August 10, 2009 Mayor Gayle McLaughlin 450 Civic Center Plaza Richmond,CA 94804 Dear Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, A heartfelt salutation from the Eritrean community in the Bay Area. We do commend the efforts you and your team are putting for the betterment of the Richmond City community. We are Eritrean-Americans and members of a Civic and human rights organization called Eritrean Youth for Change (EYC) of the Bay Area. Our head office is in Oakland. Our main objective is to help Eritrean Immigrants integrate with the society in the US and advocate for the implementation of the Constitution of Eritrea by the Eritrean Government so as to address the current human rights crisis and absence of rule of law in this country of our fathers. We appreciate the help extended to Eritrea by the previous Mayors of Richmond especially at the time of the struggle for our independence. However, it is unfortunate that all the sacrifice and martyrdom paid by the people of Eritrea and by friends of Eritrea, like the City of Richmond, have been completely betrayed by the current regime. Almost twenty years after independence Eritrea is one of the few countries in the world with no constitution, no parliament, no political parties, no private press and in short no rule of law. The government in Eritrea is not a democratically elected regime. Eritrea has never seen elections since independence. As such, it has now become one of the most repressive regimes in the world in same league as that of North Korea and described by many as an open prison. The government led by a clique of rogues is at war with its own people, especially the Youth and also with its neighboring countries. More than 50% of Eritreans between the ages of 17-45 are conscripted and under arms. The remaining are languishing as refugees in neighboring countries, in Europe and N. America. The UN, the African Union, IGAD and the US Administration have rightly branded the Eritrean Government as the spoiler and main obstacle for peace and development in the Horn of Africa. Lest we bore you with a litany of crimes committed by the Eritrean government suffice it to draw your attention to the frustration expressed and the warning of action announced against Eritrea by Mrs. Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State only last week Dear Mayor McLaughlin, it is against this backdrop that we understand some Eritrean groups who are well known supporters and operatives of this illegitimate government in Eritrea are preparing to hold a Festival in your peaceful and fair City. This so called festival is nothing but a platform to propagate the regimes hate and division amongst our Bay Area Eritrean community to discourage any possible challenge and silence critics of the Eritrean government. They have planned for paid speakers who are well known for their inflammatory speeches that could poison the minds of our youth with hate, lies and falsehoods against the US government and its role and attempt to bring peace and development in the Horn of Africa. The other main objective of the festival is, of course, is to solicit as much money as possible from the innocent and poor migrants. Under strict rules enforced by their resident cadres (in this case in the Bay Area), no Eritrean festival or party or gathering is allowed unless sanctioned by the Eritrean Embassy in Washington. Migrants are kept in toe with the threat that if they resist they will be denied to visit their home country or to remit funds to their needy family members at home. All the money that accrue from such events is transmitted to the Eritrean Government in Asmara most of the time contravening US government foreign exchange and transfer laws. Thus, it is with deep gratitude for your time and effort that we seek your kind intervention on the matter and prohibit the carrying out of the above mentioned event in your beautiful and democratic City. To state the least the conduct of this event would be against the social responsibility of the residents Richmond. Dear mayor McLaughlin we understand that; now it may be too late for you to take full cognizance of the matter or appreciate our viewpoints; or perhaps give us an audience to explain further our stand with a view to consider reversing your permission to allow associating Richmond with such an unholy and destructive event. In any case we would still appreciate if you could do your best to make the organizers realize and feel your displeasure of supporting an anti democratic and repressive government which has stood against the principles and interests of its own people and that of the US Government. We believe that intervention on the matter even at this late hour could positively impact on the people, the organizers, the cadres and of course the Eritrean regime and be a deterrence to tyrants from having a say in the US soil. Dear Mayor McLaughlin, in the event you would like further details on the subject, please let us know and we would be honored to send two or three of our Board members at a time and date convenient to you. Yours Sincerely, Eritrean Youth for Change 380 Euclid Street, # 1 Oakland, CA 94610 Email: [email protected]