I am well they could be 100. 00 leading africans have written to eritrea as president i say as if were urging him to embark on political reforms but will it make a difference i heard several dean make sure to tweet us during the show at a. J. Stream or you can leave your comments in our live you tube chat and you too could be in the street. It was a peace deal that took many by surprise and july of last year eritrea president is iosif worki travel to where he was met with hugs in Prime Minister id be ahmed the horn of african nations had fought a war from 1988 to 2000 and which more than 80000 people died and had been in a state of cold war ever since and which has held no elections since i say its came to power in 1903 and is jailed politicians and journalists has often justified its policies by saying they are necessary to protect it from attack or sabotage from ethiopia but with the Peace Agreement now signed opposition activists say the time is right for change young eritreans have started social media campaigns such as jaco or enough and last week a group of 100 leading africans wrote an open letter to president say its asking him to start political reforms and release what they called Political Prisoners john de film go kenyan journalist told us where the idea came from take a look at this. In october 28th. Rafael and i found ourselves the. But african conference of corruption and it struck us that we tend to be scared of events and discussing our options but never begin to our brothers has to be recreated when we asked ourselves why it became clear that some of the people we would have wanted their. Gaza rated or next for me to korea and saw we thought what can we do about this as as africans of pop an African Initiative thats where african sort of debt it before it is a tricky. So ken and theres sort of like this and you are cool have any real impact joining us to discuss this solemn solemn is a journalist with voice of america here in washington d. C. Who covers eritrea extensively. Too is a political scientist and Research Lead for the African YouthLeadership Program aphorism and van ness. Is a campaigner and human rights activist who is also joining us welcome everyone so lets get started with that letter that ahmed mentioned and we heard in the video comment there i pulled it up on my screen here and youll see it on your screen as well it begins its a long letter and it seems like a real instance of panafrican solidarity so you can see where it began so but im going to just pull out a couple of points so we trust that by opening this channel of communication with your excellent sea we may be afforded the opportunity to work with you to restore your country and the great people of eritrea and their rightful place in the family of african nations and it goes on there and of course this is an open letter to the president so salim when you got word of this letter what was your initial reaction my initial reaction is its very you know as a journalist we see this solidarity coming from you know really renowned intellectuals african intellectuals like nigeria who is very revered like you know kenyan activists who are fighting for prodemocracy democratic movements in their home countries but it is in addition to what eritreans young arab chance who are residing in the west and in western europe in the United States born raised here theyre calling for the same freedoms and you know the democratic systems that they are you know privileged to live and they want the same for their counterparts in eritrea thats what theyre calling for so its its in addition to what i have been calling so its very interesting to watch and ive covered the country for a very long time this is the 1st time were seeing the fear. Be removed people are showing their faces their showing their names and recording videos to call for what they say is enough of a oratory and rule eritrea we actually have one of those videos that maybe we can play out for our audience just to your point directly this came into us from eden here in america one of those every tree in the diaspora lets take a listen. I realize theres private conversations that just arent. There hundreds and thousands of people that are unaware of the current time in america that we have been. For 20 years which she was never elected by that position that are trying on this have been present for decades without a trial there is the freedom of press but there are no civilians because everyone is forced to join the service at the age of 17 when they are. In favor of a trial. And the office and. So on how you heard the list of grievances there when it comes to what people in the diaspora are saying they seem to line up with what members of the signatories of that letter that we mentioned had to say by it of note there are no eritreans on the signatories what did you make of the letter. Well i wasnt. Involved in you know all related activities and or more than 10 years my initial. The feeling about the letter was that it came about as being very audacious and kind of smug and why there is there is a history. Of sort of curious history that editors had with pan african moved past movement especially for political democracy decolonization where they were not vocal at all in relation to their control and theres atrocities that happened after that the fact that theres no. Signatories on this letter but it doesnt really bother me in particular its just that what i found a bit upsetting was that its clear to me that the my jordi of those signatories have no idea of whats going on in that or its history i understand that the letter was drafted by 2 people and then they went around and gathered these signatories of course you know reading it without any proper information or context it looks like an innocent letter right you know who doesnt want democracy who doesnt want reform. But they would be better if they would have actually contacted their compatriots in the country or even in the desk or out to get further information before signing such. Minister. Vanessa im curious to get your thoughts i mean a lot of the comments that we have coming in are actually also in support of the government there in eritrea and you know when it comes to the letter fail us all you know is it is tweeting and theres a conversation thats playing out thats kind of reflecting what i would say is a generational divide shes saying i can only assume that the enough movement the attention its begun to receive exposing the atrocities in eritrea had great influence in the timing of the letter to assist strength in numbers the time to apply pressure is now collectively for eritreans and a stronger africa and then theres a response from segun tony is saying i dont even know if youre born in eritrea youre too young to say these words its easy to say some things that we dont know ask your father he grew up i assure you hes been you know things are better now than they were the government is doing the maximum i dont know what your thoughts are on his specific points but what can you share with us about the generational divide and some of what you know we heard from. Rod hell about her kind of defense of the government i think a response this letter that i thought was very interesting on the government side was the focus on the bad timing of focus on the agenda behind the letter and to focus on what they were doing before the suddenness of it and where were you 30 years ago if i mean independence but when you when the. Government refused to let you out the troops and assigned to that. Agreement that provokes no. And i hope that this seems like an innocent matter who doesnt want democracy who doesnt want the issues and the things that theyre wasting in this letter and iraq open question who doesnt the issues that theyre raising are not unique to just africa and africa and the facility for eritrea has come up with by themselves and its not something that a that i have a lot of facts that are now arguing for racing issues that people in eritrea racing 18 years ago People Racing 10 years ago and have been imprisoned because of that people have been imprisoned without a trial for asking questions is a not for an idea were not agents oneill or neocolonial agents. Or powers its all ideas and i think its interesting that the african letters be accused of being agents of. Neo colonial powers whether africans. We are accused of being the a colonial agents but were a trend so im wondering who have the ability to actually criticize or chat without being criticized by progovernment people or by the government of being a nuclear know it and when do we get agency and asking questions for all people without being polite and i hear you there side of here want to respond but before you do i want to share with our audience because vanessa mentioned the governments response so want to share that with those who arent in the know just yet heres what shes talking about so take a look at the response i pulled it up on my screen as well in it they write the majority of the signatories have undoubtedly been influenced by the narratives on eritrea produced over the last 20 years none of them have firsthand knowledge of or have ever visited the country when one skim through the list there is not even a single individual who has penned one single article on the press predicament of eritrea and all those decades when it based enormous texas until threats we got lots of tweets like this as well so this is one person who says the more important question that needs to be asked is why have these quote unquote prominent africans been absent and silent the last decade and a half. When eritrea had been continuously harassed and terrorized and here they call the terrorist group which is the arm to gray Peoples Liberation front that laugh and whats your take on that well i would like to go back to what. Said about being audacious yes its our day to ask for you know the conditions of prisons that uncle. Happens to who happens to be the longest jailed journalist and on the continent these are facts that are very that show the true nature of how people are treated were talking about reporters that have disappeared family members like vanessa and others that i speak to tell me if there are dead let us know so we can have closure these are the specific questions that people asked me i speak to victims all the time recently when i was talking when i was working on a story about reporter who spent 6 years of her life for writing. Poetry i mean they were accused of listening to an opposition Radio Station in ethiopia for instance these are the voices that they are trying to highlight in fact the signatories specifically said our most important question and what you want to see is let us visit our counterparts these are pro democracy. Activists prodemocracy intellectuals that are active in their home countries been imprisoned for speaking up against authoritarian government and so they want to see their counterparts journalists parliamentarians who were arrested during the crackdown but thats what were talking about in the past year we have seen more crackdown former officials government officials broad daylight being arrested and so a lot of people thought this piece would bring some sort of change but were seeing more crackdown on religious institutions khana me and individuals and it seems when people are asking about when the change might come the government is kind of delaying it and just toeing the line saying its too soon its only been a year. Since this peace deal was reached on twitter there are people who are saying Something Like this for example i do not support the enough campaign as it is a misguided barrage of emotions barking at the wrong tree. I see that youre nodding maybe you agree with that vanessa because we heard from salim about your uncle and i know thats how you got into this activism in the 1st place im curious when you see these tweets that you know dismissing the campaign as as misguided barrage of emotions what do you make of that. Im i see privilege i see a lot of people face in the diaspora who themselves or their children are enjoying the very benefits of democracy of human rights people who dont oppose him arrive at the principle they believe in the right a lot of them like i have here are and africanus believe in you know the the rights of Afghan People but somehow when it comes to eritrea theres an exception somehow when it comes there together is a reason there is factions there are. Theres a war theres always a reason that makes air tran people in their trade excluded from these protests and rights that all human beings are supposed to be. Guarded by and be a part of and i think we do not understand at this point how anyone can be advocating for a government that the moving these because it just from our own people especially after these excuses because it was simply excuses all along it was never a question that was actually happening in the country it was never a question that shut down a parliament is not a fortunate prison my uncle and so many other people without a trial is never proportionate to make people serve a National Service definitely and it was never proportionate to the country to the dictatorship simply because of the stand up stand up at the border so i think people being misguided by their open head and maybe their own ideas of the kind of ownership that they want to and about the present that they loved at some point but one another as youre talking i want to share with our audience because i want to give this a slightly more personal touch because of course this is a very personal issue for you 5 pulled up a photo that you sent our team earlier of your uncle talk to us about whos in this photo. So the photos taken during the war of independence square. Was a photographer who trained other were photographers they captured a lot of the images and videos of the struggle who was also a teacher at the time and had always been a very adamant democracy human being who was it was an activist who was just a human being fighting not only for independence and actually about democracy and rights and was actually imprisoned for you know doing the work independence but i trial. For these very vocal opinions and one independence came he was also seen as a threat and demoted from being that actor of the National Television channel to the minister of tourism eventually becoming famous or analyst focusing on the well being of people and the crack up so in 2001 when theyre trying government we got 911 shut down the thing press a sudden imprisoning people who only from our perspective because there was another trial which we think were seen as a step towards the powers the mouth was one of them out of 10 journalist and a group of politicians and have all been imprisoned ever since and that was some activists called it or trance. The beginning of their 10 dictatorship and my uncle is one of the journalists that listen you know vanessa just hearing you talk about your uncle and his legacy and what hes done to train journalists we have temps ive been on twitter trying in and kind of countering a point that was made earlier on the show i wanted to make sure to get this in he says its worth noting eritrean writers and activists have already been airing their grievances for years hence the fact that there werent eritreans among the 103. 00 signatories which he says is irrelevant the issue remains there is an unelected government playing god with peoples lives and i see obviously youre not in that road you know you see these comments you see these people who feel as though theres not enough being done to address this since the peace plan what is your explanation as to why thats the case. My explanation has its not like you know excuses or you know what it is what i would like to bring in this conversation when i talk to people id like to discuss is context. And this is not an excuse for anything that has happened but when the journalist and the ministers were arrested it was in 2001. Right after the border conflict. Is a very precarious time but ill let me reply to this thing the tweet about the emotions so although it might kind of see new to viewers that this. Campaign is it is something new and theres been many campaigns with the same type of slogan over the year but was also the freedom friday why and that was proved to be just bogus what were seeing today is what you what i refer to what a lot of. Theorists political theorist refer to as a conservative backlash that piece that has been fostered between the countries has not been easy for people. You know to to transition from this a hostile to peaceful situation. Without you mind if you employ your mind if i just interrupt you because i just want to make sure and clarify for our audience youre saying context is important and there have been many other campaigns but it seems to me and obviously you know im im not as plugged in as maybe you or others you know it seems to us that some people like laura have bob on twitter are saying this is different because its actually reaching the streets of eritrea the naysayers start yako was only in the diaspora they thought we were foolish for pushing for change when the people back home stayed silent they thought the people back home would never resist and then shes sharing these pictures of you know the Campaign Slogan written on the walls there in eritrea is this something that youve seen before and does this suggest perhaps that this movements different. Not really i have seen things like that before you know different posters that might have gone up there were robo calls that would you know basically terrorize people out of their sleeve coming in from the outside telling them that they should stand up and do what have you. I wasnt talking about that because i was talking about actual grant me on the straight its ok and it has happened before you know. When i when i like to bring up context what i mean the function of it is to demystify different actions that might take. And even those in the diaspora you know dismiss it because. Discourse is always talked about and being across an isolationist and what have you you know we get these pictures and we think that its you know like this really big deal and its not this is something thats happened over many years and it in if its something thats going to continue you know that thats fine that the people do that do you mind if i do that i mean i want to talk about context context is very important. C mention that you know as a precarious time when the crackdown on journalists happened but the crackdown didnt stop and then were talking about the past here lets talk about the past here i just mentioned a reporter a journalist for a Radio Station that is owned by the government itself and funded by the minister for education was broadcasting Educational Programs and then they were accused of many of them were arrested and accused of of listening to an opposition Radio Station spent 6 years of her life in prison tortured beaten is what she told me and now she is an exile but when you are talking about context there is no justification that that can really. Explain these actions in the past year right after the peace deal was signed. A prominent. Politician who i think smuggled. A book outside and published outside was arrested in broad daylight when he was walking down the streets with his son so we were like i want to share this with with this family what are your headline about because they are this Amnesty International has a more complete picture of what might have happened there so you can see this on my screen here eritrea release former finance minister immediately and unconditionally he was allegedly arrested after almost just a just a week really after writing a book that people have said was deemed critical of the government and critical of the president so he was arrested just a year ago so people are saying this is still happening but i want to share this tweet because its in line with what you are saying samuel says in my opinion the most important and potentially durable achievement of this enough movement this movement is the significant involvement of young eritreans both in the diaspora and new immigrants who fled the eritrean government suffocating regime of control and suppression so based on what youre saying and what this we just saying new immigrants people are still fleeing and thats very important to talk about migration as well because the signatories made a point about migration being. People the government said to pull factor they are not recognizing the push factor why are people young people leaving and what are they asking for. Most of the people that i speak to what theyre asking for is the implementation of the implementation of the constitution that was ratified in 1007 theyre asking for freedom of movement when theyre if european counterparts can come visit all they can do is watch their parts come in and go they had to ask for exit visas when theyre asking for looking at the specifics of their asks is very illuminating and i hear a lot of you know migrants saying we cant go back we feel threatened for our lives or their top. King about the limitation of the National ServiceNational Service. On the continent constitution had 1818 months as it is right now we had caught colleagues colleagues who served and went to school with me and actually still is still trapped for 10 to 20 years and because you bring up migration i just want to quickly come to you we have this tweet from philly tech who lives saying what what do they mean when they say things are going ok in eritrea responding to some of our community why would we move through the Sahara Desert in libya to europe we have a wonderful country but if they treat us in very horrible ways where a blue obligated to leave why would thousands of people migrate why do you think or how people are continuing to migrate there are multiple of moral reasons i just wanted to close you were going to talk on the phone after respect you not only includes my quilting theres many africans and their lives in the hands of you can talk to in order to reach. Well to jump in there i think another point that needs to be made here is that deflection from the issues that are going on that we are discussing we can talk about the hypocrisy of the west we can talk about the ocracy of africa so as to that is more stronger with certain countries or less but others we can talk about the fact that these some of these people might have been silent 30 years ago some of these people werent even born some of these people werent present at the time to talk about all these issues but the government is saying that these issues are not its a nonissue these journalists and politicians that are present were and i actually own im not sorry i have to pause you there with it being a non issue i hear your point i take your point and its one that i know our community will still continue talking about unfortunate thats all the time we have for this conversation but we will do future shows on this because it is a hot topic its going to conversation will continue online dont forget to follow us at the stream on twitter and visit aljazeera dot com slash the stream for more episodes and i will see you next. 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