Open letter to US President H.E. Barak Obama

Call for Justice!

Open letter to US President H.E. Barak Obama

Dear Mr. President,

I start my letter by wishing you and your family a joyful Christmas and a happy new year!

Mr. President, just the day before Christmas Eve the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Eritrea based on fallacious accusations. My letter is thus, concerning the recent UN action against the Eritrean people. Just to reflect to some history; after the Second World War, an unjust policy was taken against the Eritrean people.

“From the point of view of justice, the opinion of the Eritrean people must receive consideration. Nevertheless, the strategic interests of the United States in the Red Sea Basin and world peace make it necessary that the country be linked with our ally Ethiopia”, John Foster Dulles, 1952.

This conclusion of Mr. Dulles led to the annexation of Eritrea by Ethiopia, and as a result begun the independence struggle which lasted for 30 long years.

Mr. President, history is for us to learn. Were there any interests that the US gained from this conclusion? Did it in any way promoted peace and stability? On the contrary! The Only result of this miscalculated conclusion was war and misery in the horn of Africa, and the Eritrean people were doomed to go into a thirty years long struggle for justice, freedom and Democracy and paid a painful price of hundreds of thousands of lives. Mr. President with this letter I am pleading to you to stop a shameful history repeat itself and to prevent the Eritrean people from a struggle that can be avoided.

Mr. President, the world has already witnessed the challenges that you unfortunately have to face and the endeavor you’ve been taking. I think, this is yet another challenge, a chance for you to come up with a solution, a change, to prevent the world from recommitting the same crime against innocent, peace loving and hard working Eritrean people, and yet another chance to enjoy the well deserved Nobel Prize for peace. Please do not look at the sanction from the eyes of a complicated unjust politics but from the eyes of a peace loving honest person.

Mr. President please don’t let this decision against the Eritrean people be a plague in your amazing history. It is sad that Ambassador Rise’s vindictive attitude against Eritrean people -to cover up for her failure in mediating between Eritrea and Ethiopia in late 1990’s- is the basis for this unjust decision against the Eritrean people. We all know that Mrs. Susan Rice, have been actively pushing the UN to impose sanction against Eritrea. Please do not let innocent Eritrean people pay for a decision that is based on Mrs. Rice’s personal frustration. Please look at this personally, re-examine the validity of the accusations against Eritrean people, examine Mrs. Rises motives and her professional history in Eritrea. I personally invite you to look at the history of the Eritrean people. Please do not let fallacious accusations be the grounds for a decision that will negatively affect the lives of millions of people and the peace in the horn of Africa. In Eritrea we say that a person is born once and dies once but the history that a person lives behind lives forever. So please don’t let Mrs. Rises vindictive attitude be a cause for a stain in your history. We are aware that this sanction is just a beginning of a sequence of actions to rip-off the Eritrean people the right for freedom, and we also know that it is aimed to serving the same unjust interest that John Foster Dulles had.

Mr. President, I know that you are a just, fair and well educated African American and that is why I dare to ask: Is it forbidden for an African nation or any nation for that matter to have its own ideas and policies? Is it wrong to be independent as a black nation? Is it wrong for an African country to try to be self sufficient? Is it necessary to punish a nation in order to satisfy some individual’s vindictive attitude? Is it wrong for an African Nation to follow democratic kulture that have been practiced by our ancestries i.e. before colonialism? Why the accusations against Eritrea have been changing from time to time? And more importantly as a person with African blood have you personally looked in to the validity of the allegations and accusations against Eritrean government?

Mr. President, I am not asking to compromise US interests. I believe that one can achieve a sustainable partnership which can lead toward harmony, peace and prosperity is only by respecting mutual interests can. I deem that you do not believe that the US, one of our times greatest nation, can have any interest in taking unjust actions against a small nation. A nation whose people has been working so hard to fight poverty for so many years, and not just when they are about to harvest the outcome of their hard work. I grew up in a period of war and misery which was imposed upon to us (Eritreans) by the world. I plead to you not to lead the world to recommit unjust against a small nation, so that my younger brothers and sisters do not have to go through what the same misery that I went through. Let the younger generation enjoy the results of their hard work for peace and tranquility in the horn of Africa. Mr. President I remember your promises to the world, I humbly shoulder you to act for fairness and peace now.

Finally I politely request that you personally see the case closely. Who knows, maybe you and President Issayas Afewerki could find a noble way for stabilization of the horn of Africa, and maybe for the first time in this planet’s history, you might create a way for a sustainable partnership between a superpower and one of the youngest and smallest nations where both nations interests are respected.

Best regards

A peace loving Eritrean