Originally posted on awate.com on Oct 03, 2007

This short text is aimed at responding to a highly slanderous text written by Sophia Tesfamariam - ‘US-Eritrea Relations: Soured by Design’. In two occasions I have been able to assess the credibility and honesty of this writer. Whereas I believe that the truth or otherwise of her recent article is simple to decipher, particularly for any Eritrean that constantly follow the reality in Eritrea, I felt morally obliged to step into the witness box and give my testimonies. Please bear with my untypical way of testifying. My disposition does not refute all her allegations. No one needs to rebut many of her allegations. Just consider this statement of her: 

There is no need to shed crocodile tears for the predicament of this group of Eritrean officials [hitherto detained members of the G-15]. The Government and people of Eritrea are handling this delicate issue of national concern with great care and magnanimity. [Emphasis mine] 

[M]ost of the articles in the Constitution are being implemented

I happened to be attentive follower of ERI-TV in the year 2003, 04 and 05. I had this habit of directly going home from office; untypical trait of many asmarinos. My alternative to going home early was to stay in office and browse the internet.

When I happened to be at home, my eyes were on the TV screen, the 14-inched screen which I disliked. No blame goes to the Japanese or whosoever made the equipment. I just abhorred the programme – ERI-TV. Kids in my neighbourhood protested to their parents for a video stereo so that they could watch movies instead of ERI-TV. The kids were successful – they got the stereo. I had no option though, except few. John Grisham was one. Thanks to his books, he helped to distract me from the TV. League games were another. Friends who can keep me somewhere away from home were the third. But there was no plenty of them or plenty of me.

I should not deviate from justice here. ERI-TV had a few programmes that I liked and too many that I disliked. Without considering the copyright issue, the soccer matches, the movies and the sport news are the good ones that I can mention. Reports of the festivals of Diaspora Eritreans were one of the many programmes that I disliked. They were very abhorring to watch - Eritreans in a developed world dancing and chanting and saying something about the governance of the country – something they didn’t believe was true. Amazingly though, these were the programmes that I watched with intensity and anger.

Back in 2003 or so, I heard the name Sophia Tesfamariam for the first time. By then Sophia was asked on the phone to briefly describe the festival she was in. By then Sophia was not a big name in the profile of the Eritrean government. The journalist in Forto actually asked her to introduce herself after which she described the festival. Her description of the event was just excellent and in tune to what the TV station wanted. By then I was a sort of expert of these festival reports and I knew what kind of statement most pleases the government. Sophia did excel in this job. Indeed, she also added more remarks which in my observation had impressed the journalist in Forto. The journalist did not need to ask more questions. Sophia was more than a well guided witness; she did also impress me. I have never seen such an articulate interviewee before. She was more than a randomly selected interviewee and thus I suspected that she was somehow appointed for the job.

Sometime later, but not so later, Sophia was reporting on a festival somewhere in the States. This time, she was thus a Rapporteur. With minimum questions she gave the TV station wonderful coverage of the events with some bonus of exaggeration. This time, she was not asked to introduce herself. I think she was already identified as a ‘desirable’ person – a friend of the government – nationalistic. From these two events, I also came to know Sophia.

In the summer of 2004, I was in Sawa. It was time for the 18th round. But not only that! The university students, who were preparing for graduation, a week before their graduation day, were ordered to report to Sawa for supplementary training. Many families were already deep into preparations for the graduation day. But the event was sabotaged, pure and simple. By allowing the university students to stay for additional two weeks, the graduation day could have been celebrated. The around 1,500 graduates would have been happy. Thousands of friends and families could have been made happier. No body bothered about this. Indeed it was a deliberate move, calculated at disappointing the students of the university as they are within the ‘politically undesirables’. So much so that we were ordered to report to Sawa and we did but very angrily. The university and the high school students, and many other teachers were not happy.

Preparation for a big political event was underway in Sawa. It was the tenth anniversary of Sawa. Thus the National Union of Eritrean Youths and Students organised a festival. The hidden but yet apparent aim of the youth festival was to change the notoriety Sawa has acquired. The camp has left imprints in many Eritrean youths and their families. Its notoriety has also been spread to the Diaspora Eritreans that it became very important to pretentiously do something to change the perception of the camp: from a camp of atrocities to a ‘centre of youth enlightenment and entertainment’.

So it was important to have more people there. The members of the 17^th round were kept there to attend the festival. They had been in the camp for a year – certainly the longest year of their life. They were to ‘graduate’ during the high time of the festival in the presence of PIA who has never attended graduation of the University of Asmara located a kilometre away from his office. Members of the 18^th round were added to them. But there were not yet enough people. Thus the graduating class of the University and many teachers and others were also channelled to the camp. It was important to gather many people – very important indeed. It looks good for TV.

The graduation day sabotaged, the students of the university were taken to Sawa together with the unfortunate high school students. So there I was, in Sawa, three weeks before the festival. Everybody was busy trying to clear some mess in the camp, put some decorations, install new equipments and entertainments spots all designed to cheat guests that are expected to visit the camp from the Americas, Europe or any other place. Parents of the graduating trainees were also invited, though only a few appeared. As I learned after 40 days from the time I left to Sawa, Sophia was in Sawa as a visitor from the States. I owe readers an account of how disappointing it was to be there just to make things look good for visitors like Sophia. But I will leave this side for others.

Just a few weeks before I left to Sawa, I watched a programme on the 17^th round trainees and their experience in Sawa. It was a programme dominated by interviews with high calibre students. I happened to know many of them from previous inter-high school general knowledge contests. So they were the top students one can get from Asmara and its environs. They were of course joined by other high calibre students from regions.

All of them were invariably asked similar questions and all gave identical answers. You don’t need to be so smart to uncover the fact that these poor students were given packaged statements that they must pronounce in response to the questions they would be asked. So they did their job brilliantly. They are, after all, the best brains. Some were extra articulate. They all said something beautiful about Sawa and their one–year-long experience in the camp.

Nevertheless, you can’t blame the students for saying what they don’t believe in. There are at least two reasons that make it impossible for someone to tell the truth about Sawa. First, if one says the truth, he or she will simply end up there for good. And second, under any circumstance, TV viewers  are not expected to  get such unadulterated truth. No, not at all! Such statements do not make it to the air. Censorship!

Disappointed, I watched the youth say false statements about Sawa. One of the interviewees was a beautiful and outspoken lady who used more English words than Tigrinya. She left no body in doubt that she can indeed speak excellent English. Not good of her though! She was from Asmara so she got a name for that. The news of the fact that she and others were in TV soon went back to Sawa and the lady become ‘more’ known to every trainee. Pay attention to the word ‘more’ I have used in the sentence. There was additional fact about her. I will tell you about that after a while; kindly bear with me.

Let me add one more fact here! The interviewed students, who were compelled to beautify Sawa, they exposed some truth. Again you don’t need to be smart to get the ironies. All of them, they lamented that they had horrifying news about Sawa before they came. They got the news from previous trainees and others and they were so scared to the extent of entertaining ideas of remaining in their homes or fleeing the country. Then, the interviewees added that they found all the bad news about Sawa to be utterly false and the camp indeed was the best place to be in. After these remarks I just asked a question to myself : if that is the truth about Sawa, then how come all the previous trainees told bad news. Such news, in the form of letters from the trainees, has eventually reached Eritreans in western world.

The beautiful lady, the interviewee I mentioned above, was a suicide survivor in Sawa. Almost all the 17^th round trainees knew this as a fact. So when anyone asks them for their opinion about what the interviewees have said about Sawa, they were quick to mention the attempted suicide of one of the interviewees to show how false the statements were. It is very simple to solve the equation. The beautiful lady who said Sawa is marvellous did attempt to kill herself because she indeed hated life there. But when she appeared before the camera crew of ERI-TV, she could not tell the truth. And she was right! The 17^th round trainees actually had huge evidence.

I stayed in Sawa for 40 days, attended the colourful festival that the generous funds made appear good. I had enough observations there. After 40 days, I came back to Asmara. What was I, an amputated fellow, doing in Sawa after all! But there were other amputees there who have one leg! They went there to increase numbers and they stayed there for 40 days. This is PFDJ version of non-corrupt procedure. Amputated fellows have to go to Sawa and get examined there by the medical board of the camp’s hospital. As far as fitness for military training is concerned, why would one need to examine an amputee with one leg who cannot move without the support of crutches? And why would one need to keep him or her for 40 days? Why would he be required to line-up several times a day for attendance? Humanity is absent in Sawa.

Anyway, after 40 days I was declared ‘board’ as is commonly referred, and fled the camp at earnest. The way the ‘board’ guys fled the camp itself tells a story; but not for this time. After I came from Sawa, as usual, one evening I sat before the TV screen and there she was, Sophia Tesfamariam giving here testimony about Sawa. This time, not from the States but from Forto. As a visitor from America, she was on TV to share her testimonies on Sawa with a wide audience- an eye witness testimony. I was also in Sawa, as I told you, for 40 days. I don’t think Sophia stayed that long in Sawa. But there she was, in ERI-TV, testifying about Sawa – decribing the “true image of Sawa” and dismissing all previous dispositions as distorted pictures of the camp. She did the interview with all the trappings of a leading figure heading a parliamentary inquiry committee! Parliamentary inquiry committees are alien to PIA government. We can only have the kind of Sophia to tell us ‘black is white’.  

I was not disappointed at her. I knew that no one can say otherwise. Even if one is bold enough to speak his mind and tell the truth, then his words cannot reach the ERI-TV audience. They get discarded shortly after recording. I only blamed her for making herself available for manipulation.

Did Sophia act as a humble person of inquiry when she was in Sawa? Did she sneak out of her hotel room and try to meet either members of the 17^th or 18^th round? Did she interview these kids in private with the assurance that their remarks will not be communicated to the government? Did she meet the trainees and try to capture their feelings? Did she try to know how many of the 18th round trainees came with a plan and money to flee to the Sudan? Maybe or may not! Did she tell the truth when she returned to her second country –USA? Is she deliberately blind? Or is she just a machine – you give her black substance and she gives you white in return?  Please provide the answers for yourselves. Remember the ‘yes or no’ kind of questions you had in your early school time. Simple questions; they were my favourites. 

Sawa during Sophia’s visit was remarkable. As I said before, in an attempt to change the real image of the camp, the government has spent huge amount of money to make the camp beautiful. So barracks are there. Huge amount of money was also spent to make the festival colourful. But, did Sophia try to find out the amount of money spent in the camp? More importantly, did she enquire about the manpower (over 300,000 Eritrean youths) used in the camp from time to time? Did she make cost-benefit analysis? Did she include the human rights and freedoms factor in her analysis?

Sophia has now proved to be the key defender of the National Service and the government in Asmara for that matter. In her recent articles, she has claimed an insider’s account of the National Service. She claimed to have visited and toured many parts of Eritrea and has seen the development the National Service has brought to Eritrea. I don’t know how Sophia reacts to the figures of UNHCR indicating that more than 19,000 Eritrean youths have sought asylum in 2006 only. But she has seen schools, dams, clinics, roads! How many of them? What was the input? How about the personal life of the youths? It has been very long since they earned nothing? Sophia will tell us that their kids will ‘reap the fruits’ in the future. When? “You don’t have the right to ask”. With regard to the Warsai, the tone has changed now. They are sacrificed so that their descendants could live in ‘prosperous’ Eritrea. Relax people; our future is bright!  

The above text – me and Sophia’s pilgrimage to Sawa and Sophia’s demonstration of the camp- is aimed at illustrating how much weight one can give to her remarks. Allow me to add one more event about which I am very privy.

Since January 2006 I have been in Pretoria, the Republic of South Africa. For the whole year I was in very demanding academic tasks. In July I got some free time as I was in inter-semester break. One day in July, I was invited by a group of Eritrean youths to a launching occasion of a booklet called Bdho Antsar Atahasasbana and I welcomed the invitation. Had I been invited by the Eritrean Embassy to the usual dance floors (the yearly festivals) I would not have attended. I hated them when I was in Eritrea and I will never dance for the government unless I see development in Eritrea – yes the Supreme Court erected, the National Assembly constituted, small independent papers on the street, etc.

The group who invited me were the youth members of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights. I attended the occasion I was invited to; asked few questions on the spot, and took a copy of the booklet and get back to my home. There was a very simple Eritrean food served for lunch. I did eat. When I was leaving the venue I should have paid a little amount of money. Many of the attendants were paying – it was EMDHR’s trick of fundraising, I guess. I didn’t pay. I had no cash.

I read the booklet soon and admired the civility reflected in it. Well, to Sophia the booklet ‘neither promotes “human rights” nor “democracy”, it encourages anarchy and lawlessness’. I call every Eritrean to read the booklet and the ideals that Sophia said encourage anarchy and lawlessness. It is an important evidence to see the reasonableness of Sophia’s judgments.

I was out of South Africa from August to December. After I finished the academic demands, although I was subsequently engaged in some research works, I had spare time that I decided to spend to know EMDHR and if there is anything I can help with. Luckily I rented a house, at an alarming rate I must add, close to EMDHR’s office.

My education being law with specialization in human rights and democratization, I was naturally attracted to the activities of the organisation of Eritrean youths and students as my learned senior Eritrean colleagues who attended the same programme before me did. Thus I spent around six months in close contact with EMDHR.

More than four years after its establishment, EMDHR is quite different from many human rights NGOs I have come across. It is purely Eritrean in style and lacks all the trappings of human rights NGOs and centers. Simplicity is the first mark -operating from two poorly furnished rooms there is nothing fancy in there. The available five computers are severely disfigured as they have to be assembled and re-assembled and share hard-wares among them for better performance. Half of the few chairs are already in bad condition and I broke one. So I owe EMDHR compensation. I am going to ask for waiver. After all it was half broken cheap wooden chair. EMDHR is an Eritrea trait of trying to do something big with something small.

Far away from human rights NGOs wherein all kind of protocols govern, EMDHR looks like a typical Maetot camp where you can see Eritrean youths coming in and leaving. This was more so when I saw, in many occasions, members of the executive committee sleeping on the floor lying on top of two light blankets. Good for them, it was summer! As these guys work late in the evening, they sometimes chose to sleep on the floor of the office instead of going to their dormitories which I am told is the same as the facilities of the so called students summer work programme – maetot. No dress codes, no working hours, no formal communication procedures, etc. Why do you need all these rules when what you have is only highly dedicated group of youths working with no payment but for a purpose!

One of my advices to them was to remind them to learn NGO politics and fundraising skills. But they are not into NGO politics or show-offs. Another concern that I have about them is the fact that they are too passionate that they often forget their capacities. With no fund secured for the next year, they give no attention to fundraising.

Many of them have been detained by the day-to-day activities of EMDHR for more than three years. They are cognizant of their surrounding. Eritrean youths are fleeing Eritrea at an alarming rate. Many are landing in South Africa. Many soon engage in destitute activities to keep life going – put food on the table. Others spend their days planning on how to move from one country to another and eventually make their way to the Americas or Europe. Many are very sympathetic and fully supportive of what EMDHR is engaged in. They express this by popping up at the office at 8, 9 or 10 in the night. But, they admit, they cannot put national matters before dire self or family demands and they feel sorry about it.

The guys in EMDHR, members of the executive committee and the devoted volunteers, live in denial of self interests. They have put the objectives of EMDHR before their personal interests. So they are not swayed by those of us who profess human rights but are short of commitment to work for it; by those of us who desire to see the rule of law and constitutionalism prevailing in Eritrea but we hope someone else to do it for us. They are not swayed by those youths who see the end of the world in getting to the Americas and Europe.

When in early 2007 I visited the Office of EMDHR, it is this commitment that struck me most. They work seven days a week and there is no working-hours regulation. One who wants to indulge in bed a bit late in the morning would come at 10 am and spend the whole day working until 9 or 10 p.m. They get their lunch just one floor down from one Habesha cafeteria. Five injera for supposedly ten adults but who often are around twenty because visitors and friends are always around. Recently I am told that this ‘luxury’ is no longer available and they have started preparing food in the office by themselves. So food has never been enough to them and they are forced to prepare tea in their office. Members and other friends have to supply the sugar and the tea. I have supplied in two occasions – I am a donor for that matter.

Dormitory is worst but after all they all have experience of Sawa and the summer work programme. Thus they all are committed to the objectives of EMDHR and they are willing to live in less comfortable life where the summer work can be considered as luxury in comparison. What life is this of yours, I once asked one of them. ‘We have passed through hard time’ he responded. Indeed, they have passed through hard time when the unwarranted meddling of the Eritrean Ambassador was so high to the extent of causing few youths get deported to Eritrea in collusion with some South Africa authorities. But post-apartheid South Africa is different. There is the Constitution and there is the Constitutional Court and EMDHR has grown into a formidable lawyer.

But here we have Sophia saying that these guys are getting funds from American sources to destabilize Eritrea. Sophia’s formula seems to be that every one getting grants, fellowship and scholarship is funded to destabilize Eritrea. So the implicated people are too many. All Eritrean students getting grants and scholarships and who decline to return to their country which is rightly designated as an ‘open prison’, are implicated. So if you are the recipient of any grants/scholarships/fellowships, please be informed that according to Sophia, you are destabilizing Eritrea. This is Asmara Rose’s recent hypothesis.

Sophia has proved to be one of the few persistent cyber writers. If she is doing all these in pursuit of her convictions only to the exclusion of anything else, just like I did, regardless of the merits of her contribution, I just excuse here and even thank her for contribution. As to the merits of her contribution, she has a reputation and I know how those who know the reality in Eritrea will take Sophia’s remarks. This piece is aimed at giving distant observers an insight.

May I have an addendum please, just one more paragraph? Thank you! I just wanted to highlight one point. Sophia has insulted quite many people and institutions in her articles. Not unusual of her to insult but really unusual to name such a big number. Could this be a plot from her side to drug all the insulted ones to her own playing ground - yes, a plot to distract many of us from doing what we have been doing? Well, if that is her trick, then bingo Sophia. I am provoked to write this and spent just few hours before my machine.

Let’s all stay in peace.

Simone can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it