Mealti Sematat – Days of Remembrance

Eritrean youth commemorating Martyr's Day in Asmara, June 20, 2015 (Credit: RedSeaFisher)

By Bereket Kidane

The month of June is a commemorative one on the Eritrean calendar. As soon as the worldwide Independence Day (Mealti Natsnet) parties and celebrations that start in late May and spill into June wind down, the commemorative season and days of remembrance that culminate with Eritrea’s Memorial Day (Mealti Sematat) come upon us in swift succession. Our partying, dancing and flag-waving turns into tear-jerking in memory of Eritrea’s fallen heroes. They are really the framework for the Eritrean psyche – political and national – that governs our national mood, policies and outlook.

Mealti Sematat comes to remind us of the heavy price we paid to gain our sovereignty and maintain it. Tens of thousands of Eritreans have been killed and continue to die for its preservation. That number may have gone up by a few this week as a result of Woyane’s invasion. The big powers and their servants have basically never come to terms with the existence of a sovereign State of Eritrea and continue their efforts to undermine it in anyway they can. Constant hostilities, unceasing incitement, never ending accusations, fabrications, biased UN resolutions and sanctions have been the daily fare of the State of Eritrea for much of its existence.

We can never, God forbid, lose a war because we know war like the back of our hands. But we have seen how far the big powers and their servants are willing to go in passing sanctions based on fraudulent grounds to make sure Eritrea’s hands are tied in case of full-fledged hostilities.

The past few years have taught us that the State of Eritrea doesn’t have any real protectors other than the Eritrean people themselves. We are sick and tired of the corrupt machinations of the Security Council, the refusal of the guarantors of the Peace Agreement to perform their duty, the pious platitudes about peace in the Horn and the “blaming of both sides” when we clearly know which side is the aggressor.

The miracle of this past century in the Horn of Africa was and remains the birth of the Eritrean State against all imaginable odds. And Mealti Sematat comes each year to remind us of this rotten, corrupt and unfair international system we live under and the heartbreaking cost that Eritrea paid and pays to survive in this world. Mealti Sematat should also remind us and the world that eventhough the UNSC is once again plotting and fabricating to undermine Eritrea’s sovereignty as it does every June, in the long-run it is counterproductive and destined to fail. So let us take these days to heart and stand tall for Eritrea’s fallen heroes.

Zelealemawi Zikhri n Swuatna!

Awet n Hafash!

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