Thread by @saayEritrea

When you combine these two:

1. A government which disowns its people the minute they show any sign of independence.

2. An opposition that is not able to prove itself as viable entity with organizational discipline.

You get an embittered, misled, disenfranchised youth.

This is what has happened to #Eritrea|ns: youth were, via perpetual war and indefinite conscription, forced labor and economic paralysis, losing agency over their own life, forced to leave their county: 608,000 by 2019:

nytimes.com/2020/01/08/wor…

For a brief period (2015-16) when the #PFDJ hierarchy was terrified of being indicted for crimes against humanity, it promised it would limit national conscription, but once that danger was lifted, it went back to its predatory practices

As a result, even after the sanctions were lifted and relations with #Ethiopia were normalized, it used yet another pretext (stabilizing #Ethiopia) to continue its Iron Fist rule: no relaxation on travel or conscription. No concession.

And the youth kept flocking out, long after the so-called “Peace & Friendship Agreement” was signed between #Eritrea and #Ethiopia. Youth, underage, families, elderly: an emptying of the land:

peaceagreements.org/view/2097/Join…

And the by-now over 700,000 #Eritrea|ns who flocked out, all had dreadful stories of migration because when you don’t have exit or entry visas you are at the mercy of smugglers and traffickers. This is the same way those who left Eritrea left during armed struggle, but….

The suffering of the current generation of Eritreans is arguably of higher magnitude: many endured violence, including sexual violence, intimidation, organ harvesting, air raids, leaky boats….and their trauma is immense

When they finally “made it” in exile, they found a barely-alive opposition, and the people they escaped from, #PFDJ, kept stretching their tentacles on them:

Almost all found a way to survive. For some that meant reinventing themselves anew in exile; for some it meant making their peace with their tormentors. I have no problem with my government: I just came here to better myself. For others, that was a bit too much to take

And so was the State of Things… and elements of the opposition got weaker, and some stronger. And there is no question that as the war in #Ethiopia exploded, a reactionary force in search of lost Ethiopian glories was the ascendant #Eritrea|n opposition faction

And as one opposition organization after another, one leader after another claimed it was negotiating, discussing #Eritrea with #TPLF, and as the legacy opposition grew more silent and its activities drowned by new media, the radicalization intensified

First it was in words: “#Eritrea is an artificial country. I am a Tigraway Eritrean. The Eritrean army is made up of barbarians who committed genocide. Invasion of Eritrea is justified…” The Eritrean social media became a war zone with #PFDJ and NeoOppo hurling cruel words.

Some people claim that I blame #PFDJ even for things it didn’t do. But the person with the loudest megaphone is Isaias Afwerki and he has set the tone of political discourse, vile as it is, for the country….

And because many studies have shown that in authoritarian states where power is centralized in one man, many assume the path to success is to mimic the leader, the entire #PFDJ hierarchy is greased by ability to insult, mock, ridicule, marginalize, dismiss the other.

So now we are at point where a group of young people are being led by highly irresponsible agitators. It’s one thing when a riot is an unexpected outcome of demonstration (it happens everywhere); quite another when it is pursued as a strategy.

This is one of those few times I wish I were a lawyer. I would tell the youth in a language they understand what the laws of their host countries are, particularly as they apply to asylum-seekers. Many #Eritrea|ns are in deportation prisons because they didn’t know the law.

This is one of those times I wish I had any influence with the legacy opposition to remind them when the center vacates its responsibilities, the vacuum will almost certainly be occupied by the radicals

This is not one of those times I wish the #PFDJ would cease its campaign of polarization and never ending ተስፊያ to actually admit its not universally admired and to give political space to its dissidents. I wouldn’t because I know better the nature of the regime

This is one of those times I wish advice is not wasted on the youth. You are so angry that you don’t think words can express your anger? You don’t think words are adequate? Fine. Just remember words in prison are even less so. And question your leaders, who were never elected!