Thread by @saayEritrea

Writing for state website @shabait, Bana Negusse articulates #Eritrea’ ruling party interpretation of history (1941-present): the rage it feels against 🇺🇸informs Eritrean foreign policy; and the 20-years of consequences of said policy.



A rebuttal.shabait.com/2023/08/26/vio…

2. Main points:

a. #Eritrea deserved independence after World War II but was denied by USA (1941-62)

b. USA supported #Ethiopia during armed struggle (1961-91): border war (1998-00), post war (2000-18)

c. It did this by subsidizing #TPLF & emboldening it to ignore treaties

d. It did it by sanctioning #Eritrea; by pursuing a strategy of depopulating the country, by directing @UNHCR to grant automatic approval to all Eritrean asylum applications; by politicizing human rights….

e. It did this by supporting #TPLF in 2020-22 #Ethiopian civil war

f. But all this backfired. TPLF ended up losing anyway. #Eritrea is not depopulated: 60% of the “#Eritrean” asylum applications are from #Tigray #Ethiopia.

g. #Eritreans joined ranks in support of their gov

3. Frustrated, America (“West”) is supporting #Tigrayan #Ethiopians posing as #Eritreans to attack an Eritrean institution: cultural festivals held in Diaspora for decades. This violates its own alleged freedom of assembly denied to it own citizens (of Eritrean heritage)

4. All it will do is provide fuel to the ascendant right wing movement in Europe to victimize immigrants. But it’s all futile. When backed against the corner, #Eritreans get more resilient, and their ranks more cohesive and their መስርዕ ስጥምጥም!

I cant write this rebuttal at @shabait: it only hosts articles by people named “Feday Negus” (Avenger of the king), “Aradom Fedai Haqqi” (Terrorizer, Avenger of Truth). It wouldn’t surprise me if “Bana Negussie” (My Kings Torch) is a pen name.

awate.com/reviewing-the-…

@shabait 6. Let’s begin at the beginning: why didn’t “the West” grant #Eritrea independence in 1941, just as it had done with #Somalia and #Libya? Actually before that: how did #Italy, of all colonialists, colonize Eritrea?

@shabait 7. As you can see from #Africa’s colonial map, it was mostly a contest between #England and #France. England encouraged #Italy to occupy first the Eritrean coast then #Eritrea to dissuade France from doing so. And so….

@shabait 8. In 1941, when the Allied powers defeated the Axis Powers, in #Eritrea, it meant England was going to replace Italy (the same country it had encouraged to colonize Eritrea) as administrator of the country. And they wanted to keep the Italian bureaucracy in place!

@shabait 9. And so, on May 5, 1941, when #Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selasse returned from his 5-yr government-in-exile & ascended his throne, #Eritrea|s “Love of Country” Among its members were #Eritrea|s later staunch advocates for freedom: Ibrahim Sultan, Welwel, and Abdelkader Kebire….

@shabait 10..they would bolt to form the Independence Bloc, but at first, they saw #Ethiopia as their only safeguard from yet another form of colonialism, w/England replacing Italy. Ethiopia didn’t help its case by calling Christianity its official religion & embracing archaic feudalism.

@shabait 11. The answer to “why wasn’t #Eritrea, like #Somalia and #Libya not granted independence in 1941” was because plenty of Eritrean elite—Tewahdo, Catholic, Lutherans, Muslims—wanted to be part of Ethiopia until they learned it was just another oppressive empire.

@shabait 12. In 1941, there were no Libyans wanting to be part of Egypt or Algeria; there were no Somalis wanting to be part of Ethiopia or Kenya. But there were plenty of Eritreans who had deep conviction that #Eritrea is the daughter and Ethiopia is the Mother, and the emperor our king.

@shabait 13. And this was documented in two fact-finding missions the UN and its predecessor League of Nations sent to #Eritrea beginning in 1947. The delegation toured the country, gave inconclusive report, requiring yet another fact-finders in 1950 for more inconclusive report.

@shabait 14. How about the claim that US Secretary of State Foster Dulles said the following which is probably incorporated in the history textbooks of generations of Eritreans? (Is it in our textbooks still, @SamuelTsegai1 ?)

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 15. That would make him the dumbest diplomat ever to utter such words. Me thinks it’s a great quote made in #Eritrea during the propaganda wars. I have failed at finding the original source (library of Congress, State Department, etc) when a friend once challenged me to find it.

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 16. Let’s talk now about role of superpowers during the armed struggle.

USA supported #Ethiopia|s Haile Selasse gov (1961-74)

USSR supported Ethiopias Derg/Mengistu gov (1975-91)

But there was a difference in the magnitude of the help provided!

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 17. When USA supported #Ethiopia it was financial, military training, intelligence. Making sure, via Kagnew Station, people named “Isaias” not people named Abdella were in charge of our Revolution. (Red Sea, Arab, Israel conflict and whose side America is permanently on)

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 18. Not as qualified as Negusse’s friends at ማእከል ምርምርን ሰነዳን ግዱሳት ሃገራውያን to tell us more about the alleged Isaias Afwerki meetings with Eritrea province Governor Asrate Kassa facilitated by US listening base Kagnew Station, as told by former classmate:

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 19. What’s on the record is Isaias position on the #Arab-#Israel feud: the Palestinians should join Jordan (Trans-Jordan, he harkened to 1921) and they should leave Israel alone. Only the Likidest of Likudest Israeli believes that.

awate.com/isaias-shrugge…

@shabait @SamuelTsegai1 20. You add the suspicion he was an Ethiopian mole recruited to infiltrate ELF and destroy it (per defector) ; his contribution in bringing about #Eritrean independence; his position on Israel—his last minute American reprieve from ICC in 2016 all add up to:

@shabait 21. It was US which facilitated the #Eritrea #Ethiopia negotiations in 1990 and 1991. It was US which helped fund the referendum process; its the “West” which funded UN during nation building; it was US who ultimately supported #Eritrean independence; mediated 98-00 conflict

@shabait 22. Just as #China & #Russias interest in #Eritrea is its Red Sea & proximity to Gate of Tears, so it is for US. It looked at “two former commies” in charge of RedSea, & concluded one is in absolute control of his country & the other isn’t and chose Isaias: thus independence.

@shabait 23. Without #Ethiopia|n and US endorsement of our independence, we would have been a Taiwan, with Ethiopia having its own #OneEthiopia policy. Or worse a Somaliland or Puntland (all due respect). If that meant US had to subsidize Ethiopia it was a good investment for Eritreans.

@shabait 24. Let’s contrast role of US w/that of USSR. During the armed struggle it helped #Ethiopia with manpower, materiel, and weapons as it waged multiple offensives, many targeting civilians. It enlisted its whole satellite states against us It was absent during independence days.

@shabait 25. Yes, it’s true, the United States which was a Witness (not “guarantor”as we claim) to #Eritrea #Ethiopia “Algiers Agreement” of 2000, did not “force” Ethiopia to abide by the terms of the agreement and then tried to endorse an alternative to a “final and binding” decision.

@shabait But this narration is incomplete and should be seen within concurrent developments in #Eritrea, a subject not covered by the author as it places his Negus in bad light:

https://twitter.com/saayEritrea/status/1440169133241290761

@shabait 27. W/respect to number of #Eritreans who have been forced to exile: @UNHCR has said they are 587,301. The author dutifully repeats two mantras: most are not #Eritreans. If they are, it’s part of US strategy to depopulate Eritrea & instigate regime change, using UNHCR as conduit.

@shabait @unhcr Unlike his Negus, he doesn’t add the dangerous notion that the #Eritrean exiled are “all from one region.”

vimeo.com/354103562

@shabait Even if the number is not 587,000 but a quarter of it. 150,000. When has the #Eritrean regime ever expressed a single empathy for them? When they were tortured in Sinai, didn’t the Eritrean ambassador to #Egypt say this?👇🏾

awate.com/eritrean-refug…

@shabait 30. Was it when hundreds of #Eritreans perished in Lampedusa? How long did it take for the Eritrean embassy in Italy to even acknowledge them as Eritreans? Was it when Negus Isaias said people shouldn’t talk about them; they are a burden anyway? When?

@shabait 31. So now you are coming to a place they asked asylum in, to taunt them w/ your lies, and military fetish, & loud party flags? And you are genuinely perplexed that these people you inflicted all kinds of violence—physical, psychological—State Violence want to throw rocks at you

@shabait 32. Stop clutching your pearls for a few minutes to ponder: how many of these Eritreans (after you narrow it to whatever percentage you want) escaped State Violence and what I can do to stop the State from being so predatory?

@shabait 33. As for freedom of assembly and his attempt to mystify its existence in #Eritrea, it doesn’t exist. In PFDJs rule, there has never been an assembly in Eritrea not sanctioned by gov: those who tried it were made to disappear. So you have zero moral ground to lecture on this

@shabait 34. The people you are lecturing (the West) are the only ones who have tradition of civil disobedience. And there is always accountability.

As bad as all violence is, what happened in Diaspora is minute fraction of State violence your regime practices.

Tune up your outrage.