It has been reasonably a while since I became suspicious that Sophia is a cadre and a paid-writer of the ruling party in Eritrea (the PFDJ). However, I decided to fight back my instincts and give her the benefit of the doubt to exercise her freedom to write. As the time elapsed and as she continued to write more and more articles, I begun to believe my instincts and inclined to sense the danger of her insincere and far from reality articles. Although the PFDJ has trained a bunch of her likeness, Sophia’s naked lies and calculated manipulations of the truth are indeed peculiar yet typical of her style. Over the years, she has become a championed con artist and an efficient lie-machine fabricating unsubstantiated fairy tales.

After reading her latest two articles published in the twin PFDJ websites, I couldn’t silence myself anymore but to address some of her gross misconceptions. In fact, I was not sure which of her lies to address and which of them to ignore. I was not sure if I was going to be running against the wind and simply wasting my precious time. However, I reinforced myself and decided to randomly sample few of the clusters of lies and respond not to negotiate with her but for the benefit of those who otherwise might be confused of her chameleonic writings. 

I am simply going to ignore the second of her two malicious articles, “Bereket Habte Selassie Head of Eritrea’s-Quisling League”, as Dr Bereket Habte Selassie is a distinguished professor and know to us all for his extreme contributions to humanity and justice. In her first article entitled “US-Eritrea Relations: Soured by Design” Sophia described the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Dr Jendayi Frazier as “incompetent”. I don’t really understand how Sophia, in her own capacity, managed to do a competency test. But she appears to deliberately neglect the fact that Dr Frazier is a graduate of the prestigious Stanford University with extensive background in African affairs. Mrs. Tesfamariam extended her slam of words to the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Mr. James Swan, for not checking “his facts”. This is really where our famous Tigrinya proverb ‘habal beliya keitikidimeki’ appropriately fits.  

Shamelessly, Sophia nominates herself to “educate” Mr. Swan about Eritrea, its people, its socio-economic and political addendum and about his own country’s policy. What an educator! How much of the fact does she know about Eritrea and the day-to-day harsh life of its ordinary citizens? What is she prepared to teach about the socio-economic status of Eritrea? The fact that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country is awfully low and the life of the common citizens living in Eritrea is shunting down from bad to worse? Would she have provided self-explanatory well-researched articles by independent organizations such as the UNHCR, UNDP and the WHO during her lessons? Or would she have requested an unfounded copy from her compatriots of the regime in Asmara in order to convince Mr. Swan or anyone else willing to learn the reality for that matter? It is very likely that she wouldn’t go with the first option as their researches would clash with her naked lies.  

I am not sure what she might have in her lesson plan regarding the political situation in the present Eritrea that she wanted to teach about. But, I wonder if she, by any sheer chance, would talk about the absence of any other political party except the PFDJ. I doubt if she would ever have taught about the fact that there has never been any election in Eritrea for the past 16 years. Would she have had the gut to say that Eritrea is a country ruled without Constitution or any form of governance? Would she have uttered that Eritrea has been repeatedly listed as ‘a country of concern’ and the regime as ‘one of the most repressive systems of our time’? Would she have remembered the unwarranted incarceration of the G-15 who were masterminds in the struggle for independence? Would she have talked about every arrested innocent Eritrean for that matter? Would she have mentioned something about the way forward that the members of the G-13 proposed? Or would she have deliberately suppressed all these archived facts and looked for hallucinated substitutes?  

Trying to argue how well Eritrea is doing infrastructurally, Sophia listed the building of airports, renovation of ports, construction of hospitals and clinics. Unfortunately, she skips the fundamental question: Who is building all this? Do they get a fair salary or any form of deserving compensation to do the job? In her mind, this question is ‘out-of-question’ as she lives in the U.S. and probably has no one in Eritrea suffering from the unpaid slavery life of the military that is unjustly making them sweat from dusk-to-down to build the infrastructures that she boosted about.  

Sophia continued to write “The most fantastic rides are the Massawa-Assab road and the road through the Northern Red Sea Zone” how naïve can one be not to realize the semi-arid nature of the Northern and Southern Red Sea regions. Let alone carrying heavy stones and digging hundreds of kilometers to build a road in the Massawa-Assab area, it is very scorching and dehydrating to even simply walk in this area. I can say that I am fortunate enough to have been writing after experiencing the unfriendly weather of the region and the mere challenge of surviving in the area. But Sophia seemed to ignore the unpaid manpower that is going through all the challenges and she appeared to tyrannically concentrate on the “fantastic rides” that she enjoyed. It is like ‘Zei Kurumtika Hutsa Kortmellu’. 

Not only Sophia argued to be an expert in analyzing the building progress on behalf of the Ministry of Construction but also she extended her seductive lessons to the health, soil science and education sectors. Funny enough, she claimed that the different educational institutions established in the country are “operating under Asmara University”. This is an absolute lie! To begin with, as many of us know, the University [of Asmara] doesn’t even exist. In addition to being a country without Constitution, Eritrea is probably the only country without a single university. Up until its closure, Asmara University graduates have been among the most merited students in many of the hosting graduate universities across the world. However, thanks to the wicked system in power, I often get troubled to note that the name and the record of Asmara University students may not be maintained due to the sharp decline in the quality of education in Eritrea. After all, it might be hard to convince any graduate school to accept one for a higher education after earning a degree from the colleges that Sophia mentioned for argument sake. It is very likely that these institutes are far away from meeting the stringent international standards as they are directed by military commanders rather than scholars and professors. Therefore the credibility and international recognition of these colleges remain to be seen. 

Regarding the whereabouts of the members of the G-15, Sophia blatantly wrote “They are in Eritrea, amongst the magnanimous Eritrean people…” [Emphasis is mine]. So, if they are “amongst” the Eritrean people then how come the Eritrean people don’t know their whereabouts?  

Surely they are not tiny beads, they are giant Eritreans! She is indeed a very controversial personality with the deliberate attitude of being obstinate. Her failed arguments don’t stop here. In her very own words regarding the implementation of Constitution she wrote “… most of the articles in the Constitution are being implemented” [Emphasis is mine]. I don’t really understand this! 

Which articles of our Constitution is Sophia possibly talking about? Have any of the articles that allow the freedom of Worship, Speech, Press, the duration of national service, the right to be brought to the court of law in due time and the right to have legal representation or the commencement of national election been implemented? For God’s sake, I hope her answer is ‘not really’. Then, if these fundamental articles in the Constitution are rejected by the PFDJ regime then why is Sophia trying to deceive herself and probably few more? 

Addressing the integrity of Paulos Tesfagiorgis, Mesfin Hagos and former ambassadors Haile Menkorios, Hibret Berhe and Adhanom Ghebremariam, Sophia wrote “while the Eritrean Diaspora overwhelmingly rejected Paulos and his coterie…”. Here she appeared to have conducted a survey about the credibility of these Eritreans. As an Eritrean living in the Diaspora, I didn’t have my vote Sophia. So I would like to use this opportunity to comment about these patriotic Eritreans that she described “mercenary individuals”. She repulsively appeared to strip-off their identity as Eritrean citizens and coined them “individuals” My foot Sophia! How dare are you to call them “mercenary” while the fact is that they are tirelessly working for the dignity and prosperity of Eritrea until their natural hair color turned gray! How dare are you to try to appear more patriotic and more Eritrean than those who gave almost everything to their country Eritrea. How cheap of you to undermine their long and valuable contributions to the well-being of Eritrea and its citizens. Didn’t those Eritreans represent the country at various levels with maximum dedication for years? In my opinion, you didn’t assume a fraction of their responsibilities and any of the authenticity of representations and advocacy that they are playing for the benefit of a democratic Eritrea that is about to be revealed. Of course, as any conscious and legitimate Eritrean should do, they chose to disassociate themselves from the vicious regime in Eritrea who is committing grave crimes against humanity.

Yes, for someone who genuinely believes in Human Rights and Democracy, it is natural to despise a system like the PFDJ that is neither accountable nor transparent.   

As a member of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR), I could not even swallow Sophia’s filth comments about the Movement. She claimed to have read a copy of the manual “Challenging our perception” and described it as something that promotes “anarchy and lawlessness”. Here I must emphasize that either she lacked concentration when reading the manual or she didn’t really get the objectives and strategies of a non-violent struggle. I hope she will learn the spirit and power of non-violent struggle from the history of African-Americans, Indians and South Africans. 

In her helpless jump from accusation-to-accusation, she blamed Dan Connell for being the mastermind behind the EMDHR’s struggle for democracy and human rights. Although Dan Connell, as an expert in East African affairs with keen interest in Eritrea, has an extensive knowledge and experience about the nature of the current regime in Eritrea, the members and supporters of the EMDHR are not blinded not to visualize the need for a sustainable mode of struggle in order to ensure the respect of human rights in a democratic Eritrea which is sadly missing under the repressive rule of the PFDJ. However, I am not surprised that Sophia is disturbed of the existence and the potential impact of the EMDHR in facilitating the empowerment and transformation of our society towards a better future. As an active member of the falling system, she should be concerned about our existence and struggle for justice. Because that is exactly what we are doing; fighting an unjust system in order to enjoy a free and democratic Eritrea. 

Finally, I would like to commend some writers and the Voice of Meselna Delina (November 07, 2007 broadcast) for mowing a portion of Sophia’s unfounded belligerences soberly with the candid intention of revealing the truth in her own face! 

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