Source: Radio Sweden

• Sweden’s silent diplomacy must be examined by an independent commission of inquiry, according to the Riksdag’s [Legislature] Foreign Affairs Committee.
• The notable cases involving Gui Minhai in China and Dawit Isaak are the starting point for the Commission.
• All parliamentary parties are behind this announcement to the government, which will be hammered out by the Riksdag in mid-January.

---

Background: Reporters Without Borders appeal for a commission into Dawit Isaak

Prisoner of Conscience Since 2001 – Why has Sweden not managed to bring Dawit Isaak home?

© Therese Nilsson

ORGANISATION

RSF_en

A week after filing a crime against humanity complaint for Dawit Isaak, and as the Eritrean-Swedish journalist celebrates his 56th birthday in detention today 27 October, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes a report on the lack of Swedish efforts to free the journalist.

During his almost two decades of captivity, Swedish diplomats have been denied access to the Swedish citizen Dawit Isaak. Since 2005, no independent party has been allowed to meet him and confirm that he is still alive. It is uncertain whether Dawit Isaak has even been told what he is being accused of – he has never been given a chance to defend himself before a court of law.

Sweden has an obligation to try all available legal and diplomatic means to bring its national home. Yet, the Swedish MFA’s first reaction to the news that a then 36-year-old Swedish citizen and father of three named Dawit Isaak had been arrested in Eritrea was one of disinterest.

Since then – as RSF Sweden and other organizations pressured the Swedish government to act – Dawit Isaak’s case has been made a priority. But a new report by RSF Sweden, launched on Dawit Isaak’s birthday on the 27th of October, uncovers a lack of effort on the Swedish part.

The report, entitled Prisoner of Conscience Since 2001 – Why has Sweden not managed to bring Dawit Isaak home?, examines what has and has not been done to secure his release. “Other countries have been more robust both in statements and measures taken against the Eritrean regime, even though it is in fact Sweden that has a prisoner of conscience in Eritrea”, says Björn Tunbäck, board member of RSF Sweden, in it.

Eritrean officials have made a habit out of occasionally giving the Swedish MFA false hopes that Dawit Isaak is to be released, which has forced Swedish officials to a precarious balancing act.

Wary of jeopardizing Dawit Isaak’s freedom, Sweden has essentially been made to dance to Eritrea’s tune. The report concludes that Eritrea, in several respects, has benefitted both politically and financially from keeping Dawit Isaak imprisoned.

For example:

• Sweden has repeatedly refrained from making demands regarding Dawit Isaak when the EU made decisions on development aid to Eritrea.
• Twice, the Swedish Prosecutor-General, in accordance with the expressed wishes of the MFA, has decided against launching criminal investigations against Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki.
• The MFA has also advised the Swedish development agency Sida against providing financial support to Radio Erena, Eritrea’s only independent radio station which broadcasts from France.
• Unlike other countries, Sweden has not heeded the UN’s call to curb the Eritrean regime’s tax collection from Eritreans residing abroad.
• In the UN Security Council, Sweden has worked to have sanctions against Eritrea lifted.

Dawit Isaak has been imprisoned for almost 20 years, a case which sparked great public interest. Yet, documents relating to the issue are classified and the MFA is reluctant to comment on ongoing efforts. To make things happen, on 21 October RSF filed a complaint with the Swedish Prosecution accusing the Eritrean president of crimes against humanity.

RSF Sweden calls for a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the MFA’s efforts for Dawit Isaak, which would be able to answer the question whether Sweden has fulfilled its legal obligation towards its imprisoned citizen – and also make recommendations on what further steps are necessary in order to finally bring Dawit Isaak home.

“We welcome the proposal for a parliamentary inquiry which was recently presented to the Swedish Parliament and call on all MPs to support it. We also urge the European Commission to consider the resolution about tougher measures against Eritrea that the European Parliament has adopted. Enough is enough”, says RSF Sweden president Erik Halkjaer.

Eritrea is ranked 178th out of 180 countries and territories in RSF’s Annual Index

Addis Ababa (AFP)

The United Nations said Friday that fighting continued “in many parts” of Ethiopia’s Tigray, complicating efforts to deliver humanitarian aid despite a deal granting the UN access to territory under federal control.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations in the northern region a month ago, saying they targeted the leaders of its ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). 

Last week he declared victory, saying fighting was “completed” after federal forces entered the regional capital Mekele. But the TPLF has vowed to fight on. 

“We have reports of fighting still going on in many parts of Tigray. This is concerning and it’s a complex situation for us,” Saviano Abreu, spokesman for the UN’s humanitarian coordination office, told AFP. 

The conflict has claimed thousands of lives, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, and tens of thousands of refugees have streamed across the border into Sudan. 

The UN has been warning of a possible humanitarian catastrophe within Tigray, though a communications blackout has made it difficult to assess conditions on the ground. 

On Wednesday the UN announced it had reached an agreement to administer aid in areas of Tigray that were government-controlled.

But as of Friday, security assessments were still being conducted and three UN officials told AFP that aid was not expected to arrive before next week.

– ‘No access’ –

“Basically, at the moment there is no access,” one official said, arguing that the UN and the government “should have held off” on announcing the deal until preparations were further along.

“When you go public in the fashion they did, it creates expectations for people who think, ‘Access has been given, why is help not reaching us?'” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. 

The UN is continuing to negotiate “with all parties to the conflict” to ensure unfettered access, Abreu said. 

“We have been granted this access, this agreement with the federal government. But we also have to have the same kind of agreement with all parties to the conflict to make sure we actually have unconditional free access to Tigray,” he said. 

He stressed that some aid was still being administered. 

“Hundreds of humanitarians are still on the ground doing all they can to provide assistance to people affected by the conflict and those who were already in need before the fighting,” he said.

– Refugee safety –

Of particular concern is the fate of roughly 96,000 Eritrean refugees who before the conflict were living in camps in northern Tigray in areas reported to have seen heavy fighting.

The UN earlier this week issued a public appeal for the government to allow aid into the camps, which are believed to have run out of food. 

A government official told AFP there was likely a “buffer” of food supplies that would last through the week. 

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is eager to get food, medicine and other supplies to refugees and host communities as soon as possible, Ethiopia representative Ann Encontre told AFP Friday.

It also wants to assess “very grim” reports on the security of the camps, which it has been unable to verify because of the communications blackout, Encontre said. 

“We’ve heard of deaths of refugees, we’ve heard of some being forced into conscription. We’ve heard of abductions,” she said. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported Sunday that “some 1,000 Eritrean refugees have reportedly arrived in Mekele from refugee camps around Shire” in northern Tigray. 

This week several Eritrean refugees previously living in Tigray also turned up in Sudan, Encontre said.

– Fighting ‘invaders’ –

The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before anti-government protests swept Abiy to power in 2018. 

The party then complained of being sidelined, and tensions escalated dramatically after Tigray went ahead with regional elections in September — defying a nationwide ban on polls because of the coronavirus pandemic — and sought to brand Abiy an illegitimate leader. 

Tigrayan head Debretsion Gebremichael has vowed to continue fighting as long as federal “invaders” are on Tigrayan soil. 

On Thursday he said fighting occurred “around Mekele”, and several diplomats also told AFP that clashes persisted in multiple locations in Tigray. 

State media this week broadcast what it said were the first images of Mekele since federal forces took over, though they could not be independently verified.

In an interview with Tigrayan media this week, senior TPLF member Getachew Reda called for a massive youth mobilisation to fend off Ethiopian forces he said were backed by Eritrean soldiers, something Ethiopia denies. 

“Our youth, our militia should rise and deploy to battle by the tens of thousands,” Getachew said.

© 2020 AFP

“Ethiopia’s prime minister promised a swift, surgical military campaign in the restive province of Tigray. But doctors in the regional capital reported civilian deaths, looting and a looming crisis.”

Source: New York Times

From Shelled Ethiopian City, Doctors Tally Deaths and Plead for Help

Ethiopia’s prime minister promised a swift, surgical military campaign in the restive province of Tigray. But doctors in the regional capital reported civilian deaths, looting and a looming crisis.

Mekelle, Ethiopia, in January. On Thursday, doctors there offered a rare glimpse of the increasingly dire conditions in the city.Credit…Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Simon Marks and Declan Walsh

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — After Ethiopian military forces captured the capital of the rebellious Tigray region last weekend, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed boasted that his forces had scored the victory without killing a single civilian.

Image

Militia fighters from Ethiopia’s Amhara region, who fight alongside federal forces, in Tigray last month.Credit…Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

"Tigrayans who have fled the conflict in Ethiopia seeking shelter at a camp in Qadarif in eastern Sudan." data-recalc-dims="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: auto;">

Tigrayans who have fled the conflict in Ethiopia seeking shelter at a camp in Qadarif in eastern Sudan.Credit…Nariman El-Mofty/Associated Press

Eritrea’s Role in Ethiopia’s Conflict and the Fate of Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia

BY: Mesfin Hagos, former Minister of Defense of Eritrea

In an address to his country’s parliament on November 30, 2020, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister confirmed Eritrean support to his ongoing war against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the regional government of the northernly regional state of Tigray. Dr. Abiy told parliamentarians that Ethiopian soldiers who survived TPLF attack on the night of November 3 were ordered to withdraw into Eritrea where they were provided shelter and the space and provisions to recuperate. He flew there with three of his generals to reorganize the troops for a counterattack on Tigray – from Eritrea.

What Prime Minister Abiy did not tell his audience was the fact that, according to sources in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, in the run up to the current conflict, a large number of Ethiopian elite units had slowly trickled into Eritrea as part of a security pact between Abiy and Eritrean president Isaias Afwerki. Hidden from public view at an ad-hoc base in Gherghera, in the outskirts of Asmara, these units were expected to be the hammer and the Northern Command the anvil to strike out of existence the TPLF. TPLF preempted this scheme in what it called “anticipatory defense”, which forced both Abiy and Isaias to improvise leading to the eruption of conflict over longer time period and vast space.

Dr. Abiy did not disclose to the Ethiopian public and international community that even more federal troops were airlifted into Eritrea following the outbreak of conflict on November 4. In the 48 hours before TPLF’s bombing of Asmara on November 14, local sources counted close to 30 military airplanes flying in thousands of soldiers from Ethiopia. Subsequent flights transported more soldiers into the Eritrean seaports of Massawa and Asseb.

The prime minister also hid from the world the Eritrean military’s direct involvement in combat along the entire border that Eritrea shares with Tigray regional state as well as inside Tigray. The following information is pieced together from three different sources: first, reliable sources inside the Eritrean ministry of defense; second, Eritrean opposition intelligence sources in Sudan and Ethiopia; and finally, anecdotal pieces communicated from friends and relatives, including some academic researchers.

When the reorganized and reinforced Ethiopian troops launched a series of offensives into Tigray from Eritrea along four frontlines, Eritrean support units provided intelligence and logistics, their heavy weapons gave cover to advancing federal troops, and eventually took active part in combat. Reliable sources have confirmed injury and death of a large number of Eritrean soldiers, including senior officers, in fighting deep inside Ethiopia.

Through Zalambessa alone, the Eritrean president sent in the 42^nd and 49^th mechanized divisions and the 11^th, 17^th, 19^th and 27^th infantry divisions. On reaching Edaga-Hamus, south of Adigrat and north of Mekelle, these divisions were reinforced with addition five Eritrean divisions, including the 2^nd brigade of the 525^th commando division. He also unleashed the 26^th, 28^th, and 53^rd infantry and 46^th and 48^th mechanized divisions on the Adwa front along with only one division of the Ethiopian federal army. In addition, the TPLF claims that Eritrean technical and combat units also took active part in the Alamata front, southeast of Mekelle. The same TPLF sources also claim that they have Eritrean prisoners of war although they are yet to present them to the public – live or in recordings.

Although Eritrean army divisions have been shrinking in size in the past twenty years and their individual capacities shriveled, put together they are a formidable force. Their combined technical knowhow (intelligence and weaponry) as well as tactics and strategy expertise and experience can deliver blistering firepower against any adversary.

Either approving of or oblivious to President Isaias’ role in the planning, initiation and execution of the ongoing Ethiopian civil war, the international community commended his uncharacteristic silence in the fact of repeated TPLF rocket attacks on Eritrean towns. Abiy Ahmed’s complete media and communication blackout ensured that Eritrea’ intervention remained above scrutiny and censure.

Exacting Vengeance and Becoming Regional Strongman

Beside the Eritrean president’s delusions of grandeur and parallel desire to appear as regional strongman in the Horn of Africa and beyond, one has to look at the past two decades to understand his vindictiveness. During the 1998-2000 conflict against TPLF-led Ethiopia, Isaias Afwerki refused to listen to our colleagues’ warnings against going to war; and, when he did, he refused to listen to common sense and practical advice from former army and intelligence chiefs, each of whom had had far more combat leadership experience than himself – although he had overall command as the leader of the movement and government. As a result, he badly mismanaged the war and lost terribly, with grave consequences to Eritrea and Eritreans. The stubborn that he is, he dug in and stayed the course of regional confrontation for the subsequent twenty years that cost him dearly.

President Isaias ruthlessly held on to power and kept Eritrea on war footing, frustrating any prospect of recovery or normalcy. With every year that went by, his significance diminished and his legacy tarnished. He blamed the TPLF for all this and did everything in his power to make them pay for it. He saw his own vindication in TPLF’s demise and every case of TPLF domestic repression and external belligerence was an opportunity for him until Dr. Abiy came to power and outdid Isaias in that task. The unlikely bond between the dashing new prime minister and the aging president is a marriage of convenience that centered around the singular goal of liquidating the TPLF. I will spare the details of what followed and led to November 4, but the writing was on the wall: a conflict war inevitable.

Caught in a Jam – Desperation of Eritrean refugees in Tigray

In the past two decades of President Isaias’s unbridled repression, some half million Eritrean youth, elderly and unaccompanied minors fled their country. In the context of the conflict between the two countries, Ethiopia readily accepted those fleeing Eritrea and, with the help of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), housed them in some six refugee camps in Tigray and Afar regional states. As a sign of what was to come, in April 2020 Abiy Ahmed’s government changed its policy toward Eritrean refugees on the behest of the Eritrean president: newly arrived Eritreans were no longer granted automatic protection as refugees, although the Tigray regional government continued to accept them and let them stay unmolested.

When the current conflict broke out, there were close to 100,000 officially registered refugees in the four camps in Tigray alone and many thousands more in Tigrayan towns. While the refugees in the Afar region of Ethiopia have all along been in precarious conditions, those in Tigray were suddenly caught in the crossfire when the conflict broke out. It was first rumored that several refugees were either killed or wounded in the fighting close to their camps around the town of Shire. The fact that UNHCR personnel were ordered to leave Tigray and employees of Ethiopian federal government’s Agency for Refugee & Returnee Affairs (ARRA) simply did not show up left the camps unattended to. The total communications blackout made it impossible to find out what exactly was going on in the camps. But as the war dragged on, we are able to piece together the grave danger that the refugees are facing.

To begin with, all the camps have now run out of the measly supplies of basic necessities that they were left with. Source have also reported that the Eritrean military entered some of those camps and marched an unknown number of refugees out of camp at gun point. The Shimelba refugee camp is even reported to be under the control of the Eritrean military that is preparing to send a large number of them back to Eritrea. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said on November 29 that he was very concerned about the fate of the Eritrean refugees in the war zone amid reports that some have been abducted by the Asmara government, a regime that has absolutely no regard for international norms or opinion.

A way forward

The Ethiopian government is duty bound under international law to protect refugees. It is the duty of the international community to ensure that the Ethiopian government, as the host state, abides by its international obligations in this regard. A clear, timely and unambiguous message must be conveyed to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed about the dire consequences of not living up to its legal responsibility towards the refugees and asylum seekers. This cannot be achieved in isolation of the quest for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. And peaceful resolution of the Ethiopian conflict is unlikely to happen so long as President Isaias Afwerki is determined to wreck vengeance on the TPLF, and as long as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed entreats him to do so and actively entertains his regional ambitions. The international community has to tell President Isaias in no uncertain terms that continued intervention in internal Ethiopian affairs bears grave, direct consequences.

Source: Lord Alton

War In Tigray: Peers today pressed for access to be given to Tigray to assess allegations of War Crimes and to ensure the safe arrival of urgently needed humanitarian aid and the protection of refugees.

Dec 2, 2020 | Featured parliamentary activity