Translated by: Ahmed Raji

On the night of 7 March 2009 we lost a brother and a friend

Martyr Mohammed Dawoud Raka.

His sudden departure left a deep wound and sadness in the souls of all those who knew him. How hard and painful the loss of such dear friends and great human beings like Mohammed Dawoud!

Dear Mohammed, your peaceful face and pure heart never knew animosity or hate. How dare, then, they killed you in cold blood? They came under the cover of darkness, the cowards they are, to deprive you of your life, because you uncovered, much earlier than many of us, the falsehood of their promises and how they turned their back to the lofty goals in search of which you had joined the struggle.

You were noble-minded, yet firm in your beliefs; modest, yet self-assured. You never shied away from speaking the truth. You were blunt, some thought too blunt for you own safety, in speaking truth to power.

That’s why they came by night and waited in the shadows before committing their crime. But, rest assured your blood and the blood of all those who died in similar treacherous fashion - including your brother Abdalla and Ammar Mahmoud alSheikh - will not have been shed in vain. History will not forget and the perpetrators’ bloodied hands will one day be exposed.

Justice must prevail at the end. Your executioners, by ending your life, thought they were burying your ideas and ideals forever. But they were wrong. Those ideas and ideals are as alive as ever, carried on by a new generation of Eritreans committed to restoring the dignity and the rights that have long forsaken our country. As a young man, Martyr Mohammed Dawoud was committed to the just cause of the Eritrean revolution and was known for his relentless work among his peers.

After Independence, he became a vocal critic of the regime’s excesses and abuses, especially in education, which was his area of specialization.

He particularly criticized the arbitrary imposition of the mother-tongue policy on communities against their will. He also wrote in the papers and spoke in public forums about other public issues, such as those that were being debated during the short-lived opening for free press and, as a result, he faced interrogations and continuous harassment.

I met Mohammed for the last time shortly before I left Eritrea. In one of Asmara’s laid-back cafes we spent a long time talking. He told me about his latest run-ins with the Ministry of Education’s enforcers who had recently transferred him from his position as principal of Al Amal (Jalia) school to another job, and about the continued interrogations.

He was jailed for a short period and then released with strict conditions, including a ban on his movement outside Asmara. He couldn’t even visit his sister in Keren. The most striking thing about Mohammed, however, was that he never gave in to despair.

To the last moment, he was determined in his convictions. Dear friend, I will never forget the first time we met after Eritrea’s independence (in front of the grand Mosque in Asmara), as you were the first person from Middle East graduates I met.

We hugged and reminisced as we enjoyed the amazing air freedom, and we were bursting with excitement for a future full of wonderful things. But, alas, our joy did not last long, as things started to change for the worse and a dark cloud moved into our skies.

We were robbed of our beautiful dreams for a nation capable of embracing everyone and rewarding all those who fought hard for it to be a reality. But our hopes were dashed and, instead, you paid the ultimate price for that dream; a dream yet to be realized.

Countless are the names of men who have passed through this world, but only a few are remembered long after they pass on. May your soul find eternal peace! Brief bio:-

• Mohammed Dawoud was born in 1962 in Keren; but soon his family moved to Agordat, where he lived until 9 March 1975, the day of the Sunday massacre, when he and the family fled to Sudan.

• He finished high school in Omdurman, Sudan.

• In 1984, he went to Iraq where in 1987 he completed a degree in management from the Karkh Institute in Baghdad.

• When in 1989 all members of the central council of the National Union of Eritrean Youth were instructed to join the ‘field’, he immediately joined the ranks of the EPLF. After completing military training, he was assigned to the Department of Education, Arabic section.

• Following Independence he was sent for a specialized training in teaching Arabic Language to non-native speakers (1992-1994) at the African Global University in Khartoum, Sudan.

• Upon his return in 1994 he was assigned as head of Adult Education in Barka province.

• In 1995, he was assigned as director of Amal Model School (formerly Jalia). - In 1998, when the border war erupted with Ethiopia, he was recalled to the army where he served until the year 2000.

• He was married in 2000 and has one child, Abdalla.

• In 2007 he was transferred from his position at Amal school and was assigned to head the sports and cultural affairs office within the Ministry of Education’s branch in Asmara.

• In the morning of 8 March 2009 his body was found lying in front of his apartment at Sembel housing (enda Korea). Official investigations of the incident have not yielded any insights into the real cause of his untimely death.