We want to be Free, we want to live, we want justice, we want peace. Manifesto of the Youth of Eritrea

„Down with the dictatorship! Down with the PFDJ! Down with YPFDJ! Down with the followers of the dictatorship!“

We, the youth of Eritrea, are fed up with dictatorship, with this barbaric regime, with the military, with human rights violations, of persecution, forced conscription, endless wars and indifference the international community!

We would like to scream and this wall of silence,of injustice and break through indifference, cry out, with all the strength of our souls to let out our gigantic frustration that got us in the crappy situation we are in live, consumed inside.

We are prisoners in our own country, living in a nightmare within a nightmare, there is no room for hope, no room for freedom and a future.We ́re fed up to stuck in political arguments, fed up with the pitch black nights, fed up with innocent youngsters getting shot at the borders, because they want to flee from the barbaric slave labor and forced conscription, fed up with evil state security running around abusing their power and brutally beating, chasing and imprisoning young people.We ́re sick of politics of shame that cuts us off from the rest of the world and locks us up in an isolated country.

We ́re tired of being portrayed as war criminals, die-hard fanatics, war machines full of hatred. We are fed up with the indifference with which the international community treats us, ignoring our situation and works with the regime together. We are fed up with living a shitty life lead, held by the dictator and chased away and beaten up by the state security.

A revolution is growing within us, a huge dissatisfaction and frustration that will be destroyed us, if we don ́t find a way to convert that energy into something challenges the status quo und gives some kind of hope.


The last drop that made our hearts overflow with frustration and hopelessness is, the war which began before three years, when the security guards with their guns, their lies and their Aggression, us youngsters for another criminal war as cannon fodder used.We were chased away, beaten, abducted and imprisoned and brought to the war front.

More than 100,000 young people have probably been killed in this senseless bloody war.We are truly living a nightmare within a nightmare.It is difficult, to describe in words the kind of pressure we live under. In 20 years of constant war, many young people lost their lives, were locked in the dungeons, enslaved, sold as foreign currency earning mercenary soldiers and sold as organ replacement parts to criminals tractors. Our future, hope and dreams have been shattered and wiped out, the regime managed to scare us, that we longer getting rid of it, and infecting us all with Post Traumatic Stress-Syndrome, because there is no escape.

We are young people with a great burden on our hearts. We carry a melancholy within us that is so overwhelming we can barely enjoy to watch the sunset. How should we, since gloomy clouds are gathering on the horizon and bring us Post images of miserable memories as we close our eyes. We smile, to hide the pain, we laugh to forget the war. During the war crept over us with the certainty, the regime would wipe us out and want to make us disappear off the earth. Over the years, the dictator has done everything to control and control our thoughts, our behaviour, our lives and check our aspirations.

We are a generation of young people used to brutal reprisals, being threatened with persecution and enslavement, a generation with the seemingly impossible mission of living a normal, healthy life under these circumstances, and we are only grudgingly tolerated by a brutal terror regime, that in our society has spread like a cancer, chaos and devastation produced and penetrates into all living cells, thoughts and dreams destroyed while it paralyses the people under the regime of terror, not to mention that we live in a prison, a prison of „never get out.“

History repeats itself in the most horrible way and nobody seems to care of it. We are afraid; afraid of going to jail, of being interrogated, beaten, tortured, killed and to be cannon fodder. We ́re afraid of that Life, because every single step that we take needs to be calculated and considered precisely, there are always harsh penalties and restrictions, we can’t be so free move how we want, say what we want, we can’t even think what we want, because the terror regime is occupying our hearts and minds in such a hideous way, it hurts and makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and anger!

We don’t want to hate, we don’t want to feel all this, we don’t want anymore to be a victim!

IT IS ENOUGH!
Pain, suffering, control, restrictions, terror, torture, subterfuge, war, flight, sleepless nights, civilian killing, hunting down youths, endless forced conscription, slavery, incarceration.

IT IS ENOUGH!

Miserable future, dark memories, tormenting present, politics gone haywire, brutal corrupt politcians, unscrupulous supporters -enough is enough! WE SAY: „STOP THIS!“

This is not the future we want!

We want four things: We want to be free. We want to be able to lead normal lives. We want peace. We want justice.

IS THAT TOO MUCH ?

We are a peace movement of young people in Eritrea and in the diaspora, we will not rest until the truth about Eritrea and the reign of terror in the world is known, until the silent assent and booming indifference are no longer possible.

This is the Manifesto of the Youth of Eritrea for Change!

We will begin to crush the barbaric terror regime that surrounds us, we will free ourselves from this mental dungeon and regain our dignity and self-respect.

We’ll walk tall even if we are attacked!

We will work and fight day and night to change the miserable conditions we live in and to owerthrow the brutal terror regime. Where we meet walls, we will build dreams.

„We want to be free, we want to live, we want justice, we want peace.“

FREE YOUTH OF ERITREA

(July- 2023)