Briewe van Elders/Letters from Elsewhere

  Wat doen ‘n mens in ‘n post-oorlog Eritrea, waar gemoedere nog hoog loop, en ons in sommige kringe nie al te welkom was nie?   Net eers ‘n bietjie agtergrond.   Ek gaan julle nie verveel met die koloniale geskiedenis van Eritrea nie.   In kort kom dit daarop neer dat Eritrea sedert 1888 ‘n Italiaanse kolonie was. Sedert Desember 1950, na WOII, het die VN ‘n resolusie aanvaar wat van Eritrea ‘n federale deel van Etiopië gemaak het.   Dit was teen die wil in van die Eritreërs. Op 1 September 1961 begin die Eritrese Bevrydingsfront met ‘n gewapende stryd om onafhanklikheid.   Hierdie stryd het gewoed tot 1991, toe die rebelle die Etiopiërs uit hul land uit gejaag het, en onafhanklikheid verklaar het.   (Lees gerus Dan Cornel se boek, Against all odds oor hierdie redelik onbekende stuk geskiedenis.) Sekere grensgebiede is egter deur beide Eritrea en Etiopië betwis.   Etiopië het in hierdie gebiede al dieper in Eritrea in beweeg, wat uitgeloop ...

What does one do in a post-war Eritrea, where moods are still high, and we were not very welcome in some circles? Just a little background first. I'm not going to bore you with the colonial history of Eritrea. In short, Eritrea has been an Italian colony since 1888. Since December 1950, after WWII, the UN has adopted a resolution making Eritrea a federal part of Ethiopia. It was against the will of the Eritreans. On September 1, 1961, the Eritrean Liberation Front began an armed struggle for independence. This struggle raged until 1991, when the rebels expelled the Ethiopians from their land, declaring independence. (Dan Cornel's excellent book, “Against all odds”, tells the story of this relatively unknown piece of history.) However, certain border areas have been disputed by both Eritrea and Ethiopia. Ethiopia moved deeper into Eritrea in some of these areas, culminating in the 1998-2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian war. These protracted conflicts led to pollution of, especially ...