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EDITORIAL
Eritrea’s Open Letter to
Diplomats in
Asmara, Addis Ababa and
Khartoum
(From upcoming issue No. 99 of The Eritrean Newsletter,
English language organ of the ELF-RC)
Who of the international diplomats
accredited to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, the Sudan and Yemen will
tomorrow feign ignorance of the current catastrophic situation of the
Eritrean people under the cruel regime of petty dictator Isaias Afwerki?
Who and how many of the scores of African,
Arab and other diplomats in the region will tomorrow be mentioned
favourably to have helped Eritreans, in one way or the other, when
they suffered under the clutches of the African Pol Pot, Isaias Afwerki?
This open letter wishes to present a small
picture of the hugely ugly human condition in Eritrea today. It also
wishes to recommend action that can be easily taken by those to whom
this message is addressed: Diplomats and Diplomatic Missions in Asmara
and in Eritrea’s neighbourhood - Addis Ababa, Djibouti, Khartoum and
Sana’a.
On his day of departure from Asmara on 2 June
2007, former USA Ambassador to Eritrea, Mr. Scott H. DeLisi, expressed
his admiration for the strength and undiminished courage of Eritrean
friends and assured in this telling words: “You should know that
despite increasing [Eritrean] government violations of human rights,
civil liberties, economic freedom and democratic principles, the
Government of the United States of America remains hopeful that ONE
DAY the Eritrean people will enjoy the rewards of their heroic
struggle for independence”. The outgoing Ambassador also added: “The
United States will continue to support the Eritrean people in their
quest for TRUE
freedom and prosperity” [emphasis
added].
Thank you USA diplomat for your departure-day
note that less diplomatically telling about the situation you left
behind in Eritrea. Thank you for publicly acknowledging the absence of
freedom in Eritrea and for the pledge to support Eritreans in their
quest for true freedom, and thank you for prophesying that one day, our
people will prevail over the dictatorship and enjoy the fruits of their
prolonged struggle. Yet, this is too little, too late for the Eritrean
people. They ask for more.
Today’s mild note by the departing US
Ambassador reminds one of the bold memorandum of EU envoys in Asmara
that Italy’s Ambassador Baldini submitted to the Eritrean dictator on 28
September 2001. In it, the European ambassadors accredited to Asmara
expressed their shock and consternation over the blatant action taken in
September 2001 by the regime against the fledging private press and
government officials who demanded for more rights to the people.
Ambassador Baldini was expelled but he did not regret what he and his
colleagues did because it was done for a good cause. However, seven long
years have passed and the cause that they aimed to promote – i.e. to see
a democratic Eritrea, as dreamt by its fighting people – is not yet
accomplished.
Year in year out, the political, social and
economic situation of the country is deteriorating in a tragic way. The
good diplomats in Eritrea’s neighbourhood are reminded to heed to what
is going there as reflected in the annual reports of Amnesty
International, the Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders (RSF),
the US State Department’s human rights annual record, occasional
statements of the European Union and others. The reports show what
Eritrea looks like today. Please read on:
ERITREA TODAY
Eritrea is in total paralysis under the PFDJ
regime of petty dictator Isaias Afwerki and clique of military officers
whose sole interest is lingering on the saddle of power that it denied
to the people. The country is falling apart. The people are in utter
desperation looking for a rescue. Outside Eritrea, the regime has
contributed in further destabilizing the already fragile situation in
the Horn of Africa.
Political Bondage
As you all know, the regime thinks of nothing
save self-preservation. After 16 years since liberation in 1991, Eritrea
has no constitution; it is ruled by decrees. No freedom of press and
assembly. No political parties. No independent civil societies. No
respect for the most basic human rights.
There have not been national elections since
1991. The rubber stamp parliament put together in a shameful manner in
1994 holds no regular meetings. It last met in February 2002.
Like the old Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot and that of Dictator Saddam
Hussein, Isaias Afwerki’s Eritrea is in splendid isolation from its
neighbours and the world at large. It has been at loggerheads with
Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia and the Sudan for many years. It has no good
relations with the rest of the world that has passed judgment on the
abnormal behaviour of its rogue regime. During the past 18 months alone,
over a dozen International NGO that were actively serving the needy
people in Eritrea were expelled for no reason other than the regime’s
fear of their watchful eyes.
No Freedom of Expression
Eritrea’s journalists are in prison and so is
the right to free expression. It is believed that Eritrea is the worst
country in Africa and third in the world in terms of suppression of
freedom of the press. Scores of journalists are in prison since 2001. In
2006, nearly a dozen of additional journalists were put in prison. The
Eritrean/Swedish Dawit Issak and others were presumed dead in prison.
Aklilu Solomon of the Voice of America was one of the few lucky ones to
have escaped form detention in December 2006.
No Freedom of Privacy
No Freedom of Movement
In Eritrea, the post, the electronic mail and
phone lines are under daily surveillance of the security apparatus.
Armed gangs of the regime break into homes anytime of the day or nigh
without any legal authorization. Barricades block movement of people
from place to place within the cities and in the countryside. Visas are
not obtainable. Now, new conditions dictate that children above 5 years
must present a sponsor to guarantee their return to the country after a
specified period. Those above 18 years are not allowed to travel abroad.
Religious Suppression
Freedom of worship is suppressed and
religious establishments have very limited scope to do work in Eritrea.
Their properties were confiscated; their bank accounts are under strict
state monitoring. Eritrea has an appointed Mufti for its Muslims and an
appointed Patriarch for its Christians of the Orthodox Church after the
detention of the illegally dethroned Patriarch Antonios. The so-called
smaller churches are literally banned and many of their worshipers
imprisoned. In places like the notorious Sawa camp, people are
prohibited practicing religious rituals like performing the 5 prayer
rituals (salat) for Muslims or owning and reading the Bible in the camp.
Absence of the Right to Fair Trial
No fair trial in Eritrea by a judiciary which
is subjected to the executive organ. Special courts pass phony
decisions. Throughout the years, special courts penalized defendants who
never appeared before them. For sure, there is extreme for of “disdain
of law and international standards of fair and just trial” as the
Khartoum-based Suwera Centre for Human Rights put it in its 2006 report.
For instance, three Jehovah’s witnesses were imprisoned for 12
years although refusing to go to national service is punishable for up
to 3 years under PFDJ laws. Some prisoners are told without going to
court that they are sentenced to so many years. E.g. Tekle Tesfai of
Eritrean/Dutch nationality was arrested in May 2005. Recently, he was
told by the director of the prison that he is sentenced to five years.
He has not been taken even to the Kangaroo courts of Isaias Afwerki.
Arbitrary Killings
Several persons have been executive in
military camps and in the rest of the country. On 13 May 2007, three
young persons were executed in the market place of Tessenei near the
Sudanese border and residents of the town were invited to watch. The
victims were killed for alleged petty crime of assisting persons to
cross the border to the Sudan. Such cases in the market place of
Tessenei alone reached 9 in the past two years. Any person apprehended
while trying to cross the border to Ethiopia or the Sudan is shot at the
spot.
Arbitrary Detentions
Persons taken to prison in 1992 are still
detained in unknown places. No visitations by family members.
Malnutrition is high and medical care almost inexistent. Escapees report
of constant deaths of prison mates in all parts of the country. Parents
of suspected escapees from the camps and forced labour projects are
ordered to pay 50,000 Nakfa (USD 2,000) per son or daughter or face
imprisonment. Many have been imprisoned on behalf of their children
whose whereabouts are not known. Some parents languished in prison for
sons and daughters who were killed by the Eritrean forces while trying
to cross the border Ethiopia or Sudan, or died in the deserts
Sudan/Libya or the high seas.
Torture
Torture is rampant in the myriad of prisons
and detention camps throughout the country. Even containers, used as
prisons, accommodate up to 50 persons each under hot climate and are
found everywhere in the country. In PFDJ prisons, inmates sleep in turns
because of lack of space. Prisoners are allowed toilette facilities only
once a day. For the rest of the time, they use food cans. Access to bath
is once a week in the best cases. Eritrea’s ever growing prison
population knows no access to radio, TV or newspapers. Instead, the news
exchanged among inmates is about the ever changing methods of torture
the inmates are subjected to: electric shocks, dipping in cold water,
beating on sensitive parts of the body, exposure to hot sun, hanging
from trees, bonding hands and legs in different shapes. Cases of suicide
are plenty.
Situation of Eritrean Refugees
UNHCR and the rest of the humanitarian
community know that the Isaias regime has discouraged the return of
refugees after liberation in 1991. It was estimated that 80% of Eritrean
refugees in the Sudan, then numbering 0ver 500,000, remained in the
Sudan. Now, new refugee caseloads are flooding in Ethiopia and the
Sudan. An estimated number of one million Eritreans still remain in the
two countries.
Presently, there are about 100,000 Eritreans
living in refugee camps in Eastern Sudan where they receive very little
support (25% of the normal rations they used to take). Well over 20,000
Eritreans cross the borders to Ethiopian and the Sudan per year.
Currently, there are over 10,000 fresh arrivals in the Shimelba refugee
camp in northern Ethiopia. In all cases, the condition of Eritrean
refugees is tragic and below the absolute minimum of living condition of
human beings mainly because international humanitarian assistance is
almost non-existent for many known reasons, including donor-fatigue.
The other worrisome situation is that of the
Eritrean asylum seekers who have tried to reach Europe via Libya and
Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Recent reports indicated that 450
Eritreans are in one detention camp called Misrata, and there are many
other detention centers where Eritreans are kept. Many Eritreans asylum
seekers are dying while trying to cross the sea in small rickety boats
What Can Diplomatic Missions in Asmara,
Addis, Djibouti, Khartoum and Sana’a Do To Help Eritrea and Eritreans?
Eritrea is in bad shape but it is also liable
to face a much worse human disaster than what befell failed states in
recent years. The international community as represented by its envoys
in the region is expected to help. However, we are not of the opinion
that Ambassadors of individual countries and diplomats in the
international missions located in the region have done what they could
to help avert this potential disaster looming high in Eritrea. What do
Eritreans want them to do?
·
Diplomats accredited to Asmara
can exert efforts to further reveal to the unheeding world the brazen
human rights abuses of the regime and advise their respective
governments to make pressure bear on the rogue regime to change course.
·
Similarly, those envoys and
diplomatic missions in the neighbouring countries can engage in
exploring the real situation inside Eritrea and advise their governments
or head offices to help avert a worse situation to Eritreans and peoples
of the region in general because a disastrous situation in Eritrea will
spill over to the rest of the region.
·
Jointly and individually, the
diplomatic missions in the region can and should demand that the UN
appoints its Special Human Rights Rapporteur to Eritrea in order to
monitor the escalating human rights abuses in that country.
·
The diplomats in the entire
region can, likewise, help identify the forces of change to the better
in Eritrea (both those inside and outside the country) and recommend or
give substantive political and material support. In their words, they
can demand from their respective governments the means for empowering
Eritrean political and civil opposition forces in order to make them
effective agents of change and democratization.
·
In the meantime, all
international representatives in the region should not remain idle
observers of the plight of Eritrean refugees, old and new cases, who are
in great distress without end in sight. Those young Eritreans who are
leaving their homeland in spite of high risk to their lives and later
being exposed to great dangers in the region and beyond it are in need
of all-round human attention. Diplomatic missions in Eritrea and its
neighbourhood are among those who bear moral responsibility to help.
Tomorrow, there will not be any way for them
to feign ignorance when an avoidable much bigger human disaster occurs
in Eritrea, in their midst.
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