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A
WARNING TO GOLD miners IN ERITREA
A Richer Dictator, a
Richer Isaias
Will be More Ruinous to
Eritrea
And Neighbours Than Now!
(This article is part of the
upcoming issue No. 99 of The Eritrean Newsletter, the
English-Language organ of the Eritrean Liberation Front – Revolutionary
Council - ELF-RC).
Eritreans, their neighbours and
the world at large know pretty well that the Eritrean dictator, Isaias
Afwerki, has been the cause of endless hostilities, hardship and
suffering to the Eritrean people as well as being a factor of conflict
and instability in the Horn of Africa region ever since he assumed state
power. Eritreans were pauperized by long-stretched alien misrule and the
prolonged 30-year liberation war. But the worst political, economic and
social catastrophes befell our small nation in the past 16 years of
dictatorial rule by their home-grown autocrat.
Petty dictator Isaias, who
ironically belittles everything and everybody including his people, his
erstwhile comrades in arms, African and world leaders and organizations,
has squandered the puny resources of his people on projects of sheer
madness: war projects that spanned to central Africa, the Sudan,
Ethiopia and Somalia. He establishes cover fronts to fight assumed
enemies in the region and afar. The only moneyed body in Eritrea is a
narrow clique around the dictator, carrying the wrong name of “People’s
Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)” and everything it squeezes out
of the poverty-stricken nation are spend on the conscripted army, which
is the largest in the world, in proportion to Eritrea’s size. And no
wonder that Eritrea is rated number one in the world in spending the
highest portion of its resources.
Imagine what will happen when
dictator Isaias acquires more money spend. In what kind of projects
would you imagine he will spend it?
Let us think of what other
dictators did or still do? Take the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraq was rich, but the people were poor compared to the riches of their
nation. Saddam was spending about two-thirds of the estimated annual
income of $16 billion from oil on purchase of arms and most of the rest
in feeding the army and the small clique in the ruling party. Now there
are fears that dictator Isaias may get richer.
Reports of Gold Rush in Eritrea!
Also Silver, Copper and Zinc Rushes!
During the past 10 months, Reuters
and other news agencies have come with reports indicating that some of
the half a dozen mines exploring companies in Eritrea - on top of them
the Canadian Nevsun, Sunfridge and the Australian Sub-Saharan - are
discovering huge deposits of gold, copper, silver, zinc and other base
metals in every corner of Eritrea. Satellite surveys are confirming the
miracle of precious and base metals found near the surface. (But Isaias
and clique want to play it down lest the Eritrean people know what is
taking place and act on time against the regime to which they definitely
don’t want to entrust the nation’s resources.)
Sub-Saharan Resources of
Australia: The
latest such report was made early in June 2007 by the Australian mining
company by the name of Sub-Saharan Resources which revealed that one of
its drilling tests at Zara (Maria in Keren province) has struck 760,000
ounces of high grade gold and that mining will start within a couple of
years at the latest.
Nevsun Resources Ltd of
Canada: This
major gold mining firm has reported a few months ago that a major ‘Gold,
Rush, Silver Rush, Copper Rush, Zinc Rush’ is already happening in
Eritrea and that they will start full-fledged mining by 2008 – about a
year from now! One of the tested drills is at Bisha. The Nevsun chief
executive officer, John Clark, said not long ago: “What we have at
Bisha, Eritrea, is basically gold deposit sitting on top of a copper
deposit, sitting on top of a zinc deposit…I believe that what we have
between us and the other explorers in that country, we have only just
started to scratching the surface… There are a lot more Bishas to
discover…” This mine alone is estimated to produce 2 million ounces of
gold in two years plus 280,000 tons of 30% copper concentrates.
Sunfridge of Canada: This company
also reported some 10 months back that its Asmara Project that it
acquired from the Sub-Saharan firm, is promising indeed. Sunfridge said
it so far spent over some $10 million in explorations and discovering
precious and base metals in the following sites of the Asmara Project:
a)
Embaderho drills: for deposits of zinc, copper and gold in that
order.
b)
Debarwa drills: deposits of copper, gold and zinc.
c)
Adi Nifas drills: deposits of zinc, gold and copper.
d)
Gup drills: deposits of gold
e)
Additional targets of the company: Kodadu, Adi Musa and Adi
Raesi.
ETC….
Imagine, a rich Isaias in a year
or two! It is shocking. Is an open secret by now that Eritreans want to
exploit and benefit from the huge yet exploited resources and wealth of
the country which include the following?
-
The human resources of its
hard working people who could create miracles in the land if freed from
oppression and control of autocrats.
-
The agricultural land
resources still not exploited for the benefit of the vast majority of
Eritreans.
-
Commerce and trade with
their immediate neighbours which include the 80 million Ethiopians and
40 million Sudanese.
-
Tapping the huge sea
resources that would suffice to make Eritrea and Eritreans the riches in
the region.
-
Exploiting by a responsible
people’s government the mineral wealth of Eritrea that was known to
exist since the days of the Italians (e.g. Augaro mines of the early 20th
century in Gash-Barka).
A Warning to Dictator Isaias and
the mining companies:
Eritreans have always welcomed
exploration works to discover the water resources and mineral resources
of the country. But when it comes to exploiting those resources and
using them, only a people’s government that respects the sovereignty of
the Eritrean people will be allowed to exploit those resources. In the
1970s, when a Japanese firm was preparing for actual mining of copper
in the neighbourhoud of Debarwa in central Eritrea, the Eritrean
Liberation Front (ELF) took action and stopped it. Not because, the
liberation movement did not want that resource up but it knew it will
not be used to the welfare and the best interest of the Eritrean people.
The same will happen today. Once
the Eritrean people discover that gold is coming out of exploration and
test drills of Nevsun, Sub-Saharan, Sunfridge and other companies, they
will simply stop them. Not because they don’t want that wealth for their
nation, but they want to ensure that the exploitation of their huge
resources is done under a government of their choice, a government that
does not misuse resources of the nation on conflicts of its own making.
This is a simple warning to the
companies currently exploring for mineral wealth in Eritrea. Once they
discovered the underground wealth of the nation, Nevsun and ilk are
reminded to ask, not Isaias, but the Eritrean people if they can go
ahead mining the precious and base metals in Eritrea’s big belly.
If not, we know what will
happen. Isaias already knows it. Nevsun and others also better know.
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