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Stockholm April 14, 2008
Our Undertaking
The Eritrean Congress Party is a political vehicle whose main mission is to translate the principles of the Strategy Adi into an Eritrean reality. The name of our website is: “The Eritrean Congress Party Website” (ECPW). The mission of our website is to spread and deepen the crucial message embodied in the Strategy Adi. The key historical concepts embedded in our Strategy Adi are: a) Adi, b) Highi Indaba, c) Baito, and d) Zega.
a. The Adi/Ad
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The Tigrinya/Tigre term, by which the juridically chartered communes of Eritrea are known, is one of the central pillars of Eritrean identity. Eritrea is overwhelmingly organized in Adis that share the following characteristics:
b. Highi Indaba
The Adi is a territorially defined unit that enjoys an autonomous status within the framework of the Highi Indabas or ancestral constitutions.
c. The Baito
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Public life in the Adis is organized around the democratic Baitos or assemblies; the Baito combined legislative, judicial, and administrative functions. In keeping with this tradition, the parliament of Eritrea is referred to as the ‘Baito of Eritrea’.
d. Zega Adi
Zegnet or citizenship in the Mereb Melash (present Eritrea) is based on membership in the Adi community. Any person outside the Adi system is not treated as a Zega or a citizen. Citizenship, residential plots, and farming land rights, and all other rights and duties that ensue from it, are directly dependent upon certifiable membership in the Adi community. It is painful to point out that the draft constitution failed to tackle the central matter of citizenship. Two concepts of citizenship are left hanging; these are the historical Adi-derived citizenship, and the referendum related quasi-citizenship. In time the PFDJ obliterated the concept of the Zega Adi by the instrumentality of the referendum. The referendum was a right bestowed to all who resided in Eritrea, irrespective of origin, to cast their votes for or against independence. The referendum is not, however, the law of Eritrean citizenship. What we have today is not Eritrean citizenship but a kind of PFDJ ‘Eritrean identity’ bought at 2% of our incomes.
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The historical principles of the strategy Adi need to be internalized by Eritrea lovers because:
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Out of the concept of Adi emerged our passion for a modern Eritrean nationhood
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Out the concept of Baito our passion for constitutional democracy was born
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Out the concept of Highi Indaba grew forth our commitment to the Rule of Law
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Out of the concept Zega Adi emerged our modern concept of Eritrean citizenship
Propelled by these beliefs,
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The ECPW shall struggle for a constitution that defines Eritrean citizenship
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It shall, likewise, struggle for a constitution based on popular autonomy, universal and equal rights, free elections, and the secret ballot.
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The ECPW shall fight for the establishment of an autonomous judiciary. Only when justice and the rule of law are uncontaminated by political and financial influence mongering can it be said that a vital and vibrant democracy has been planted in Eritrea.
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The ECPW shall struggle to restore the historical regions of Eritrea.
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The three level ‘baitos’: that is to say, the Adi, provincial and national assemblies, shall be the basis of Eritrean parliamentary democracy and decentralization.
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The ECPW shall struggle to replace the stipulation that land belongs to the government by the principle of private property. Land shall be divided among the inhabitants of the Adis on the basis of residential and livelihood needs.
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The ECPW shall keep the memory of the monumental struggle of our people for independence alive and enshrine the saga of our martyrs.
The ECPW differs from existing Eritrean websites in its ambition to promote national debate - in the context of expressing divergent views. The editors of the ECPW shall demand strict adherence to courtesy and mutual respect. The material published in the ECPW is protected by international laws of publishing.
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Stockholm April 14, 2008
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