Category: Pencil
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Eritrean Opposition Goal For PFDJ: Death By 1,000 Cuts
The single argument that unites the entire Eritrean opposition is that Eritrea’s ruling party, PFDJ, is not fit to govern because it refuses to be bound by the rule of law. Twenty-five years after assuming power, the Eritrean regime refuses to be bound by national law–a constitution–and it refuses to comply with international law, despite
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Calling For An Eritrean Resolve
A country whose situation is becoming worse by the day. A people who are so exhausted of simply watching as their social cohesion is being eroded. A regime that convinced Eritreans that it will never change. A president who has never said an encouraging word in all his speeches and interviews. A president who never
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Strengthening The ENCDC
This editorial was published on April13, 2006 under the title “Strengthening The EDA which we changed to “Strengthening The ENCDC”. Of course, some points that were relevant ten years ago might not be so anymore. But most of the points are applicable today if only the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) is replaced by ENCDC (Eritrean National
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Yemane Gebremeskel Speaks Untruth
Yemane Gebremeskel broke his five-day silence with untruth. It has been five days since Eritrean government forces killed conscripts in broad daylight in Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea. Over the last five days, the information minister of the Eritrean regime was silent and so was his government. Today he tweeted, “Eritrean arch-enemies and hired
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Isaias Released Prisoners He Never Had!
On Monday, February 29, Djiboutian President Ismail Guelleh stressed that he will not have a talk with Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea unless he releases the Djiboutian POWs missing since 2008. For eight years Isaias Afwerki has denied a battle was fought between the two countries let alone to admit he had Djiboutian POWs in that
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BBC & Its Tiny Circle Of Sources
This edition of The Pencil was published on Sept. 18, 2004. We are republishing it on the occasion of its almost 14th year anniversary! BBC’s stringer to Eritrea, Jonah Fischer, was expelled from his station in Eritrea last week. The expulsion demonstrates two things: it encapsulates the erratic and juvenile nature of the Eritrean authorities
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The Pretend Tudor Monarch And His Banks
Since late last year when the Eritrean regime imposed tighter controls on the Nakfa currency, the already small Eritrean economy has shrunk, mainly due to shortage of cash in the market. The acute shortage of cash in circulation has hit the retail business hard and drastically reduced its size—perishable products for instance, a kilogram of tomatoes
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Pirates Of The PFDJ
In 1976, when the Derg announced the change of King Haile Selassie’s birr in Ethiopia, the general public was reluctant to surrender the currency to the bank. People perceived the birr as a currency “guaranteed with gold” though by then the world had long dropped the system of defining the value of currency with gold.
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Cold War Ended, Hot War Continues
The 20th century is very much defined by the cold war that continued from 1947 to 1991. For Eritreans however, that period was not cold at all, it was a never-ending cycle of violence, bloodshed and social displacement. In 1991 the general mood was optimistic as the end of the cold war introduced alluring terms like
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Eritrea’s New Capital And Social Control through Currency Change
Countries usually announce change of currency to (a) stabilize a wobbly banking system, (b) to fight hyper-inflation, (c) to opt for currency substitution due to joining a regional or international currency or (d) to assert sovereignty. On November 3rd, the Eritrean regime announced that it will be issuing new currency and that Eritreans have six-weeks
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Warships In Asseb: The agony Of Irrelevance
The claim that the United Arab Emirates has a military base in the Eritrean port of Asseb started out as a single, uncorroborated news report early this past summer and is ending the year being a major news story picked by many news agencies and UN investigators to the point that it is now an established fact.
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The March To War (Archives-2005)
(The following is from the archives, it appeared on November 5, 2005.) “I have to state with much regret that your good self, and the Security Council, has forfeited your relevance on the very issues raised in a rather habitual manner, in your letter.” The above is an excerpt from a letter that Isaias Afwerki wrote UN’s
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The Ethiopian-Eritrean Intelligence War
It has been fifteen years since the bloody border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia ended in 2000. Since then, though the guns has been silenced, and occasional sporadic and limited clashes continued, thousands of Eritrean youth cross the border heading towards Ethiopian refugee camps from where they continue the arduous journey to Europe and elsewhere.
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A Glance To The Past, A Focus On The Future
Eritreans have a myriad of unresolved internal issues to worry about external ones. However, all of the problems and crisis hindering the creation of an effective opposition force to unseat the tyrant is not totally their fault. Frustration has been building among Eritreans who feel like they are adding water to a barrel with a
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Eritreans Declare Initial Victory In Geneva
Freedom and justice loving Eritreans declared initial victory against repression in Geneva; future opposition activities, and confrontation with the regime of Isaias Afwerki, will be measured against the victory of June 26, 2015, which has become the yardstick. The Geneva rally has represented the true face of Eritrea; no such diverse crowd of Eritreans assembled in one place,
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PENCIL: Sept. 2000 – Sept. 2001
The following are editorial excerpts from The Pencil covering the first year of awate.on-forge.com’s life, between September 2000 to September 2001. This archive file was first published on September 1, 2001. Incidentally, we are still trying to restore our archives so that it can be easily accessible, but the task proved to be more difficult
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Omer AlBashir Wins “The Sudanese Election”
On Thursday night Sudanese polling stations closed their doors after four days of voting. On Wednesday, the three-day election was extended by one more day due to low voter turnout. According to Sudanese official news, the results will be announced on the 27th of April 2015. However, no one is waiting for the announcement: the
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Power To The Spirit Of Adi Keih
Food. Clothing. Shelter. These are basic economic needs of human beings. Land. Labor. Capital. These are basic factors of production. The Eritrean regime is a bourgeois society! Even if Marxist lingo is outdated, it describes the regime accurately. And Land has always remained at the center of Eritrea’s problems. Everything is about LAND. For some
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Who Will Speak for the Voiceless Eritreans In Sudan?
The December 24 attack on Eritreans at the Shagarab refugee camp in Sudan, when criminal elements of the Rashaida, in collaboration with Sudanese security officials, assaulted, molested, kidnapped Eritreans and torched their huts, is not the first incident and, sadly, won’t be the last incident unless they find a protector. There are four parties that
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Issues European Foreign Policy Makers Should Consider
Many who would simply explain European policies on Africa as “neo-colonialism” are generally dismissed as paranoid or overly skeptical by those who want to portray themselves as “rational, refined and objective” thinkers. But given the European adventures in dealing with the many crises in Africa, even those who claim rationality are tempted to join the