Final Communiqué
The Eritrean Lowlands League (ELL) has held its First General Convention under the theme, we preserve the Pledge of Allegiance of our Martyrs and we march on their Footsteps, The Convention was successfully concluded on November 21st, 2020
The First General Convention of the Eritrean Lowlands League was held in light of the accelerating dangerous political, economic and social dire conditions that the entire region of the Horn of Africa is witnessing, particularly Eritrea, considering the immediate and long-term repercussions on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our homeland Eritrea, as well as their impact on the rights and interests of our society in the Eritrean lowlands. The Convention’s sessions were virtually held by means of social media (ZOOM) due to the unfavorable travel restrictions and other preventive measures imposed by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, in spite of the hardships, the conferees had shown the necessary perseverance to move forward towards a successful conclusion of their convention, the determination was indeed greater than all challenges.
The leadership executive report along with a variety of study papers, bylaws and programs was presented to the convention and deliberated upon in depth with the required clarity and openness, the prevailing spirit was of responsibility and persistence to instill and consolidate the concepts and principles of organizational best practices in order to achieve the well planned objectives and advance the project of the Eritrean Lowlands League to a yet further milestone by improve its performance in various arenas.
The conferees had evoked the challenges related to human rights, economy and political situation facing the Eritrean Lowlands society, as the ruling junta in Eritrea along with its adherents had encroached on their rights. Interests and historical land, in addition to the ill-intended bargaining steered by the ruling Ethnic hegemony regime along with several regional powers at the expense of our country’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity. The conferees had also recalled and strongly condemned the interventionist behavior of the Eritrean regime meddling in the affairs of neighboring countries, as reckless adventures that will endanger the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Eritrea, as well as exposing the lives of Eritrean citizens to perishing in the absurd wars of the regime in which it indulged throughout its existence in power and expanded in it recently with its blatant interference in the internal affairs of neighboring Ethiopia.
The conference had emphasized the following:
First: The Eritrean Lowlands society, being the historic pioneer in leading the struggle for freedom, and being the bearer of the greater burden and sacrifices for the independence of Eritrea, confirms its adherence to the integrity of the Eritrean national soil and the sovereignty and independence of the Eritrean nation, having stated that, the Eritrean Lowlands society confirms its unhindered commitment to preserve and protect its own rights and interests on its historical land, it will never abandon or neglect any pitch of its legitimate rights whatsoever.
Second: The declared project of the Eritrean Lowlands League is founded on the principle of creating a collective awareness of inclusion and empowerment within the Lowlands society to enable it restore and preserve its rights and interests within the framework of an Eritrean State ruled by the law , justice and equality, a State that consolidates and guarantees the rights and interests of all its social components and recognizes political pluralism, and cultural, Ethnic and religious diversity under a decentralized constitutional democratic system through Consensus and unification of efforts of all the national well-meaning forces against the Ethnic hegemony regime prevailing in Eritrea currently, that can be achieved by adopting a new Social Contract which guarantees everyone’s right and every component’s aspirations to sharing power and wealth in a fair and equal manner.
Third: The Eritrean Lowlands League is determined to continue playing its role in cooperating with all national, regional and international civil and political forces in order to work to ensure the stability, rights and well-being of the Eritrean people and the peoples of the region in general.
Fourth: The Eritrean Lowlands League has adopted its rights’ struggle to be through civil means, it had chosen that path consciously and with thorough awareness of the importance and effectiveness of the civil means, the Eritrean Lowlands League would like to once again confirm its continuation on marching on the same approach.
Fifthly: The Eritrean Lowlands League, through its First Convention, appreciates all the efforts being exerted by the Eritrean opposition forces and calls upon them all to unify their forces and focus their objectives in order to liberate the Eritrean people off the grip of the regime of ethnic hegemony, which is trampling on the necks of our people, ELL calls as well on all peace-loving governments to stand by the Eritrean people in their struggle against the tyrannical regime that has committed and still committing horrific transgressions against our people that amount to crimes against humanity.
Sixth: The Eritrean Lowlands League warns, through its First Convention, of the last-minute maneuverings orchestrated by some opposition forces that are working to reinstall the regime of ethnic hegemony by means of raising make-believe slogans of regime change, while at the same time working to preserve the crux of the old regime, through attempts to dismantle and reassemble dubious new alliances between specific opposition groups based on foundations that serve the objectives of the old-new hegemonic forces, ELL’s First General Convention stresses that any political change in Eritrea shall guarantee the rights, interests and legitimate proceeds of the Eritrean people, as well as assuring unambiguously the return of the lowland refugees from refugee camps abroad to their homes in their historic lands, otherwise, any political change ignoring or dodging the legitimate rights of the Eritrean Lowlands society shall be ruled out as an incomplete false change, then ELL is obliged to continue its struggle until those rights are guaranteed.
Seventh: The ELL First Convention was concluded by electing a new leadership, the conferees have encouraged the new leadership to seek to redouble its efforts, so as to implement and materialize the outcomes of the First Convention into concrete action towards achieving the anticipated objectives.
Eighth: The First Convention adopted significant decisions and recommendations, mainly assigning the new leadership to seek to strengthen the internal unity of the Organization and advancing it one extra mile by communicating with all members, cadres and leaders of the League who had left the League in the previous years with the aim of facilitating their return to the ranks of the League to resume their duties towards their society through the ranks of ELL. The recommendations focused predominantly on foundations, means and mechanisms to achieve greater portion of the goals enshrined in the strategic plan, identify and address weaknesses to avoid them, and reinforce the advantages and strengths that emerged during practices in the previous tenure, with the aim of developing future work in various aspects and improving performance to assure the effectiveness and capability necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Project to revitalize and reunify the Eritrean Lowlands society.
The Eritrean Lowlands League
First General Convention
November 21, 2020
