Stockholm’s three day conference final report  

By organizers

The three day conference organized by the Eritrean Association for peace and democracy where all Eritrean opposition civil, political and friendly Swedish liberal party organizations participated was successfully completed on 4^th November 2007. The conference with its three programmes of work, thus evening seminar on Friday 2^nd November 2007, was opened by Ms Birgitta Ohlsson member of the parliament and liberal party. The keynote speakers were Dr. Johannes Zermariam and Fredrik Malm of the liberal party and member of the parliament.  

 Dr. Johannes and Fredrik Malm were the keynote speakers. Dr Johannes’s speech focused more on the opposition democratic forces. He stressed that our struggle is not simply to replace the dictator but to build democratic institutions and democratic society. In his speech, Mr. Johannes has assessed the situation and proposed an urgent choice of means that unite the forces for democracy under one platform.

 Mr. Fredrik emphasized how important it is that Eritreans in diaspora stop their support the dictator in Eritrea and stand with the opposition. He added that the liberal party is working hard with its partners at the EU level to discuss the issue of democracy in Eritrea.  

After lecture, panel discussion was conducted. The first question was about the silent diplomacy followed by the EU member countries with the dictators and its effect. Dr. Yohannes replied that silent diplomacy is not the correct way to approach dictators but to openly criticize and exert hard pressure on it. The other questions were how the opposition come together and influence the international opinion towards the Eritrean case.

At the meeting human rights document and a proposal paper to be discussed on the Swedish parliament and further at the EU level were were distributed.

The 2^nd  day conference in the city of Stockholm was a whole day conference participated by civil and political opposition organizations and support and friendly Swedish liberal party members. The seminar was opened by Mr. Ibrahim Abdallah, the head of the Eritrean Association for peace and democracy.

In his welcome speech; he has briefed the horrible situation of the Eritrean people under the inhumane and oppressive regime. He welcomed the invited guest speakers – Dr. Sahle Tesfai , Fredrik Malm of the liberal party and Dr. Yohannes Zermariam.

The seminar was chaired by Mr. Arhe Hamednaca, a member of the association. The first speaker was Dr. Sahle Tesfai.

Dr. Sahle Tesfai presented his paper under the title, “ Dialogue towards national conference”.

The core issues of his discussion were on Unity, Reconciliation and National Conference. He elaborated the historical trials and fails of uniting the Eritrean politic during the political, armed and even after the independence of the country. He criticised block building and underlined such block buildings does not  lead us to converge but fragmentation and increasing fractions confronting each other in opposing directions.

The second speaker was Mr. Fredrik Malm of the liberal party and member of the Swedish parliament. Mr. Fredrik introduced his speech how he was come to know Eritrea during the liberation period and how his party was engaged to support the Eritrean people after independence but after independence the fate of the Eritrea people become dark and all hopes for development were curtailed. He mentioned the case of Dawit Isaak but added that it is not only Dawit’s case but the whole human rights abuses that concern his party.

Democracy is not only the rule by the people but it is the best system to resolve conflicts without violence. Mr. Fredrik elaborated the human rights abuses in the authoritarian states in the world and how they affect each other. He has exemplified the internal and external conflicts in the Horn of Africa and their interdependence.

He quoted the words of Voltiare,” Even if I don’t agree with your opinion I will die defending your opinion” is one of the democratic values that we must respect.

After two speeches the seminar has taken a 40 minutes lunch break.

Later after break, the third speaker was Dr. Yohannes Zermariam. He presented his paper under the title, “ Democracy and conflict processing in Eritrea..” His paper focused on  democracy as the method of conflict management. He proceeded  that our task as opposition is not only to replace the dictator but build viable democracy with functioning institutions and forums of consensus. He added that this needs mechanisms or frameworks carrying the political process of the opposition towards a capable alternative to the dictator in Eritrea.  

Panel discussions

Questions raised by the audience:

1.     How can we attract the youth, women, civil societies and religious leaders?

2.     How can you identify between civil society and political organization?

3.     Why do you oppose always the regime in Eritrea?

4.     What do you mean by ignorance of unity?

5.     How can we overcome this ignorance?

6.     Was alliance- building in the opposition political organizations tactical or strategic?

7.     What is the difference between strategy and tactic?

8.     What do you think the mechanism that can unite the opposition political organizations?

9.     What are the cleavages of the opposition political organizations?

Answers:

1.     In order to attract these sectors of our societies, organizations must engage in regular dialogue, consultations and information exchange between them. Joint activities of discussion, debate should be encouraged.

2.     It is difficult to identify at this time which is which, there is overlap in membership between political parties and civil society but all struggle for democratic changes, therefore no need to dispute.

3.     Because, it failed to accomplish its promises and put the people under its control without no mandate from the people.

4.     By ignorance of unity , I mean that we are still not aware how important is unity to peaceful coexistence and building a nation that respects the fundamental rights of its citizens.( Dr. Sahle)

5.     We can overcome this by civic education and other democratic methods.

6.     The terms strategic and tactic are complicated and are used intermittently without clear definitions, but tactic is the method used to achieve short term goals while strategy is the method used to achieve long term objectives. I think alliance building from time of  the second world war and up to now has been practised by long term objectives, for example, the countries who won the second world war built alliance and after developed this method further to a union so called today European Union. If the alliance of the Eritrean opposition was based on this principles- thus first allied to win the dictator and later their long term to build democratic Eritrea, therefore it is a strategic but if it is only to win the dictator and then split, then is tactical.

7.     The difference is from the user and what he has for aims and goals. They are different. Tactics are method used to win a short term aim and strategy has vision and long term objectives to achieve.

8.     The only method to bring the various opposition political and civil society organizations is dialogue.

9.     The characteristics of the organizations either political or civil is by identities( ethnic,religious, regional and tribal) even those who call themselves as organizations representing all seems dubious but practically if we see them all are of the same shape, this is because there is no an umbrella organization that unite them, respecting their fundamental rights.

      The third day was a workshop:

The workshop was opened by the project leader of the association, Mr. Fesseha Nair and was attended by about 30 people from members and representatives of the opposition political parties, organizations, movements, and civil societies.

The first session was devoted to group discussions organized around 5 key questions. There were two groups headed by Dr. Yohannes and Dr. Shale respectively.

The key questions were as follows below:

                      Democracy Workshop key questions

1. How do we identify factors that:

-         hinder

-         enhance

Unity of the opposition camp?

2.     How do we create an inclusive democratic transition framework in the opposition camp?

-         Experience of Codesa( Convention democracy South Africa)

-         Experience of Eritrean Democratic Alliance

-         Burmese Coalition for unity and democracy

3.     How can national conference promote democratic transition in Eritrea?

4.     What is the role of the civil society in the struggle from dictatorship to democracy?

5.     What should be the role of the media and its strategy for raising democratic awareness?

-         Experience of TV Zete and TV Adal in Sweden

-         Internet and other media channels like satellite TV.

-         Experience of IDASA- institute for a democratic alternative South Africa.

When each group have discussed the key questions, then they come with different findings and presented their findings to the participants together. The results of the work shop will be reported lately in Arabic and Tigrinya.

The three day conference was attended by 150 persons from the following political and civic societies:

Political organizations.

1.     ELF( Eritrean Liberation Front)

2.     ELF-RC ( Eritrean Liberation Front –Revolutionary Council)

3.     ENSF ( Eritrean National Salvation Front)

4.     EFDM ( Eritrean Federal Demopcratic Movement)

5.     EPDF ( Eritrean Peoples Democratic Front)

6.     EPM ( Eritrean Popular Movement)

7.     EIPJD ( Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and development)

8.     ECP ( Eritrean congress party)

9.     Alnahda partiet

Civic societies:

1.     EFD (Eritreansk folk rörelse för demokrati)

2.     EFFD ( Eritreansk förening för fred och demokrati)

3.     ENLF ( Eritreanks nationell league för forsoning)

4.     EDHR ( Eritrean for democracy and human rights)

The conference was a success and come out with common understanding that must be further developed and finally recommended that a memo based on this common understanding they have reached, should submitted to all political organizations leaders in the opposition camp.

The memo is under preparation and will be sent to all political leaders of the political and civic organizations.

The papers presented by Dr. Yohannes and Dr. Sahle Tesfai will be published separately soon.

                     Reports written by the info project group/ EAPD