Michael Abraha
Contact Information
Articles by Michael Abraha
March 18, 2010
Eritrean leader Isaias Afwerki returned home over the weekend from a two day visit to Libya where he met with his counterpart Col Moammar Khadafy. It is thought that Eritrea is being counseled by Libya and other rogue states including Sudan and Iran about UN sanctions imposed on the Asmara regime. T...
March 11, 2010
Professor Bereket Habteselassie outpaced literally every other awate.com contributor by devoting close to a 15-thousand word-paper (small-size book) to respond to Awate Foundation´s anti-Christian stereotyping mission also known by many as Ali Salem´s jihadist project. This ominous project has to be...
February 23, 2010
In an Al-Jazeera interview on Saturday, President Isayas Afewerki repeatedly denied there was any evidence that his regime was destabilizing Somalia.
The following is Dr. Daniel Rezene´s email to Reporter Michael Abraha commenting on the question of UN evidence against the Eritrean govern...
February 22, 2010
Milkias Yohannes
Al-Jazeera´s Jane Dutton on Saturday boldly confronted Eritrea´s besieged President Isayas Afwerki with legitimate questions which every journalist would love to put to a dictator. Isayas tried in vain to show that he was in control although his poor, hostile performa...
February 20, 2010
Simon W.Haimanot
Eritrean Government initiated anti-sanction protest marches being staged in some Western cities on Monday, Feb 22, represent nothing but a shaky state of mind of a repressive regime that has long failed its heroic, freedom-loving people. The greater the number of misinformed marc...
February 18, 2010
Since 1942
On Wednesday (02/17/10), the veteran news organization, Voice of America, behaved like a propaganda mouthpiece for Ali Abdu, the Eritrean Information Minister. Its news story was entitled: "Eritrea Official Denies Asmara´s Involvement in Organizing Protest against UN- Sanctions". In it...
February 18, 2010
Since 1942
On Wednesday (02/17/10), the veteran news organization, Voice of America, behaved like a propaganda mouthpiece for Ali Abdu, the Eritrean Information Minister. Its news story was entitled: "Eritrea Official Denies Asmara´s Involvement in Organizing Protest against UN- Sanctions". In it...
February 17, 2010
Mehret Ghebreyesus
A report out of Russia claims Eritrea is in violation of UN arms embargo on war-torn Sudan where over 200-thousand innocent Darfurians have lost their lives. In the meantime, last minute fund-raising projects are underway in the West as such activities may soon be banned under ...
February 16, 2010
The international community has already made up its mind and slapped sanctions on the Eritrean regime - a move that could end dictatorship in that troubled Red Sea State. Many Diaspora Eritreans are rallying behind the UN measure as a peaceful means to neutralize the regime. Others simply disagree. ...
February 15, 2010
The international community has already made up its mind and slapped sanctions on the Eritrean regime - a move that could end dictatorship in that troubled Red Sea State. Many Diaspora Eritreans are rallying behind the UN measure as a peaceful means to neutralize the regime. Others simply disagree. ...
February 10, 2010
Many Diaspora Eritreans are engaged in serious and rational discussions about the UN sanctions to counter ruling PFDJ´s attempts to influence public opinion mainly through its media outlets. Pockets of PFDJ sponsored anti-sanction protests and appeals for reversal of the UN decision are currently un...
February 10, 2010
Many Diaspora Eritreans are engaged in serious and rational discussions about the UN sanctions to counter ruling PFDJ´s attempts to influence public opinion mainly through its media outlets. Pockets of PFDJ sponsored anti-sanction protests and appeals for reversal of the UN decision are currently un...
February 03, 2010
Wolde Yesus Ammar
In this interview, Wolde Yesus Ammar underscores the most pressing challenge of getting the opposition forces to speak with one voice and sheds light on some of the tools his party will use in bringing change to Eritrea. As Chairman of the new Eritrean People´s Democratic Party,...
February 03, 2010
Wolde Yesus Ammar
In this interview, Wolde Yesus Ammar underscores the most pressing challenge of getting the opposition forces to speak with one voice and sheds light on some of the tools his party will use in bringing change to Eritrea. As Chairman of the new Eritrean People´s Democratic Party,...
February 01, 2010
CDRiE London Symposium
"The Eritrean government´s reluctance to adopt two official languages [Arabic and Tigrigna] that may willy-nilly polarize and homogenize Eritrean society into two religious groups is theoretically sound. However, it is equally, if not more important to underscore the fact t...
February 01, 2010
London CDRiE Symposium
"The Eritrean government´s reluctance to adopt two official languages [Arabic and Tigrigna] that may willy-nilly polarize and homogenize Eritrean society into two religious groups is theoretically sound. However, it is equally, if not more important to underscore the fact t...
January 24, 2010
photo: Bashir Ishaq
As Eritrea faces further isolation because of sanctions, some opposition parties are going through mergers while others try to consolidate existing alliances. This is seen by experts as a positive movement toward a more unified national resistance. Bashir...
January 24, 2010
photo: Bashir Ishaq
As Eritrea faces further isolation because of sanctions, some opposition parties are going through mergers while others try to consolidate existing alliances. This is seen by experts as a positive movement toward a more unified national resistance. Bashir I...
January 20, 2010
Embracing unity in diversity is key to peace and harmony in Eritrea, says Mr. Hassan Salman - Head of the Sudan based Eritrean Islamic Congress – one of the 13 members of the opposition Eritrean Democratic Alliance. In a paper prepared for a conference organized by CDRiE´s Eritrean scholars, intelle...
January 18, 2010
Eritrean refugee camp in N. Ethiopia
One of the most important outcomes of the January 9 London conference of Citizens for Democratic Rights in Eritrea, CDRiE, has been the heightened readiness to tackle the unfolding Eritrean refugee catastrophe. CDRiE rose to the challenge and decided to form a...
January 10, 2010
CDRiE London Conference
In a cold, dismal London weather on Saturday, an estimated 150 Eritreans came out to be part of a crucial debate at a civic conference organized in commemoration of the first anniversary of the creation of CDRiE, Citizens for Democratic Rights in Eritrea.
The conferen...
December 25, 2009
photo: Isayas Afewerki
Sanctions are as hard to impose as they are to receive them. The UN often agonizes before punishing one of its own members even when it is a deserving regime like Eritrea. There were endless talks about sanctions and countless threats thereof for years in th...
December 21, 2009
photo: Donald Payne with EGS delegation. Seyoum Tesfaye is at the far right
FAMINE AND REFUGEE RELATED PROBLEMS AND ISSUES WERE THE TOPIC OF DISCUSSION EARLY THIS MONTH AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ERITREAN GLOBAL SOLIDARITY IN MINNEAPOLIS, USA. THESE SAME ISSUES WERE HIGH IN THE AGENDA DURING T...
December 20, 2009
photo: Saleh Gadi - Head of extremist Awate Foundation
Habtom Yohannes must have had a bad day when last week he gave in to a sweet talk from Saleh Gadi persuading him to breach his journalistic principles of confidentiality which he knows must exist between an editor and his source. Habtom, I ...
November 08, 2009
The Eritrean regime is as famous for its appalling democratic and human rights abuses as it is for its sardonic provocations. While these infringements are a topic for an extensive discussion at an EU-US led conference in Brussels next week (November 9 - 10), Eritrea has refused to participate claim...
December 03, 2009
The international community is on the verge of meting out a collective punishment on the Eritrean political and military leadership. The proposed UN sanctions will be the harshest ever imposed on an African nation in recent memory. The Eritrean government says it is not concerned. Michael Abraha spo...
November 10, 2009
EU parliamentarian Ana Gomes has called for "Smart Sanctions that hurt the people in power and not the people of Eritrea".
Ambassador Gomes was speaking Monday (November 9) in Brussels where EU and US officials and experts have gathered to discuss alternative approaches in dealing with the intra...
November 08, 2009
photo: Abdurahman Sayed
European and American officials are joining hands with Diaspora Eritrean politicians and activists aimed at ending relentless human rights abuses under a ruthless dictatorship in Eritrea. The two-day conference underway in Brussels is discussing, among other things, the ur...
November 04, 2009
photo: Seyoum Tesfaye
The news blackout on the drought/famine situation reportedly afflicting millions of Eritreans has frustrated both emergency aid agencies and press and human rights advocates. This comes as no surprise especially to members of the media since independent reporting is outlaw...
October 30, 2009
photo: Omar Jabir
Omar Jabir is one of the most forthright Eritrean critics of the unelected rulers in Asmara. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Omar Jabir has very harsh words about the regime´s refusal to call for emergency food aid although the UN says close to 70 percent of the population is mal...
October 27, 2009
The only leader who thinks it is o.k. to preside over a nation with the worst record in press freedom is Eritrea´s strongman Isayas Afewerki. He argues there is no such thing as "free press". Of course there isn´t. But the rest of humanity agrees it is vital to have systems which enable people to fr...
October 06, 2009
photo: Omar Jabir
Moslems and Christians have lived in peace and harmony for centuries in Eritrea. However, over the past decades the two sides have been victims of the wrong judgment of their elites, says Omar Jabir, Eritrean thinker, politician and democracy advocate based in Sydney...
September 28, 2009
Photo: Woldeyesus Ammar
Eritrea is in the spotlight again following the killing on September 17 of 21 African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu by Al-Shabab militants who the African Union and the UN allege are supported by Eritrea. AU member states are pressuring the UN to sanction the Eritrean go...
September 22, 2009
Eritrea´s Horn of Africa neighbors have again called for an international action against the Asmara government in the face of increased violence in lawless Somalia. On Thursday, Al Shabab suicide bombers, using four UN marked vehicles, killed 17 African Peacekeepers inside their Mogadishu base...
August 17, 2009
Photo: Beleaguered Eritrean Leader Isayas Afewerki
As the Obama Administration threatens to punish Eritrea for its involvement in strife stricken Somalia, there are reports of an assassination attempt on the life of President Isayas Afewerki. Quoting sources from inside the ocuntry, two Eritrean Di...
August 03, 2009
Eritrean government ´support´ of Islamic extremism flourishing in Somalia has continued unabated. The Obama administration says Eritrea´s behavior poses a direct threat to its national security and a serious danger to international peace. It is no surprise that the US has heightened its rhetoric aga...
July 13, 2009
Photo: Professor Gideon Abay
Angry Eritrean youths jeered and booed Professor Gideon Abay in Oakland on Sunday in which he had nothing except praise for government policies in a country which has been described as a "giant prison" by human rights advocates and democratic nations worldwide.
...
July 13, 2009
Photo: Mohamed Adem Artaa
A senior official of the Eritrean opposition, Mr. Mohamed Adem Artaa, has called on pro-democracy forces to take urgent measures to undercut the power base of the ruling oligarchy and isolate it from the Eritrean masses.
Mr. Artaa is Central Committee member of the...
July 03, 2009
photo: Saleh (Gadi)Johar
In the following analysis, "More Red Tears", Saleh Gadi criticizes Dawit Wolde Giorgis´s recent essay, "The Way Forward for Ethiopia and Eritrea" as an attempt to rewrite the history of relations of the two countries. Saleh sees as short sighted Dawit´s call on fellow Eth...
July 02, 2009
Photo: W.Ammar, EPP Chairman
Q: The Eritrean regime is said to be militarily and financially backing Al-Quada linked insurgents in Somalia. The Obama Administration has responded by sending weapons to the interim Somali administration. At the same time, the State Department and Congress seem to t...
June 09, 2009
Photo: Beleaguered Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki
There is no better time than the present to end tyranny and misery in Eritrea. The Eritrean regime should be stopped from torturing, murdering and starving Eritreans. Nor should it be allowed to continue sending arms to Somalia which are repor...
May 25, 2009
Photo: President Isayas Afewerki
The question is not whether there will be UN sanctions, but how effective they will be to change the Eritrean government´s behavior.
For years, humanitarian and human rights advocates have been calling for punitive measures against the Asmara regime over persi...
May 14, 2009
Photo: Woldeyesus Ammar
Eritrea has come under heavy pressure especially from the US and Israel for its close ties with nuclear ambitious Iran and Somali militants with alleged Al-Quada connections. I spoke with Woldeyesus Ammar, Head of the Eritrean People´s Party. I first put to him what Presid...
April 30, 2009
Photo: Eritrean prisoners in metal shipping container
As Eritrea prepares to celebrate Independence Day in May, the West is outraged by the endless brutalities and gruesome collective punishment meted out on the Eritrean population. Authoritarianism has gone dangerously vicio...
April 26, 2009
YOSIEF GHEBREHIWET IS ONE OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL ERITREAN WRITERS TODAY. IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE, HE UNDERSCORES THE MAIN REASONS WHY OSAMA BIN LADEN AND ERITREA´S ISAYAS AFEWERKI ARE BOTH OPPOSED TO THE UN BACKED SOMALI GOVERNMENT UNDER PRESIDENT SHEIKH AHMED.
Osama Bin Laden last month bo...
April 13, 2009
photo: Selam Kidane (London) - Democracy and human rights advocate
Q: Violations of human rights and shortages of food often come up in Diaspora and some international debates as the main characteristics that define the state of affairs in Eritrea...Don´t they?
A: ...
April 09, 2009
Photo: Dan Connell
Dan Connell, author of many books on Eritrea, says the egregious extent of human rights violations in Eritrea are so extreme and sustained over such a lengthy period that all "development" aid ought to be withheld until there is a measurable change on the ground.
Da...
April 07, 2009
Photo: Woldeyesus Amar, EPP head
Q & A with Woldeyesus Amar head of Eritrean People´s Party
Q: Why has the EU decided in favor of sending $160-million aid to Eritrea without condition despite widespread opposition from many quarters including the Eritrean civic and political opposi...
March 19, 2009
Photo: President Isayas Afewerki
Principles of human rights, justice and rule of law are desirable but are not a primary objective of the European Union when dealing with aid recipient governments. European interests and the geo-strategic importance of the recipient nation would often supersed...
March 09, 2009
Photo: Saleh (Gadi) Johar - Writer and Publisher of leading Eritrean web news journal, Awate.com
The Eritrean media continues to go through very thorny twists and turns. As this interview is being sent out for publication, the global media watchdog, Reporters without Borders, is saying the govern...
March 07, 2009
The European Union is considering continuing with its controversial development aid to Eritrea totaling 122-million Euros (154-million USD) this year. Widespread opposition is growing in view of unrelenting Eritrean government violation of human and democratic rights. The EU is also criticized for n...
February 19, 2009
The new Eritrean Community Association in Santa Clara´s Silicon Valley has announced its plans for the rest of the year ranging from education to job training and placement programs for Eritrean nationals. The announcement was made by the Secretary of the Association, Mr. Asmerom Ghile, during an in...
February 05, 2009
Photo: Banafsheh AkhlaghiWestern Regional Coordinator of Amnesty International, San Francisco, California
February 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution (1978-79) which toppled the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and installed an Islamic Republic under the dictatorship of Ayatol...
December 14, 2008
Photo: Tesfai Woldemichael (Degiga), Deputy Chairman of the Eritrean People´s Party: "Government is under Siege"
The Eritrean people are quietly hurting. Hunger is painful. The food ration consists of one piece of white bread per person per day. All, including men and women in their 8...
December 15, 2008
Photo: Tighisti Gerezgher, head of new Eritrean community center Santa Clara County, California's Silicon Valley
There is a large Eritrean community in California´s Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County. Like many other nationality-based communities in the area, members tend to be of varying polit...
November 28, 2008
The US recently banned arms sales to Eritrea for its alleged support of the Somali Al-Shabab insurgents whom the Bush Administration regards as terrorists. This brought relations to their lowest ebb and improvement is unlikely as long as Eritrea continues to stand against American plans for Somalia....