Let me focus on the later event and the aggressive reaction it triggered among the Eritrean people especially those living abroad.  I must admit that I have never seen, in a long time, such a united and fierce response by the diaspora community in condemning the unwarranted actions of the Egyptian government and in alerting the international community of the imminent fate of the Eritreans if deported and submitted to the hands of the ruthless government. It was a novel action that exposed two violators of humanity and a reason for us all to search our souls.

I was delighted to see the passion and commitment that many Eritreans have shown in lending hands to their languishing fellow citizens to help them secure the respect and human dignity that they deserve. I was very pleased to see that our anchor of unity is still viable.  Yet, I could not stop challenging myself with several questions including ‘Where was all this potential’? ‘Why were we rapidly and amazingly united and quickly organized against the lawlessness of a foreign government but puzzlingly failed to challenge our own government literally for years’? Is this spirit of unity going to die away once the Egyptian government’s action is slammed down’? Or is it going to persist up until a democratic Eritrea is revealed? ‘What should be done to direct this potential to the road to everlasting peace and democracy in our nation’?  

Historically, we Eritreans have been consistently united in fighting injustices practiced by any foreign government invading our land and our freedom. We have done it against successive invaders until we secured a free land. However, the freedom of the land was not tied up to the freedom of its important asset, the people. We have been fooled or silenced under various pretexts including national security, building a nation and now we are learning a new lesson, ‘avoiding fake elections’. Needless to say, we have been very passive in either dissociating ourselves from the government or exposing the actions of the regime to the international community. We kept our wounds for so long that medications could not heal them as they should have been in the first place. We, perhaps in good faith, incubated some of the mistakes and allowed them proliferate synergistically up until they suffocated us. We bled terribly bad that we needed transfusion of units of blood that could flow to the brain and activate our cognition to help us visualize the repression and illegitimate fallacy repeatedly practiced by the Eritrean government against us all.

For so many years, we erroneously believed that the government would fix our fractures and direct us towards the establishment and sustenance of a democratic Eritrea that respect the rights of its ordinary citizens. This was an unseconded failure in our own eyes. Yet, we hoped for a revival that would compensate us in real time, a revival that projects a democratic and peaceful Eritrea that respects all God given freedoms of humanity. Yet, it didn’t emerge year-after-year. We didn’t want to believe that something was going seriously wrong. We kept on hiding our fears and tried to cover up the failures of the government so consistently. We either relentlessly defended the drawbacks of the government or simply kept so quite that the world community would only guess as to what was happening to us. We let the human rights violation taste so bitter that every conscious Eritrean would decide to simply leave the country to unknown destination. As a result, our people are exiled to many countries and subjected to so many hurdles that are literally unbearable. Yet, many of us appeared decisively quiet not to woe against the cause of this distress in a united voice that is audible enough by ourselves, our people and the world community at large. In the midst of this is then what happened to the Eritrean asylum seekers in Egypt. They were stripped their human dignity by a foreign government who imitated the government in Asmara. They were neglected the rights that they were promised by the International Laws. They were denied every access to be heard. This is very much like kidnapping the voiceless and defenseless citizens!

We, the Eritrean diaspora, decided not to be quiet anymore and instead be the voice and the reason for these fellows to re-live their lives. We activated ourselves and strikingly united in no time to defend our compatriots and utter their cries to the World community. We petitioned, thanks to EMDHR and Asmarino for creating the platform, we wrote personal letters of concern, we compassionately demonstrated in the streets of Washington, DC. It was a march of excellence where we saw rapid rejoinder from the International community. It was a reminder that the power of symmetry, the power of responsibility, the power of liberated mind, the power of civility, the power of non-violence, the power of united people can do miracles if exercised persistently. This is what it takes to be an activist for your own rights, your own people, your own land; this is what it takes to be an ambassador of justice. This is what it takes to roll away the stone of captivity! 

We now have witnessed this amazing courage within us, we have testified the great unity among us all, and we now have to foster this seed of hope! Hope for ourselves! Hope for our country! Hope for our future!