Why Do We Need A Government In Exile? Rationale:

Because (a) the Government-in-Power has lost the legitimacy to govern on legal, political and socio-economic grounds and (b) the conventional opposition approach does not rise to the state of emergency #Eritrea is facing.

Thread.
(2) In 1992, #Eritrean Peoples’ Liberation Front (EPLF) issued a Proclamation 23/1992 that
defined the Structure, Power, and Function of the Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE).
(3) The Proclamation unequivocally stated that TGE shall govern “until the #Eritrean people
decides its rights to self-determination through a plebiscite and until a constitutional
government is established." The mandate lasted until the successful conduct of the 1993 referendum.
(4) On the eve of the referendum, Proclamation 23/1992 was amended into Proclamation 37/1993 by which the PGE transformed itself into a Transitional Government of Eritrea (TGE). According to the Proclamation TGE shall govern until the ratification of the constitution in May 1997.
(5) The Constitution was ratified in May 1997. However, taking advantage of a loophole in the ratified constitution regarding the date of implementation, the regime governed without legal mandate between May 1997 and May 1998.
(6) The “border war” with #Ethiopia provided the Government-in-Power with an opportunity to continue its rule between May 1998 and December 2000 under an undeclared State of Emergency.
(7) By 2002, the National Assembly had become defunct, and the Government-in-Power continued to rule without legal mandate under the so-called “No War No Peace” environment, in defiance of the ratified constitution's letter and spirit.
(8) With the signing of the "Peace & Friendship Agreement" with #Ethiopia in 2018, and, with it, the end of all the pretexts used by the regime for twenty long years, the One-Man rule in #Eritrea continues to-date without any legal ground to stand on. Illegal and illegitimate.
(9) The above facts proving the regime’s illegality are against all traditions and values of the #Eritrean people who built complex systems of jurisprudence that governed and guided their public and private lives over the centuries.
(10) It is also against the very values and principles as
well as objectives which EPLF spelled out more specifically in its 2nd (1987) and 3rd National Congresses (April 1994).
(11) These two documents are basic social contracts that #EPLF and later People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (#PFDJ) presented #Eritrea|ns who believed in its revolutionary legitimacy to govern.
(12) In fact, because #PFDJ has failed to have a follow-up organizational congress since 1994, it has reduced itself to a phantom political organisation with hollow and defunct policy-making and operational structures. It is not more than an instrument of one man’s whims.
(13) From the outset, the expectation of the #Eritrean people was that the independence of #Eritrea would open a new era of reconciliation and national harmony based on inclusiveness and tolerance.
(14) #EPLF was not expected to institute itself as a govt in 1991 to the exclusion of other national political groups. This “winner takes all” attitude that, once indulged, has extended for 30 years, was unimaginable for the #Eritrean people who paid life & limb for independence.
(15) The illegal One-Man’s monopolization of power led to an absence of the rule of law and political space in #Eritrea. The regime’s rule became a synonym to a culture of impunity and fear.
(16) This is attested to by several independent reports, including the 2015-16 UN Commission of Inquiry (@UNHumanRights ), @amnesty, @hrw etc. In 2020, with respect to press freedom, Eritrea ranked 178 out of 180 countries...
(17) Regarding corruption and transparency, #Eritrea is ranked 193 out of 198 countries; on governance, Eritrea comes out 52nd out of 54 #Africa[n countries surpassing only #South Sudan and #Somalia.
(18) To counteract the above facts, the regime doesn’t tire of mentioning legislative steps that it claims to have undertaken. It often mentions Proclamation 86/1996 that established the Local Government Structure of Eritrea [an amended version of Proclamation 26/1992]...
(19)... in response to its poor performance governance and participation of people in political processes. But the practice is that leadership is imposed on communities through cronyism; citizens’ rights are violated at random without justice and due process.
(20) Representatives of the regime also mention the Civil and Criminal Codes and Procedures of 2015 when they counter-argue against the widespread impunity and human rights abuses they practice. Despite the admirable contents of these two pieces of legislation...
(21)... the Government-in-Power has never had and does not have any intention to implement them as they were written in response to @UN criticism and its Universal Periodic Review (UPR.) In short, they were designed solely for external consumption and 6 years later, never used.
(22) Moreover, in violation of the National Service Proclamation 5/1995, the regime continues to condemn #Eritrea[n youth to indefinite military service with no chance of building their own livelihood. This violates international laws against modern slavery and human trafficking.
(23) To make matters worse, under the guise of “peace consolidation” following the signing of the “Peace and Friendship” Agreement w #Ethiopia, the regime involved itself militarily in the #Ethiopian internal conflict risking the lives of tens of thousands of Eritrean lives.
(24) With this military adventure, the regime has moved to pull the country into #Ethiopia’s orbit of confederation without popular consent, which was the trigger for #Eritrea’s armed struggle for which tens of thousands of lives were paid.
(25) The regime claims to pursue a progressive socio economic policy based on “self-reliance” principles & to have attained significant achievements in that respect. However, due to the regime’s deep-rooted culture of secrecy, no data is available validate its self-serving claim.
(26) Nonetheless, whatever the data may or may not say, the day-to-day life of ordinary #Eritrea[ns cannot lie. In fact, the coupon economy introduced by the regime over the years has reduced the majority of the #Eritreans to rely entirely on hand-outs.
(27) Malnutrition is rampant not only among children and elderly, but also the young people, most of whom are in military service. Poverty is rampant. In fact, without remittance from abroad, most #Eritrea|n families would suffer from hunger and starvation.
(28) The situation exacerbated itself and became chronic during prolonged and extreme COVID lockdown period (April 2020 – March 2021) imposed by the government. [Now followed by being the only #African country with no #COVAX plan!]
(29) To make indicative suggestion on #Eritrea|s economy, it suffices to refer to a few data points. @UNDPAfrica Human Development (2020) report states that “Eritrea’s 2019 HDI of 0.459 is below the average of 0.513 for countries in the low human development group...
(30)".... and below the average of 0.547 for countries in Sub-Saharan #Africa” and #Eritrea is ranked 180 of 189 countries in Human Development Index.
(31) In the last thirty years of independence, the marginal progress scored in GNI and life-expectancy at birth, the years of schooling of children and youth is far lower from what the regime claims [3.8 years in 1991, only 5.0 years in 2019] as compared to #Ethiopia
(31) [2.5 years in 1995, 8.8 years in 2019], #Africa Development Bank Group (2021) asserts that “[p]overty remains pervasive, as the working poor (with incomes below $3.10 a day at purchasing power parity) are estimated to account for 75.2% of total employment”
(32) It should be noted that most of the working poor are those who work in underpaid jobs under the national service. The perpetual military mobilisation centred around national military service and endemic
impunity...
(33) ...and lack of personal safety and security drove hundreds of thousands of #Eritreans to leave their country in search of safety. In its recent (2019) report, UNHCR stated that approximately 6000 #Eritreans per month leave #Eritrea seeking protection;
(34) Moreover, 15.4% of the refugees are said to be unaccompanied minors. This exodus, added to decades-long displacement of #Eritreans during the thirty years war of independence, has inflicted deep wounds into the #Eritrea|n social fabric that is based on the family unit.
(35) While the societal disfranchisement is borne by young people in general, women and children are hit the hardest. Inside the country, due to the prolonged absence of the traditional (male) breadwinner due to indefinite military service or migration,...
(36) ...women take up the responsibility to look after the children and elderly without adequate financial means. If they are not drawn to military service where they face harsh treatment, even sexual abuse, young women are forced into marriage to escape national service.
(37) Mostly, the marriage is with elderly men from Diaspora who have better financial means; a relationship marred by serious power imbalance and inequality in which the young women suffer greatly. Another alternative for young women is to leave the country in search of safety.
(38) During the journey, like their male compatriots, many young women fall victims of different and repeated abuses, including sexual nature, which burden them with serious psychological trauma for the rest of their lives.
(39) In its National Charter, #PFDJ resolved to “build an economic system which satisfies the desires of the majority & improves their living conditions, ensures equitable development, operates through a market economy, encourages private investment, initiative and competition..
(40) ...and guarantees balanced economic growth.” The reality is far from this aspiration. #PFDJ has entrenched a coupon economy by decimating private enterprises and exiling the productive sector, rendering people to perpetual poverty and malnutrition.
(41) In fact, due to its misguided policy, lack of reform and innovation coupled with shortage of labour force (most able young people are drafted to never-ending military service), productive sectors, including agriculture, are in protracted paralysis.
(42) Subsistence agriculture, which is the livelihood of more than 80% of the population, remains untransformed in the thirty-year of independence and is, hence, highly vulnerable. IFAD, for instance, states that “about 65 per cent of Eritrea’s rural population is poor,...
(43)...and 37 per cent faces high food insecurity. In good rainfall years, the country is only 60 percent food-secure, and this figure falls to 25 per cent when rainfall is low.”
(44) #PFDJ has reneged on its promises of narrowing the historical lingering socio-economic inequality long rural-urban and ethnolinguistic divides. The public good and services, as poor as it is, is allocated in inequitable and decremental manner.
(45) The Opposition, which is forced to exile due to absence of political space in #Eritrea, has launched resistance over the last twenty to thirty years. However, it has not been able to mount a sustained and effective campaign to dislodge the regime from power.
(46) The main reason is its inability to form a united and coordinated action under unified leadership. Instead of consolidating itself by building on existing institutions, it has rather chosen to re-create newer and more fragmented political groups serving niche
constituencies.
(47) The fragmentation has empowered fringe groups with dangerous political platforms who question the very idea of #Eritrea|n statehood and harmonious existence to carve out space, and then to dominate, #Eritrean political discourse.
(48) Therefore, as much as it has been sporadically discussed in the #Eritrean public domain over the years, the initiative of establishing GiE is indeed a bold one that is aimed accelerating the struggle for democracy in #Eritrea.
(49) NTT has seriously considered & drew lessons from the successes & challenges of the quest for unity. It is based on critical analysis & deep understanding of the #Eritrean people and their past and present struggle for democracy, and the trajectory the struggle MUST take...
(50) The primacy of here and now: rescuing #Eritrea|n people from the protracted oppression, indignity... firm belief that peoples’ rights, dignity & preservation of national identity are inseparably intertwined with a homeland, independence, sovereignty & territorial integrity.
(51) Expected Outcome: the establishment of a competent Eritrean government in exile (GiE) that enjoys wide popular support, capable to effectively represent #Eritrean national interests and spearhead the political change in #Eritrea.

Join us.
(51) For the long form of the Concept Note of the National Task Team (NTT) in English, Tigrinya and Arabic, please visit

EritreaDigest.com

To state the obvious, NTT is NOT the government, but volunteers who have taken the initiative to facilitate it.

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