Not in Defence of Elsa Chyrum… By Habtom Yohannes September 16, 2001 A friend drew my attention to an “article” written by Ato Daniel Mehari (“metaAbiyti”) on Assenna. The tile of the article is: “ድሃይ መርማሪት ኮምሽን ሰብኣዊ መሰላት ኤርትራ እንታይ ኣሎ?” “Is there any news about The Commission of Enquiry regarding the human rights violations in Eritrea?” Nothing wrong with this question, but when one reads the body of the article, the content has nothing to do with the human rights violations in Eritrea. The article is an insult to the intelligence of a reader with elementary school intelligence. It is an unsubstantiated attack on Elsa Chyrum and her organisation Human Rights Concern, Eritrea of which she is a director. I really don’t understand why the author wrote such an “article” and why Assenna published such an unworthy piece. Probably both have an exe to grind with Elsa Chyrum. Sadly enough various websites and media-outlets of Eritreans have become instruments for waging private battlefields; i.e. instruments of personal attacks against individuals and organisations the owners of these websites don’t agree with. If it is based on something sensible, analytical, something the readers can learn from, well & good but “pieces” like this disgust. The following twelve points as food for thought and not as a defence of Elsa Chyrum, since she can defend herself; I am neither a spokesperson of Elsa nor a supervisor of her organisation. I tried to send this to some websites. I don’t know exactly the reason but they rejected it. No worries, in this era of of facebook, blogs and twitter, I probably have more audience than the audience of some websites combined. #1. The Commission of Enquiry &/ or The Special Rapporteur on Eritrea don’t belong to Elsa Chyrum or to her organisation. It is set up by the UN Human Rights Council. So the question should be addressed to the UN and not to Elsa Chyrum or her organisation. Neither Elsa Chyrum nor her organization have the ability to prevent any person from asking. The road is open to either Geneva or New York. #2. Many Eritreans ignorantly alluded the assignment of the Special Rapporteur and/or the establishment of the Commission of Enquiry to some personalities who want to claim the collective successes of the struggle for justice. Various Eritreans and the international community have their own shares to the existence of the aforementioned rapporteur and commission. If they keep quiet, it doesn’t mean they haven’t contributed to the establishment of the aforementioned organisations. Those who read critically and follow the developments meticulously know that the achievements are a precipitation of various activities of various individuals and organisation; including the activities of Elsa Chyrum. Even books are written on this. An uncle of mine used to say: “ፍትው ፍትው ኣይተብለኒ፡ ምጽልአይ ከይከፍኣካ፡” something like: “don’t be quick to love me beyond reasonable proportions, or else you would have trouble hating me”. Truly wise words. #3. Elsa Chyrum is a free person and she owns herself and her organisation: Human Rights Concern. She is accountable to herself, her organisation and those organisations that support her. Not to every “halaf-megedi”, person who claims that he / she is an Eritrean or whatever is Elsa accountable. “Accountability and transparency” have become fashionable words in the mouths of people who don’t even understand what these words mean. Esla Chrym is accountable and must be transparent but not to you, not to me; unless we belong to Human Rights Concern or to those organisations who support Elsa, like the National Endowment for Democracy ned.org/where-we-work/africa/eritrea-0 “Human Rights Concern - Eritrea Human Rights $58,936 Human Rights Advocacy for Eritrea To increase awareness of the human rights struggle in Eritrea, HRC-Eritrea will advocate with key international and regional human rights bodies, raise awareness with international mining companies about forced labor used at mining sites in Eritrea and provide support to and moderate its online dialogue forum for Eritrean diaspora. Grant descriptions are from the 2013 NED Annual Report.” #4. Jealous? You can do what Elsa Chyrum did if you are capable of hard work and doing things the right way. You are fool if you think the organisations who support Elsa Chyrum are fools. They have decennia experience with various ngo’s and organisations. Elsa Chrym must account for her activities, for every cent she spends. #5. Do you have case against Elsa Chyrum or her organizations, be a man / a woman and sue Elsa Chyrum / Human Rights Concern-Eritrea before an independent court of law. If not, don’t bother the reader with such rubbish and baseless accusations #6. Like every Eritrean -and even a foreigner- Elsa has full right to set up an organisation for Eritreans. My friend, that doesn’t mean that you are included in the group Elsa Chyrum represents, just because you are an Eritrean. I don’t know where you leave, but the Tories in the UK represent the British People but not the Liberals. Still the Liberals are British. In The USA, the republicans are Americans and represent Americans but not the Democrats and vice versa. So neither the “author” nor other Eritrean has the right to blackmail Elsa Chyrum with his Eritrean nationality. She has equal right to that nationality; maybe more because of her hard work. You don’t have to agree with her in everything but she is someone I admire despite the fact that I don’t always agree with how she works. There are a lot of Eritreans and foreigners who don’t agree with my method of work. So be it. That doesn’t make me less Eritrean or less human. I have seen many Eritreans -from journalists to other professionals- make the childish claim: “he/she has set up an organisation in the name of Eritreans, so we have the right to share in -not the work!- the money. It is all about money. Do you remember the quarrels between Medrek and Assenna? There are even people who want to claim various websites just because the carry the prefix Eritrean in their name. #7. As long as we are humans, we make mistakes. Especially those who work hard make mistakes. We all have the responsibility to learn from the reactions of our fellow human beings. God speaks to you through your fellow human beings. It is your responsibility to learn from them and correct your shortcomings. This applies for Elsa Chyrum, applies for me and others. #8. There is another psychological -and at that traditional / feudal- factor to the smear campaign. Elsa Chyrum is a woman and the obsolete saying “ብወዲ ተባዕታይ እዩ ዝወግሕ” (“Down comes when the cokc cries and a cock is a man; so solution comes by the man”). This traditional saying is obliterated by the activities of women like Elsa Chyrum. This is extremely difficult to swallow for those who are obsessed with the totalitarian mind. Even if I am a man, I have delighted myself in the woman as my mother, sister, partner and daughter(s). My heart overflows with joy when I see a woman achieve wonderful things, when a woman is happy. #9. Alas, ethically sound and professional journalism among Eritreans is like democracy in the land of PFDJ: non-existent. Till now we seem to be “blessed” / “cursed”, depending from which side you see it, with “opposition propaganda”. Everything that is against PFDJ, even if it is based on lies and deceit is appropriate. The dictatorship of the opposition seems as worse as the PFDJ-dictatorship regarding the free and independent press. All the opposition media have nothing to do with independent journalism based on truth and ethics. I am not saying that they have been doing nothing. No, they have been doing marvellous things, including Assenna. Informing the people to hear the other side of the story which is totally prohibited by the totalitarian regime in Eritrea is commendable. But don’t tell me it is independent journalism based on ethical standard of the profession. Those who report about Medrek report things that are positive about Medrek. Those who are financed and supported by organisations to report positive about them are actually propaganda-figures instead of journalists. My stomach turns upside down when I hear in conferences “let us set up media task force”; what they mean is actually PR-officers, propaganda officers. And this is not always fact-based. There are some figures who want to be spokes persons of every meeting; even meetings they use to condemn in the past. Amel mis megnes. Some habit go with you in the grave. #10. What the Eritrean people need is information based on facts and truth; and if possible hearing both sides. Opposition websites are not used to this principle. So they just publish defamation articles without even trying to approach the other side for a reaction. When accusation, in this case against Elsa Chyrum and her organisation Human Rights Concern Eritrea, came in, the owner of Assenna, Mr. Amanuel Eyasu has the responsibility to approach Elsa Chyrum for a reaction before the publication of this piece. Otherwise, with all respect and with all admiration for his work, not only the author is responsible for defamation but also Assenna for publishing it without approaching Elsa Chyrum. #11. All the dirty games and tactics by the so called “opposition media-outlets”, who themselves seem entangled in the dirty politics of division and vendetta, shows that Eritreans has a long way to go to before we have developed the culture of tolerance and democracy; let alone the profession of independent and critical journalism. The inflated ego’s seem worse than that of Isaias Afwerki and they regularly deploy everything they think to possess not to inform the people but to curtail it, to attack personalities and organisations they disagree with. #12. Every attempt, action to bring justice in Eritrea should be commended. I commend Elsa Chyrum and all the other individuals for their endeavours to bring justice. I commend Assenna and other websites and media outlets for their hard work. I appeal to all of you, including myself to observe some ethics when publishing defamation articles about an individual, a group, a nation, religion etcetera without verification and hearing the other side. We should all work hard to rise up above travesty of journalism.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:11:47 +0000
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