporters GoE   as recent as last year, and some of them were  from the opposition group thought this was a good opportunity to have accompany, not knowing who they were joining to. Few member of the concerned  Eritreans, they seem uncomfortable sitting  or associating   close to other visible “concerned Eritreans”, while others seems fearful to be notices as a members of  concerned Eritreans. Fear should have been out of the picture in the beginning, if you believe in for what you stood, unless there is a big task waiting ahead of them as double agents (Wahyo’s) inside PDJF. The people, who accompanied Mr. Adhanom to the building and whisked him in Boston, they do not want to be seen sitting next side by side with him, because few of them are still members of the PDJF.  It was a game of stealing a camel and trying to hide the camel  .(Gemel serika Gumbh Gumbh)

 

Somehow after a long wait , the X amabassador arrived at 3:00pm to the building accompanied by Gudusat Eritreawan and PDFJ impersonators. We were eager to see who would be the leader of the concerned Eritreans, to accompany the X Ambassador to the podium and sit side by side with him. All secret were no secret at 3:00pm. The was no hiding place to the concern Eritrans, all of the Identity of the 21  was revealed , even though some tried to act  as listeners,  and of course some of them were  proud of what they accomplish .First of all there shouldn’t be a reason to hide otherwise it will be  (Tehabien Ytenso Seb tsewien Yharso-o) .To say  the meeting was successful, it depends who you talking to. On my term the meeting was successful because it ended up peacefully, but we learn nothing new except lies, bigotry and deception from the X ambassador. To the most Eritrean the meeting was Access full than successful, because at least we know who are the concerned Eritreans and their aim. The faces of the concerned Eritrean were a big secret in Boston for quiet sometime. Every thing has the end of it, and  January 20,2002 was the end of it, and we can move on. To The PDJF impersonators, who simply sat with us to deceive us their among us. I tell them, you have  failed  to notice our Eritreaness ,  digging & reveling secrecy is as equal as yours. All you have to do is give up your membership and move on. You  reminded us the legend Bereket’s song WAHYO NIO BELA HNFSH-FSH Z-AMELA.

 

The meeting started with no more than 60-to 70 Eritreans but later on approximately 100 (+/- 10) Eritreans were attended. Variance of 40 to 30 people as it was stated  is not a big  issue, according what we observe the participant were  1/10th of the Eritreans residing  across  New England. What does it tell you this? Even Mr. Adhanom mentioned on his preliminary speech refereeing to the crowd “small and beautiful”.  By saying so, it was his opening bell to his propaganda, and by doing so, he was only cheating himself from the start. We knew what he means small is beautiful, so as his mission of deception. He  mentioned early what happened  in London  to Mesfin Hagos. He said “throwing chair at him by so many crowd was not right”, but Mr. Adhanom fail to understand the decision Bostonians  made  90% chose to stay home to do better things than listening to him  was more than throwing chairs at him. I guess because of the  fear that he had, two video camera men were ready to film  one directly recording to the audience and to the speaker & the other One was on a stand-by to film in case  incident accurse, to use it for  prosecution purpose .

 

The meeting started at 3:10 by a silent of moments in the memory of our martyrs (ZIKRE SEMAETAT), and there after a short history was red of Adhamom Ghebremairiam which every one of us was proud of his past history.

 

Declamation 

Immediately after he thanked us for coming, the attack on PIA begins with the same old song and melody accompanied by a different band  and it was all about “dictatorship” (Sltan bihituwo… Sltan Bitwo …) again and again, sometimes comparing  PIA with Fidel Castor and with other African dictators. Imagine, this attack was to the PIA of Eritrea who once the big wig   X-ambassador praise him, admired him and of course he was one of his Yes-Man. To give credit, the X ambassador is a good speaker, actor sometimes emotional to capture the attention of honest Eritreans through his emotion while the truth is behind the curtain is evil.

On his speech, he had mentioned repeatedly I will quote “All I need from You is a 2X2 meter land where I can rest peacefully” “ I am not asking any thing else you people” Well Mr. X ambassador you shouldn’t have to worry were you would be laid to rest, you  will have more than 2X2 meter land at Mekabir Harbenatat as Harbegna , no  one will take it away from you, and no one will take it from us your past history , but try not to use as a pretext your past history. No one will deny your patriotism and scarifies that you have paid during armed struggle, while remained questionable your ten years after armed struggle. Your past history will remain in the book and in the  mind of all Eritreans, and you shouldn’t  have to worry a bit where you  would be laid to rest, when the time comes. You could have thought otherwise, how to live as a good leader or citizen if you chose to. We Eritreas will always have a place and respect to our former heroes, and this is not something you should worry bout.

 

Lies

 On the other issue, we heard him saying Eritrea never had a budget for ten years, being ambassador to Eritrea for at least in three counties, I do not understand how he was running his stuff with out a budget. What ever he said, Eritrea had always a budget, but it was not published as it is being done now. Those involved with the Finance Ministry were also among the reformers, so why didn’t raise this issue then? What is the point of raising these issues now if not to cover up the corruption?  At this moment, many ministries are going through a thorough audit, there is no doubt that some of these defectors will be implicated in some of the missing funds. The X- ambassador also mentioned some funds were missing. Who knows (SERAKI –MOBA- BAELU YLAFALEF) There is no doubt also that all this talk is to confuse and cover up his guilt or someone else. Mr. Adhanom got no challenge but claps on every topic he raise. While he was implicating  himself ..Because most the audience were listeners who gave their automatic support just because he is one of the reformists. To my understanding  most of the attendee were the ones who have reservation between the reformist and the government when this first burst, and we expected them to have more questions than us, but It is every ones guess if they had a separate meeting prior to the public meeting, or just another your enemy enemy is my friend.

 

Bigot speech

He said,  “ I wish Dr. Tesfai Aradom was here.” I do not know what he means, but what about if Dr. Tesfai was present ? One thing he should know, Dr.Tesfai is not a person who doesn’t know where he is going just because he got  invitation letter as Mr.Adhanom did . Of course Dr. Tesfai can not attend a meeting not knowing who invited him .This might be the case or the perfect example all the reformist refused to admit if they were ever  invited by alliance or weyane.  God for bid , I don’t blame them then  if they were invited with out knowing, and ended up being  beaten or throwing chair at them. Who knows even if the meeting was intentionally scheduled knowing Dr. Tesfai’s is not in the city. Every thing was secret.

 

Deception

 One thing Mr. Adhanom loves to do is, to put words on some one else mouth. He told the audience that  “ Abdela  Mahmud Jabir  presidential adviser and head of the delegation to the second Eritrean in Australia festival, as saying  the reformist in jail should cut off their heads for the crime they commit . What a lie ! I  was so embarrassed for him. To hear from a person who supposes to have a caliber of ambassador such deceptive & cheap propaganda for public consumption is nonsense. What Mr. Jabir said is (Antsar Selamn Rebha luulawinetn  Eritra zikeyd ente koyne kisadey Tkorets.  How can some one misinterpret or quote clear Tigrina .Even though the choice of Mr. Adhamon was to deceive and lie to the public for his own political survival, I am sure some said to themselves ATA AZAZIBUNA . Well Mr. Adhanom found a pool with no sharks in it and swam till the pool drains. When he was challenged not to put a word on some one else mind or mouth on assumption, he said it is true “they told me on the phone from Australia. I wonder if the phones from Australia always tells the truth based on his analysis! If that is the case he needs one . But It was the weakest reply from a veteran politician .

 

Witness for the alliance/TPLF

Mr.Adhanom said he had never seen or heard any Eritrean women being rapped by the weyane thugs , after he was asked what was the G-15 relation with the alliance group. He said rape is a strong word and I have no comment on that one. But Mr. Andhanom wasn’t in Australia to listen to what Mr. Abdela Jabir  had to say ,yet he decided to comment on it as he was in Australia..

Over all the meeting was only successful because there was no violence only, as the unmasked concerned Eritreans expected, but the rest of the seminar was garbage just to sell on market the year 2001 album “PIA and Dectatorship”. The album probably was sold to some of the approximate 100 participant, but  I am sure they will be tired listening to it day after day, till their reformer hero becomes to chose another Diaspora side by side.

 

War with Wyane .

Regarding to the war with weyane , he said he knew nothing from the start and new nothing at the end .He said when the first time weyane declared war on us he heard it through Swedish authority after being called for briefing.  As foolish as he can be, he replied to Swedish authority, weyane can not declare war on as because they are our strategic friends and alliance. No wonder why he was transferred from Europe to Africa!

 

Confused 

At times he said, “ We do not want to change the administration but we just want to correct and fix the administration , contradicting to his 2001 album “dictatorship and end era of it.” So Mr. Adhanom what do you really want to do? Change the administration or get rid off dictatorship. If in deed there is a dictatorial government in Eritrea we want to get rid off it not fix it , but your choice seems Kwieka BManka Kizhleka Biedka. Make your mind before start preaching democracy and changes.

 

 To the unnoticed by public  “Resolution  of four point”:-

I am not against all of it and I am not for all of it at this moment. I have my own reservation, but now days whether you agree or disagree it seems the resolution will pass undemocratically at the will of the  sponsors, or to take it  as a “Decalogue”.As the meeting adjourned officially, people started leaving the building. However, to my surprise the four point resolution was red with out any ones knowledge “except the people who were ready for it and organized”. Pictures don’t lie, video cameras were present, show us if the people who participated in the meeting were voting for the four point resolution democratically.. If you call this is democracy, then I call it “decadency”

 

Wetru Awet n hafash

Sewit Tensae

 

Sewit Tensae is the sole bearer of the responsibility for this article.