Rebirth of Eritrea: a statement by Ambassador Fesshazion Petros

Published by Marilena Dolce

THE REBIRTH OF ERITREA, A DECLARATION BY THE ERITREO AMBASSADOR IN ITALY, FESSHAZION PETROS

© EritreaLive, Italy-Africa Conference, the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador of Eritrea in Italy, Fesshazion Petros p er Eritrea is the time of rebirth

The occasion of the release of the video clip of Jovanotti filmed in Eritrea made the Italian press write that there will be peace but "Eritrea is not a paradise".

So it's not a place to set anything up. Men less a love story at the Chiaro di Luna. Adding that, as known, with the "canzonette" becomes politics. So showing Asmara in its beauty as it is would not be politically correct.

Jovanotti's answer was not long in coming. His song, the singer said, talks about emotions. It is not a journalistic report. However, the empathy he generates is in line with the spirit of change he has seen in the country. The solution to the problems, he added, is to look to the future with hope and planning.

A project that Eritrea has been holding for some time. It has been frozen since 2002, for the state of neither war nor peace lasted until last July 9th. Date in which, in Asmara, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed the peace agreement. Now the borders between the two countries are demilitarized. Political and diplomatic relations have resumed. The economy, with no more sanctions, removed on November 14th, ready to restart.

For this reason, the ambassador of Eritrea in Italy, Fesshazion Petros, in the long speech that we publish entirely, sent to various media, talks about the rebirth of his country.

Eritrea is a country with about 4.5 million inhabitants that has suffered a total war. Not only from the neighboring Ethiopian cousins, with more than 100 million inhabitants, but from the whole world its ally. In this period we have undergone intense international disinformation campaigns, with the aim of isolating and destabilizing our country.

Ethiopia, led and controlled by a minority ethnic party, which had decided to expand its domination and influence over the whole Horn of Africa, achieved the unconditional support of many Western countries during this period. Including the United States, first with Bush then with Obama.

These destabilizing actions were implemented according to a scheme that had as its aim the so-called "regime change", of a government considered too independent and not willing to accept a domination of Ethiopia.

A situation first revealed by Wikileaks ( ed, cables sent to Washington, in 2009, by the then US ambassador to Eritrea Ronald K. Mc Mullen) and later confirmed by sources of various American administrations.

It was therefore decided to create opposition groups outside the country, to accuse Eritrea of ​​supporting Al Shabaab terrorists in Somalia. This is to justify the sanctions and prevent the country from defending itself, further weakening it.

Then the remittances of the Eritrean diaspora were hindered, qualifying them as "forced" and therefore illegal. They also tried to make the military and civilian service program born to defend the country and rebuild the necessary infrastructure. Finally they tried to divide the various components of the country on an ethnic and religious basis, making believe there was an ethnic and religious persecution where instead there was always cohabitation.

When all these actions proved to be ineffective, we tried to hit young people and promote the escape of young people from Eritrea. President Obama kicked off with the famous speech at the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative: "We recently renewed sanctions against some of the most tyrannical countries, including North Korea and Eritrea, we have partnerships with groups that help women and children escape from the hands of their torturers. We are helping other countries to intensify their efforts and see results ".

The goal was to empty Eritrea to prevent defending itself. Then use the escape of these young people to justify the accusations of human rights violations and to ensure that Eritrea was condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission. This would have allowed us to intervene as we did in other countries.

Fortunately, thanks to the unconditional support of its people and the determination of its own government, Eritrea managed to resist. All efforts were rewarded by the peace agreement of 9 July with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Ethiopia, which also recognized the important role Eritrea supported to stabilize Ethiopia itself.

If today we have reached a peace that will allow the whole Horn of Africa to think about a future of prosperity and prosperity, this is also due to the great role of Eritrea and the President.

On November 14 the UN unanimously removed the unjust sanctions against Eritrea. at the same time a few weeks ago Eritrea became a member of the Human Rights Commission.

Now Eritrea has opened its borders with Ethiopia with the consequent free circulation of people and goods.

Above all, now Eritrea is starting to resume the concrete process that was interrupted in 1998 by the war with Ethiopia. It is a country that wants, first of all, to strongly follow the path of development and well-being.

As a result young people will be the first to benefit from all these positive developments because they will no longer be forced to emigrate in order to realize themselves.

We invite the international community and in particular the Italian friends with whom we share history and culture for a long time, to get in line with this change, leaving out the prejudices of the past.

Eritrea is certainly not yet a paradise. We have so many problems that are common to many other countries. But we are determined to solve them now that peace finally allows us.

We ask the whole international community to be close to us and to support this process of rebirth and renewal. 

Rinascita dell'Eritrea, una dichiarazione dell'ambasciatore eritreo Fesshazion Petros

(Software translation)