Pushkin, the anti Tyranny Writer, shall not Save the Tyrant

It has been oftentimes observed that the head of the dictatorial regime in Eritrea – Isayas Afewerki is versed in resorting to any possible, an eleventh hour method to save himself when his life nears to collapse. We all remember what Isayas did when a third of Eritrea fell into the hand of the Ethiopian soldiers during the Ethio-Eritrean war in Badme. He called President Clinton while he was in the middle of his (Clinton’s) sleep and implored him that he agreed to all the demands of Ethiopia and later signed a 25 kilometer buffer zone between the two forces within the territory of Eritrea. Now he is resorting to another mischief to save his neck from the noose which seems imminent this time. A possible targeted sanction on Isayas Afewerki and his henchmen is drafted by Uganda and is presented to the UN Security Council for deliberation and vote. They are sitting for it soon. Some observers comment that the Security Council is likely to take a draconian measure on the Eritrean leaders who are repeatedly implicated for their support to the Al Shabab Islamists who are inflicting havoc and untold misery on the people of Somalia and beyond. The UN, the USA and several other countries have pointed their fingers on the Eritrean leader for emboldening the Al-Shabab both in material and moral terms. Do you know to whom the dictator turned for help this time? To Alexander Pushkin.

As you might have heard, the regime has erected the statue of Alexander Pushkin in Asmara and inaugurated it in the presence of some Russian diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Eritrea. Isayas is also seen doing some cheap diplomatic game with Ms. Elena Drapeco, MP of the Russian Federation, at his notorious Sawa camp (http://74.63.78.28/Dec-09/haddas_ertra_02122009.pdf).

One would then wonder why is the regime, which has never erected a single statue in memory of its thousands of soldiers killed during wars with Ethiopia, Yemen, the Sudan and Djibouti, doing this now. It is not because Isayas likes Pushkin, who for that matter is believed to have an Ethiopian lineage. Neither it is because the Eritrean regime has a special taste for the literary works of this great man. The reason is simple and around the corner: To appease Russia, which is one of the countries that have a veto power in the UN Security Council. Isayas is hurrying to do this out of his desperate attempt to soften the heart of the Russian leaders and save him from the anticipated targeted sanction on him and his accomliacnecs.

So myopic as the dictator is, he has once again resorted to tentative and short-purposed technique to try to avert the wrath of the UN Security Council members. I do not think the Russians, who are known for their history in fighting and kneeling down fascism and despotism, would allow Isayas to prolong the misery of people in the Horn, and particularly the people of Somalia, to indefinitely bear the brunt of his malicious hand.

The closing remark is Isayas Afewerki would not have the intestinal fortitude to set up a statue for Pushkin had he (Isayas) read at least one of Alexander Pushkin’s Three Poems on Imprisonment and Freedom: “The Prisoner”; “In Far Siberia’s Deepest Soil”; and “The Little Bird”. Isayas’ erecting a statue for Alexander Pushkin, who was known for his anti tyranny and totalitarianism struggle through his novels, poems and other non-fiction literary work, is a paragon, a shining example of irony and all its manifestations.

Shalom,

Henok (jahdanok@yahoo.com)