Introductory Remarks by Dr. Haile Debas, during the meeting of the “G-13” with President Isaias in Asmara, Eritrea, on November 25, 2000.
Your Excellency President Isaias,
Allow me first, on behalf of our group, to express our deep appreciation for inviting us to this face-to-face discussion of the issues we raised in our letter to you. I am not entirely sure why the group asked me to make these introductory remarks. I suspect it is because of my age and my naiveté in all matters political. And please forgive me for speaking in English.
I would like to begin by telling you something about the group. We are individual Eritreans from all walks of the academic spectrum, from different parts of Eritrea, from different political and religious persuasions. We do not represent a political group and none of us has any personal political agenda. Our only common bond is the love of Eritrea, a passion for its sovereignty and its success as a new model country in Africa. We are also bound by a common perception and a set of concerns that have convinced us that the country may have veered off from the initial trajectory that inspired so much hope within the Eritrean Community at home and abroad, and within the world community of nations. We are unreserved about our support and commitment to our motherland and we feel that we have a huge stake in the success of Eritrea as a nation.
Allow me to introduce the members of this group, some of whom you know very well: Dr. Araya Debessay is Professor of Accounting at the University of Delaware in the United States; Dr. Assefaw Tekeste is the Dean of the faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Asmara and is currently on a sabbatical at the University of California at Berkely as research fellow of Public Health and working for Ph.D. in Public Health;
Dr. Bereket Habteselasie, is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Bereket could not be here today but wholeheartedly supports our meeting with you and pledges to accept its outcome; Mr. Dawit Mesfin is systems network Administrator at the University of North London. He is also studying for a Ph.D. degree in Education at the University of London; Mr. Kassahun Checole is Publisher of Africa World Press and the Red Sea Press; Dr. Khaled Beshir is Senior Engineer in Motorola in Chicago; Ms. Meriem Mohammed Omer is currently student in Economic Development and Administrative Management at the University of Manchester in England; Dr. Mohamed Kheir Omar is lecturer at the University of Asmara, currently undertaking Ph.D. studies in Norway; Dr. Mussie Msghina is Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Karolinska institute in Sweden; Mr. Paulos Tesfagiorgis, whom you know very well, is lecturer in Law at the University of Asmara; Dr. Reesom Haile is a roving poet living in Asmara and Brussels, Belgium; and I am Haile Debas, Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Medical affairs at the University of California, San Francisco.
The meeting we had in Berlin was prepared at a short notice, and was not a secret meeting. Indeed, we had asked and hoped that a member of your government could attend. As I said earlier, the group is neither a political organization nor does it have a political agenda. It has no leader, and indeed, many of us did not know each other well before our meeting in Berlin. We are very distressed, as we are sure you must be, by the leak to the press of the highly confidential letter we sent to you. We can solemnly assure you that none of us was responsible for the leak. In fact we do not know who did it and we hope you will support our efforts to identify the perpetrator. Believe us Mr. President, the last thing we wanted was to embarrass you and give comfort to the enemies of our country and our leader. Once in the public domain, the letter has incited a lively debate within and outside the country. We are pained to see how unfairly our intent has been covered in the official Eritrean press, which has waged a sustained and unfair attack on us without making public the contents of the letter itself. We, who believe in the absolute sovereignty of our country and cherish our Eritrean identity and commitment, are offended by the depiction of us as traitors to our country. The people, who do not know that the letter was meant to be a confidential communication to you, understandably ask how we can be openly critical of our government and leader at this time of conflict with Ethiopia. The truth of the matter is we were writing to you confidentially and we were not responsible for its being made public.
Mr. President:
We respect you as our leader and as the first President of our new nation. We are enormously proud of the early achievements of the Eritrean government. Nothing has made us more proud than our government’s spirit of self-reliance and the absence of corruption, two attributes that in the early and mid 90’s won an enviable image of Eritrea in the eyes of the world. We understand the enormous constraints our country has in the resources it needs, in being situated in a geopolitically unstable region. In our letter, we wanted to share with you our genuine concerns about our perception regarding the delay in the establishment of democratic institutions, the disregard of the rule of law, issues of collective leadership, the dominant role of the PFDJ in the economic life of the nation, and the need for national reconciliation and unity.
Above all else, what we want is to discuss our concerns in a positive way and see if we can develop a win-win solution.
We stand by the concerns we have raised and feel that we have a moral obligation to convey them to you and to support you develop solutions and strategies to address them. I, for one, would be prepared to step down from my incredibly busy position as institutional leader, at the University of California, in order to devote more time to help polish the image of Eritrea in the U.S. and to work hard to help my country in the area where I have some knowledge and expertise, that is, health care and medical education. I also know that each and everyone of my colleagues have a similarly passionate commitment to serve the Eritrean nation in their respective areas of expertise.
If I had two wishes for the outcome of this meeting, and these wishes are shared by all of us, they are:
First: that we come out united and indicate to the world that we are together and united. This act will take away any comfort our enemies may have felt from the perception of division within our ranks. It will also go a long way to restore our own reputation within the country, a reputation that has been damaged by unfair press.
Second: We would like to help mobilize the Academics and Professionals abroad and to harness their collective and special knowledge and expertise to help address the legitimate concerns we have raised.
Mr. President,
Thank you very much for your indulgence and patience in hearing my remarks.
Again, let me express our deep appreciation to you for inviting us to this face-to-face discussion.
We have a huge stake in the success of Eritrea. Glory to our martyrs and our admiration for and solidarity with those men and women at the front fighting to guard our freedom and the territorial integrity of our country.