NHARNET ARTICLES / OPINIONS
EDITORIALS:
ERITREAN STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA
The difficult period that we have been through because of the recent developments in our movement clearly attests one single and solid fact. It witnesses the degree of commitment that all Eritreans are showing for bringing democracy and setting our country on the path of sustainable development.
The measure that was taken by the Presiding Committee on the 13th of March 2004 has triggered heated discussion among all concerned Eritreans in every part of the world. Even though this brief period of pain to all concerned Eritreans appeared to have given joy to the dictatorial regime and its machinations, it has given us the chance to gauge the degree of commitment and expectation of our people to see a prosperous, democratic, and sovereign Eritrea.
To our information, the five ex-members of our movement are currently in Ethiopia. Our movement believes in a peaceful coexistence of our country with all its neighbors, including Ethiopia. Even though the actions of these individuals is understandable on security grounds, the Presiding Committee decided to terminate their membership on the bases of the following critical issues:
The committee believes that it should have been advised by five of them about their plan and should have been given enough time to conduct the required analysis about the impact of their action on the future of our movement. As long as the movement was not consulted about the measures taken and as long as the movement does not have a say in their plan, the action taken by our ex-members remains personal.
The committee has the strong conviction that broad participation of Eritrean people is extremely important to shorten the life of the dictatorial regime in Eritrea. Hence involving ourselves in a very thorny issue would not be supportive of our objective of mobilizing our people to bring the desired democracy and prosperity. We are confident that it would only divide our people and hinder us from attaining our main objectives.
Furthermore, the committee saw it to be unnecessary to involve the movement with the above grand objectives in the type of political game prevailing particularly in East Africa.
We are hopeful that the above-mentioned reasons would sufficiently clarify our strong stance on the decision taken on March 13, 2004.
We would also like to seize this opportunity to thank all concerned Eritreans in Diaspora and all Eritrean students and residents in South Africa for giving us the moral and logistical support to get through this challenging period.
Peace, Democracy and Prosperity to our kind and hospitable people.
Eritrean Students and Residents in South Africa
Tuesday 24th of March 2004
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