Call for Southern Africa to open its arms to Eritreans

Friday, 12 December 2014 03:19 Written by ail & Guardian

Africa

10 DEC 2014 00:00 LIESL LOUW

Countries in the region should offer asylum to refugees who are fleeing the repressive state and dying at alarming rates in the Mediterranean Sea.

Child soldiers in Eritrea. The repression of citizens is causing them to flee the country. (AFP)

Stop Eritreans from dying on the high seas and grant them political asylum.

This was the call by the Southern African Development Community Council of Nongovernmental Organisations (SADC-CNGOs) that met with representatives from Eritrea in Johannesburg last week.

Figures show that Eritreans make up the highest number of Africans who die while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in fateful attempts to flee the repressive regime in their county.

A study by the International Organisation for Migration, titled “Fatal Journeys: Tracking lives lost during migration”, estimates that more than 3 000 people have died this year trying to cross over the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Eritreans are the biggest group from Africa and second only to Syrians as a percentage of the total number of migrants dying in the sea.

Speaking at the end of a two-day workshop with representatives of the Eritrean diaspora, Abie Dithlake, executive director of the SADC-CNGOs, said countries in Southern Africa should reach out to support those suffering elsewhere on the continent.

Well-documented repression
SADC member states such as South Africa, which plays an important role in the African Union (AU), should also put pressure on the AU to adhere to sanctions against the Asmara regime.

Repression in the Horn of Africa country has been well documented in numerous United Nations reports and those from human rights organisations.

Human Rights Watch, for example, states that “torture, arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, association and religious freedom remain routine in Eritrea”.

Eritrea has ranked last in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index for the past seven years.

“We are aware of resolutions by the AU, but leaders are not making the necessary efforts to enforce them,” said Dithlake.

He said NGOs should put pressure on governments to grant political asylum to Eritreans to enable them to organise in countries like South Africa.

Kuluberhan Abraham, a member of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights, who lives in South Africa, says there are between 5 000 and 6 000 Eritreans living in South Africa, but only a small percentage of them have managed to obtain refugee status.

According to figures from the UN High Commission for Refugees, 821 Eritreans were granted refugees status in South Africa last year. This is compared with up to 24 000 Somalis with refugee status and 15 000 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to the estimated figures.

Activists at the SADC-CNGOs meeting said Eritreans are increasingly being considered as “economic refugees” in the same category as those from poor African countries, but whose lives aren’t necessarily in danger back home. This is especially true in Europe where Eritreans have been arriving in large numbers.

Not economic refugees
Andebrhan Giorgis, a former Eritrean ambassador who now lives in Belgium and heads an NGO called Revival Africa Initiative, says this is a wrong perception of Eritreans. “They are not economic refugees but political refugees. As soon as the situation improves they will return home.”

One of the main issues that drives young Eritrean males out of the country is compulsory military service, which was initially restricted to 18 months, but has been gradually prolonged and “amounts to indentured labour”, says Giorgis.

Boys from the age of 15 and 16 are called up for this military duty and the final school year, grade 12, is completed in the military camps, according to a statement by the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights.

The organisation says there are many documented cases of Eritrean refugees who have fled to other countries but were sent back home from places such as Malta, Sudan or Libya. Upon their return they were held in harsh detention centres and mistreated.

Creating a shared vision in the Eritrean Struggle from Dictatorship to Democracy

Tuesday, 09 December 2014 19:28 Written by Fesseha Nair

By Fesseha Nair

What is a vision? What is a shared vision? Much has been written about the importance of shared vision and leadership in the Eritrean Opposition.

Vision is the image people has in common about how the work will look upon completion, how they will work together and how people accept the struggle for democracy. Simply vision means what do we want to create? It is not that all have the same vision but have similar image. Visions can be explained by a variety of ways and forms. They can be explained by slogans or vision statements. In this article I will discuss how we can create a shared vision in during the struggle against dictatorship and post- dictatorship Eritrea.

A shared vision is a vision uniting all the forces for democratic change with different backgrounds and agendas to a common aspirations. A shared vision motivates participants in the struggle for democratic change in Eritrea to subordinate their individual agendas and act what is best to save the Eritrean population suffering under brutal oppression. A shared vision provides priority to focus on major issues that unite the actors. It helps to communicate with mutual respect and recognition. A shared vision fosters harmony among democracy forces. A shared vision help establish a common framework for making decisions.

How can we create this shared vision in the Eritrean Opposition?

Most of the Eritrean Opposition-civic or political organizations say that they have visions after the fall of dictatorship but all this in the paper not in action. To build a shared vision one must have the knowledge of inspiring, communicating, and have strategic planning and be passionate with all forces for democratic change. Do the opposition have these properties of good inspiration, communication and strategy? Not at all. The opposition leadership and grass-roots lack these properties. All the past conferences of the opposition were lacking a shared vision and did not accept the importance of building a shared vision. The Eritrean opposition forces have no shared vision how to get rid of the dictatorship in Eritrea and what kind of government will they form after the post-dictatorship.

A shared vision can be built by working together and building trust by solving the common problems facing you at this time and preparing for the future. An opposition without shared vision cannot gain people's trust and support. As it is ascertained by some Eritrean scholars in their studies that the post independence Eritrea led by PFDJ failed to address the past by rebuilding peaceful coexistence facilitating national reconciliation to move from a divided history to a shared future.

Managing conflicts within the opposition was dysfunctional and was based on win/lose strategy instead of win/win strategy. It is natural that disagreements and conflicts emerge in any work in human lives. One of the most the Eritrean opposition lacks is to be tolerant for critical debate. The opposition must have skills of listening and encourage critical opinions. The trend of the Eritrean opposition is similar with that of the dictator in Eritrea -creating yes- men and then the king goes without clothes meaning that a dictatorship will be born inside the organization and as a result the democratic struggle fails to succeed.

Re-energizing the forces for democratic change in Eritrea

The struggle from dictatorship to democracy needs commitment to the objectives of the shared vision or to swing to action and combine its efforts towards the salvation of the Eritrean people. The opposition must look towards its performance, behaviour and culture for the purpose of eliminating dysfunctional behaviours and strengthening functional ones. it must attempt to develop strategies improving its operations against the dictatorship instead of bickering and confrontations. One of the main failures of the Eritrean opposition- political and civic organizations is not of recognizing the working relationship between the various political and civic organizations. The Eritrean opposition lacks the will to scrutinize their own behaviour before they judge others. The Eritrean Opposition Political Organizations initiative for consultation that started in Ethiopia last summer was a positive initiative towards building a shared vision. This initiative have discussed alternatives for action and development of the political organizations but because of minor issues did not continue, this can be perhaps because of lack of trust and ownership of the struggle for democratic change in Eritrea.

The other building of shared vision of the Eritrean opposition was that of the ENCDC /Eritrean National Council for Democratic change. This coalition of both political and civic organizations. The ENCDCs shared vision was only in their heads but not on performance. ENCDC has not pursued the resolutions adopted at the Awasa Congress. They failed to build a good working relationships between them they instead managed their conflicts by dysfunctional methods and paralysed the entire system of partnership for democratic change.

The ENCDC or the Eritrean Political organizations Counsultation are both positive initiatives but need more to do to come to a common understanding how to get rid of the dictatorship and lay foundations for the future democratic, secular and constitutional government and build a state guarantying all citizens equality and justice.

Continues..........................

Eritrean Delegation in Johannesburg Urges Fraternal Africa To Concretize Support for Democratic Change in Eritrea

Saturday, 06 December 2014 19:02 Written by EPDP Information Office

EPDP Information Office

After attending a fruitful two-day workshop in Johannesburg on the political and human rights situations in Eritrea, Palestine, Swaziland and Western Sahara, the Eritrean delegation to the workshop held a press conference on 5 December in which it hailed as “historic” the establishment of Solidarity Task Team for Eritrea by the sub-continental organ representing all civil society formations in the 15 member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

In welcoming the media, civil society activists, diplomats and other participants at the press conference, the Executive Director of the SADC - Council of non-governmental organizations, Mr. Abie Ditlhake, expressed concern about the lack of sufficient commitment by African leaders to address difficulties facing the broad masses in Africa.

He described the current situation of repression and displacement in Eritrea as “a burning African problem” that requires the joint action of African democratic forces, including the civil society. He added that the selflessness shown by all Africans during the struggle against foreign domination must be revitalized now “in order to save ourselves from facing the worst”.

The SADC-CNGO Executive Director also reassured that his umbrella organization will do all what it can to make Eritrea an African agenda and help its people overcome the huge problems facing them. He summarized the decisions taken at the 3 to 4 December workshop which he said was an important step towards putting in action the July 2014 declarations on Eritrea, Palestine, Swaziland and Western Sahara by the 10^th Southern Africa Civil Society Forum. Mr. Ditlhake then invited the Eritrean delegation to deliver its message to the press conference.

Ambassador Andebrehan Weldegiorgis, member of the coordinating body of the Eritrean Forum for National Dialogue, introduced his colleagues in the delegation and read the press statement which hailed the SADC-CNGO for its firm solidarity with the Eritrean people. The statement urged for African and wider international support and believed that “international and regional solidarity can make a significant contribution to positive change in Eritrea”.

The Eritrean delegation members, who included Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, foreign relations head of the Eritrean People’s Party (EPDP); Mr. Kuluberhan Abraham, chairman of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR), and Ms Salwa Nour, an Eritrean human rights and democracy activist from the Gulf region, took part in further explaining the worsening situation in Eritrea and answered various questions raised at the press conference.

During the coming weekend, the Eritrean delegation is scheduled to hold public meetings for Eritreans in Durban and Johannesburg. (Reportage on the delegation mission to South Africa will follow soon).

Printed below is the text of the press statement read as introduction to the press conference on Eritrea.

PRESS STATEMENT

(For immediate release)

The dictatorial regime is destroying Eritrea and causing untold suffering on its people. The prevailing political, economic and social situation has created an appalling human condition. Arbitrary arrests, indefinite detention, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, etc., have rendered the country unlivable for its people. The state of sever repression has caused mass exodus, particularly of the youth, at an alarming proportion.

Change is coming and the demise of the regime is imminent. The responsibility of national salvation has fallen on the shoulders of the growing opposition at home and abroad. The absence of an institutional mechanism for succession and the lack of freedoms of expression, assembly and association risk the creation of a political vacuum that poses the danger of implosion. The gathering momentum towards “Unity of Purpose” within the opposition augers well for the realization of the aspirations that inspired and sustained our long struggle for freedom, justice, democracy, peace and prosperity. There is thus a need to manage the process of change to ensure an orderly transition to democracy.

We strongly believe that international and regional solidarity can make a significant contribution to positive change in Eritrea. In this regard, we hail the 10^th Southern African Civil Society Forum’s firm declaration of solidarity with the Eritrean people and the establishment of a Regional Solidarity Task Team for Eritrea.

The Eritrean delegation participating at the SADC Council of NGOs workshop just concluded here in Johannesburg, South Africa, would like to call upon:

- The South African Government to grant political asylum and the necessary legal documents to Eritrean refugees in South Africa to enable them to live in security and contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country;

- The Southern African civil society to enhance their solidarity with the struggle of the Eritrean people for democracy, dignity and justice.

- The African Union to play a facilitative role in accordance with its Constitutive Act;

- Eritrea’s neighbours in the Greater Horn of Africa to protect the rights and ensure the safety of Eritrean refugees in accordance with international conventions.

Friday, 5 December 2014

Johannesburg, South Africa

Eritrean Delegation Participating at the SADC-CNGO Workshop

PRESS STATEMENT

Saturday, 06 December 2014 18:49 Written by Eritrean Delegation Participating at the SADC-CNGO Workshop

The dictatorial regime is destroying Eritrea and causing untold suffering on its people. The prevailing political, economic and social situation has created an appalling human condition. Arbitrary arrests, indefinite detention, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, etc., have rendered the country unlivable for its people. The state of sever repression has caused mass exodus, particularly of the youth, at an alarming proportion.

Change is coming and the demise of the regime is imminent. The responsibility of national salvation has fallen on the shoulders of the growing opposition at home and abroad. The absence of an institutional mechanism for succession and the lack of freedoms of expression, assembly and association risk the creation of a political vacuum that poses the danger of implosion. The gathering momentum towards “Unity of Purpose” within the opposition augers well for the realization of the aspirations that inspired and sustained our long struggle for freedom, justice, democracy, peace and prosperity. There is thus a need to manage the process of change to ensure an orderly transition to democracy.

We strongly believe that international and regional solidarity can make a significant contribution to positive change in Eritrea. In this regard, we hail the 10^th Southern African Civil Society Forum’s firm declaration of solidarity with the Eritrean people and the establishment of a Regional Solidarity Task Team for Eritrea.

The Eritrean delegation participating at the SADC Council of NGOs workshop just concluded here in Johannesburg, South Africa, would like to call upon:

The South African Government to grant political asylum and the necessary legal documents to Eritrean refugees in South Africa to enable them to live in security and contribute to the socioeconomic development of the country;
The Southern African civil society to enhance their solidarity to the struggle of the Eritrean people for democracy, dignity and justice.
The African Union to play a facilitative role in accordance with its constitutive act;
Eritrea’s neighbours in the Greater Horn of Africa to protect the rights and ensure the safety of Eritrean refugees in accordance with international conventions.

______________________________________________________________________

Friday, 5 December 2014

Johannesburg, South Africa

Eritrean Delegation Participating at the SADC-CNGO Workshop

Lawyers for Human Rights provides awareness seminar to Eritreans in South Africa

Saturday, 06 December 2014 18:36 Written by EMDHR News Alert

EMDHR News Alert

Pretoria, South Africa- Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) in collaboration with the EMDHR provided a seminar for the Eritrean community in South Africa on Friday 21 November 2014 in Pretoria. The Seminar was attended by Eritreans who live in Johannesburg, Johannesburg, and other towns in South Africa.

It was the first seminar the LHR offered to the Eritrean community in South Africa apart from the day to day individual basis legal assistance and consultations. The Seminar focused, among other issues, around the the following issues:

General refugee rights in relation to the South African laws and the international refugee conventions;
Refugee recognition procedures and the work of LHR in relation to the process;
Government services /grants that refugees are entitled to;
Counselling in relation to mental health problems, and access to health care;
The importance of the new anti-torture legislation;
LHR assistance in relation to Refugee Appeal Board rejection and the cases of those who are waiting for a decision for years and years;
The prospect of resettlement in a third country;
Support in relation to corruption and access problems.
Assistance in the process of refugee ID and permanent residence applications and other relevant documentation needs of the Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers

In the interactive discussions, the participants told the LHR experts the challenges they often face include the rejection by Refugee Status Determination Officers (RSDO) of the Department of Home Affairs. The LHR experts in turn expressed their surprise despite gross human right abuses in Eritrea. In this regard, they reaffirmed their readiness to help the Eritrean community to alleviate the challenges the Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers are facing including assistance to facilitating the permanent residence applications.

LHR-Seminar-2 LHR further recommended that the Eritrean refugees should collectively lobby the South African government and UNHCR in order to be heard and solve their challenges. The participants also informed LHR experts that there are some agents of the Eritrean regime who are living as a refugees and asylum seekers who often threaten and disrupt the Eritrean refugees efforts to establish their own refugee community that can assist them to lobby for their rights. LHR experts said they also appreciate for sharing such information as it assist them to understand the Eritrean refugees problems and find solutions.

Finally, LHR experts stated their commitment to provide similar educational seminar frequently to the Eritrean refugees in collaboration with the EMDHR. They also reiterated their commitment to litigate cases of the Eritrean asylum seekers and refugee in order to minimize the large number of rejections. In this regard, the EMDHR expressed its readiness to provide all the necessary support and information to LHR and other stakeholders who are willing to provide support to Eritreans in South Africa. The Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers expressed their appreciation for the support they have been provided by LHR. Similarly, the EMDHR would like to express its immense gratitude to the experts and the LHR at large for their unrelenting efforts to help asylum seekers and refugees and their collaboration with the EMDHR.

Lawyers for Human Rights are an independent human rights organization with a 30-year track record of human rights activism and public interest litigation in South Africa. LHR uses the law as a positive instrument for change and to deepen the democratization of South African society. To this end, it provides free legal services to vulnerable, marginalized and indigent individuals and communities, both non-national and South African, who are victims of unlawful infringements of their constitutional rights.

EMDHR Refugee Protection Office

Pretoria, South Africa

05 December 2014

German Police Arrest 11 Eritrean Human Traffickers

Thursday, 04 December 2014 04:13 Written by Senait B.

CONTRIBUTOR: SENAIT B/ DECEMBER 3, 2014

German Police Arrest 11 Human Trafficking Gangs

International investigators have arrested an alleged smuggling gang. The eleven men to be responsible for the deaths of about 300 boat people. Police also shows the ruthlessness of the gang ring.

Tilmann Kleinjung, ARD Radio Studio Rome |www.tagesschau.de| December 3, 2014

The men are fromEritreaand should be part of a major smuggling ring brings the refugees from Africa to Europe. Half of all sailing from Libyan coasts to Italy organized by criminal network, not always with a happy ending: the eleven arrested smugglers are also responsible for the death of about 300 boat people, accused of two accidents in May and June last year before the Libyan migrant drowning.

The smuggling activity is not only to transport in overloaded, barely ocean-going vessels. The traffickers are active in various African and European countries and organize according to the police and the further transport of refugees after landing in Italy.

A suspect – apparently a leading figure in the smuggling ring – was arrested in Germany. He shall be responsible under the Federal Police for a crossing where in June this year killed up to 244 Africans.

Another discovery of police shows the ruthlessness of smuggling ring: In a shed at Catania in Sicily nine Somalis were found, eight of them were minors. They were detained there until relatives have money transferred for further transport.

Police Pick smuggling ring of
T. Kleinjung, ARD Rome
03/12/2014 16:05 clock

- See more at: http://eastafro.com/Post/2014/12/03/german-police-arrest-11-eritrean-human-traffickers/#sthash.8ndItK1J.dpuf

Eritreans 'fleeing conscription drive' for Ethiopia - UNHCR

Sunday, 23 November 2014 00:23 Written by BBC - Africa News

Eritrean Army parades during the country's independence anniversary celebrations attended by a 13,000-strong crowd 24 May 2003, at Asmara main square

Eritrea's army fought a border with Ethiopia more than a decade ago

A renewed conscription drive in Eritrea has led to a sharp increase in the number of youths fleeing to neighbouring Ethiopia, a UN refugee agency spokeswoman has told the BBC.

More than 6,000 Eritreans had claimed asylum in Ethiopia in the past 37 days, double the rate seen in previous months, Karin de Gruijl said.

There has also been a rise in the number of Eritreans reaching Italy.

Eritrea says conscription is needed because of tension with Ethiopia.

About 100,000 people died in the 1998-2000 border war between the two countries.

Eritrea became independent after breaking away from Ethiopia.

The refugees, most of whom were between 18 and 24 years old, reported an "intensification" of efforts to conscript them into the army, Ms De Gruijl told the BBC's Newsday programme.

"We know that officially national services are for about four and a half years but quite often they're open-ended," she said.

"This intensification of recruitment has sparked fear among young people in this age group who don't want to have this perspective of not knowing how long they will have to serve."

EPDP Delegation Discusses Eritrean Problems in Bern with Swiss Social Democrats & Foreign Ministry

Thursday, 20 November 2014 04:04 Written by EPDP Information Office

EPDP Information Office

A delegation of the Eritrean People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) on Tuesday, 19 November 2014, held extensive discussions with senior officials of the Swiss Social Democratic Party and with the Swiss Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The EPDP delegation availed itself in Bern upon a formal invitation from the Swiss capital to exchange notes with concerned organs of the Swiss Social Democratic Party as well as for updating the Swiss Federal authorities on the ever worsening situation in Eritrea.

Consisting of EPDP’s head for foreign relations, Mr. Woldeyesus Ammar, and Swiss branch leadership members Messrs. Tesfagaber Ghebre and Fitwi Kifle, the Eritrean delegation raised many hot issues that it wished to be addressed by Switzerland in close cooperation with other countries and multi-lateral organizations. The delegation also submitted memoranda: one to the SP/PS president, Mr. Christian Levrat, and in the afternoon meeting at the Foreign Ministry, to the Swiss Foreign Minister and current President of the country, Mr. Didier Burkhalter.

The meeting in the morning hours was conducted with the International Secretariat of Switzerland’s second largest party, well known by its acronyms of SP in the German and Romansh speaking cantons (Socialdemokratische Partei) and PS (Parti Socialiste; Partito Socialista) in the French and Italian speaking cantons.

In the first meeting, the EPDP delegation urged the SP/PS leadership to push the Federal Swiss Government to make active and effective involvement in helping Eritrea and its people to come out of the critical situation they are in. The Swiss party was also asked to initiate a wider discussion of the problem in Eritrea as well as the general situation in the Greater Horn of Africa region at a special meeting of the Progressive Alliance, of which both SP/PS and EPDP are members, with the aim of addressing the ongoing ‘failed state’ phenomenon.

General issues considered at both the meetings with the SP/PS and, in the afternoon session, with the Foreign Ministry included discussion on the ever worsening situation inside Eritrea; areas on which pressure should be exerted; and what joint regional and international measures could taken to improve the lot of the Eritrean refugees in the Horn of Africa region and those already in Switzerland. In particular, the EPDP delegation earnestly requested that the recently formed coordination body of Eritrean political and civil society groups in Switzerland be approached for consultation and joint work to help young Eritreans in Switzerland who have no adequate education background to fit to the new environment they are in.

Excerpts from the memorandum to the Swiss Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs can summarize the gist of the issued proposed for action at the level of Switzerland.

1. Exerting Pressure on the Asmara regime

Assist in organizing international pressure on the dictatorial regime to end the limitless “national service” it started two decades ago;
Allow ICRC as well as the UN Commission of Inquiry and the UN Human Rights Rapporteur for Eritrea to visit the over 300 prisons in the country where inmates are kept for many years without recourse to a court of law;

2. Normalization of relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia

The excuse given as a stumbling block for better relations is the border problem. Both countries can, and must be advised, to show readiness for compromise.
In particular, there is a need of pressurizing Ethiopia through different means to accept the final and binding decision of the arbitration boundary commission

3. Active support for Eritrean refugees in the Horn, and in Switzerland

Initiate a special package project for academic and vocational education in East Sudan and North Ethiopia partly using technical development resources that several countries suspended from Eritrea due to the human rights condition there. Switzerland can lead this initiative.
The tens of thousands of Eritreans in Switzerland are young and without proper education. Giving special attention for their education and skill building would make them better citizens upon their possible return to Eritrea.

4. Assist in bringing about a positive change in Eritrea

The best option that could be taken by fraternal parties and governments is bringing about change in the system of governance in Eritrea where the majority of the population is opposed to the existing repressive regime.
One way of doing it is through empowering Eritrean non-state actors (mainly by reaching the civil society and political movements in diaspora) through active support for capacity building.

Asmara Regime Arrests Two Catholic Priests; 10 Members of Eritrean Monasteries Flee to Ethiopia

Wednesday, 12 November 2014 22:11 Written by EPDP Information Office

EPDP Information Office

Sources from Asmara and the Vatican confirm that two priests of the Eritrean Catholic Church were arrested by security agents of the dictatorial regime during the first week of November.

The arrested priests belong to the Capuchin order of the Catholic Church. They are Aba/Father Eyob Gheresus, 77, director of Church’s printing press, and AbaTesfai Debas, 60, head of finances, who served in Harerghe, Ethiopia, until the mass expulsion of Eritreans from that country in 1998.

The sources did not want to hint as to the alleged reasons for the current arrest. The sources also confirmed the report in Eritrean websites indicating that the two priests were taken to the Adi Abeyto prison in the outskirts of the Eritrean capital, Asmara.

Meanwhile, 10 members of several Eritrean monasteries of the Orthodox Tewahdo Church have crossed the border to Ethiopia in the past few days fearing imminent arrest by the security apparatus of the regime, probably because of the 1 October 2014 condemnation and excommunication of regime-appointees who promoted, inter alia, corruption and misrule in the Church.