DATE=5/31/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=ERITREAN AMERICANS AND THE WAR
NUMBER=5-46412
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=ASMARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: While many foreign residents have fled
Eritrea under the threat of war, hundreds of people
who have dual Eritrean-American citizenship are
refusing to leave. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports
from the Eritrean capital, Asmara.
TEXT: Several hundred people line up outside the
American embassy waiting to attend a town meeting
where the U-S ambassador will brief them about
security in Asmara, a day after Ethiopia sent shock
waves through this city by bombing Asmara airport.
Everyone in this line holds an American passport. But
everyone here is also Eritrean. About 200 Americans
who hold dual citizenship are living here. They've
refused to join some 200 others who were evacuated in
May, deciding instead that the war to the south did
not warrant leaving the country of their birth.
Menghis Samuel is one of them. Educated and trained
as an engineer in the United States, he's now in
charge of a high-tech company in Asmara. Like other
Americans of Eritrean orgin, he can't think of leaving
his country at a time when it is left isloated in a
war with a much larger neighbor and counting on all of
its citizens to help it through a conflict that began
as a border dispute and is now the world's most deadly
international conflict.
/// FIRST SAMUEL ACT ///
Like any national citizen, if you are in the age
group called by the government for anyone who is
an Eritrean, even if it means to defend the
country, you have to do national service and you
may even go to the front in order to serve your
country.
SIMEONE: But couldn't you just show your
American passport and say "I'm an American, you
can't call me?"
SAMUEL: You can't. You've been enjoying
Eritrean citizenship, all the privileges also.
You've been treated as any Eritrean who had no
American passport so you really can't be a
hypocrite about it. If you get the privileges,
you have to meet all the obligations.
/// END ACT ///
Even though they hold American passports, Eritrea
recognizes these people as its own citizens and as
such they are subject to being forced to fight on the
war front. People with ties to the American/Eritrean
community say scores of American citizens may now be
taking part in a war that much of the rest of the
world can not understand and one that the U-S
Ambassador to the United Nations has called senseless.
Twenty members of Menghis Samuel's staff have already
been drafted into war, and if the fighting continues,
he knows he could be called soon.
/// SECOND SAMUEL ACT ///
If need be, I'll be called and will be serving
even if it means going to the front.
/// END ACT ///
Eritreans who hold dual nationality point out that the
rest of the world did not come to Eritrea's aid when
it fought for independence from neighboring Ethiopia
seven years ago. Africa's newest nation, they say,
can not rely on anyone but its own people.
/// THIRD SAMUEL ACT ///
Everybody is involved in Eritrea. We are a
small country. We don't have the luxury of too
many people like Ethiopia who can afford to send
them to war. We are the people who have to
defend the country.
/// END ACT ///
Many of these Eritrean-Americans fled the country
during the 1970's and 80's when Eritrea was still a
province of Ethiopia, and Ethiopia was under communist
rule. Tens of thousands made it to the United States
and other countries where they were granted asylum on
the grounds of fleeing communist repression. Some
have since returned to help build an independent
Eritrea, a country praised by the West as having one
of the Africa's least corrupt governments and a
country which - until this border war broke out two
years ago -looked to have one of Africa's most
promising futures.
It's not only Eritrean-Americans, but others with dual
citizenship who are involved in the war effort. Some
have even returned from abroad to join the call to
arms. Mulugheta Kusmu is a Canadian-Eritrean who
returned just after Eritrean independence to help
build a business and has since become a Canadian
diplomat. He says this war should never have
started.
/// KUSMU ACT ///
People have learned from their mistakes and this
is not something that should be resolved by war.
A border dispute is natural, but it should
simply be resolved by discussion.
/// END ACT ///
Outside mediators are now holding talks with both
sides in Algiers trying to do just that. (Signed)
NEB/NJS/gm
31-May-2000 14:13 PM LOC (31-May-2000 1813 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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