Opposition welcomes EU
(European) condemnation of Eritrea
African Against Its Own
Eritrea expels UN peacekeepers
afrol News, Dec 7/05 - Eritrea has announced the expulsion of all European and American peacekeepers from the UN mission monitoring its border with Ethiopia. The around 150 peacekeepers are given ten days to leave the country. "Shock and concern" was today expressed by Western governments and the UN, while Ethiopia asked the Asmara government to come to its senses.
The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) today received an official letter from the government of Eritrea, dated Tuesday. The letter opened for yet another diplomatic conflict between Eritrea and the UN. "Members of UNMEE with nationalities from the US, Canada and Europe, including the Russian Federation are requested to the leave the country within 10 days of this notice," the letter said.
Eritrea on earlier occasions has angered the UN, which is spending large funds to monitor the fragile peace at the Eritrean-Ethiopian border. When the Asmara government claimed the UN peacekeepers were causing insecurity, UNMEE threatened to pull out. Currently, Eritrea is threatened with sanctions by the UN Security Council for restricting the movement of UNMEE peacekeepers.
The letter - signed by Colonel Zecarias Ogbagaber, Eritrea's chief liaison with the UN mission in Asmara - may cause the UN Security Council to widen its threat of sanctions or even to dissolve UNMEE once and for all. Eritrea's expulsion of European and North American peacekeepers only affects an estimated 150 out of the Mission's 3,300 troops, but is seen as an illegitimate demand by a host nation.
First reactions to the Eritrean demands were of disbelief. The British Foreign Office Minister for Africa, Lord Triesman, today expressed his "shock and concern" at the Eritrean letter. "The government of Eritrea must reverse its decision immediately, and comply with" demands set by the UN Security Council, Mr Triesman said in a statement released by London today.
The action by the government of Eritrea towards UNMEE "only serves to undermine its ability to fulfil its mandate, and consequently increases tension in the area," the British Minister added. In view of the gravity of these developments, EU Foreign Ministers were now to discuss this issue at the General Affairs Council Meeting on 12 December, he informed.
UNMEE spokeswoman Musi Khulomi in Asmara today said the UN was not at all pleased by the Eritrean demand, but it had not come by total surprise. "It is evident that Eritrea has repeatedly been taking anti-peace measures that affected the free movement of UNMEE. It has to be noted that the measures taken recently by Eritrea cannot be seen as a new phenomena," she said in a statement.
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Eritrea sends untried journalist back to jail
afrol News, 6 December - Joy was short for Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac, who was surprisingly released after four years in prison without a trial last month. Just two days after his release, and before he managed to return to his family in Sweden, Mr Isaac was sent back to prison. As usual, no explanation were given by Eritrea's increasingly dictatorial authorities.
Mr Isaac was returned to jail just two days after being released in mid-November. He is one of 15 Eritrean journalists who have been jailed incommunicado and without charge or forced into extended military service following a September 2001 clampdown that shut down the country's entire private press. Since 2001, the regime of Dictator Issayas Afewerki has only become more and more paranoid and unpredictable, as documented by the re-detention of Mr Isaac.
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Opposition welcomes EU
(European) condemnation of Eritrea
afrol News, Nov 23/05 - The exiled opposition of Eritrea today welcomed the recent resolution by the European Parliament, condemning gross human rights violations in Eritrea. The European institution this weekend also demanded an investigation into the recent arrest of thousands of Eritrean dissidents.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution, saying it was "worried by the continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in the country in general and by the arrest of thousands of people on suspicion of evading military conscription held at Adi Abeto army prison in particular." It was "fearing that the prisoners may risk torture and ill-treatment."
According to the European parliamentarians (MEPs), the 4 November mass arrests only added to the long list of gross human rights violations in Eritrea. Thus, the MEPs also deplored "the continued detention of Eritrean opposition leaders ... without trial since September 2001," and the "the ban on an independent press and the arrest of journalists since the government crackdown on independent media in September 2001."
The European resolution calls for "an independent inquiries on the killing of Adi Abeto prison" on 4 November. It further calls on the Eritrean government "to release all political prisoners" and to "fully respect fundamental freedoms of the population including freedom of expression, freedom of association including the formation political parties and calls to lift the ban on independent press."
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UN only monitors 40% of Eritrea-Ethiopia border
[turns out the U.N. Wasn't doing a real job...in anycase]
afrol News, November 17/05 - The United Nations peacekeepers monitoring the tense border between Ethiopia and Eritrea are faced with rapidly "deteriorating" conditions. By now, only about 40 percent of the border is effectively monitored, UN officials reveal. At the same time, reports of Ethiopian and Eritrean military movements in the area are increasing.
The ability of United Nations peacekeepers to monitor the Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) separating Ethiopia and Eritrea is "shrinking" while posturing by the formerly-warring Horn of Africa countries is raising the stakes, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping said today in New York.
"Our visibility of what is happening on the ground has continued to deteriorate," Jean-Marie Guéhenno told reporters following his closed-door briefing to the UN Security Council. "It is probably about 40 per cent now that we can really monitor with some measure of confidence," he added.
Constraints on the movements of the United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which is charged with monitoring the peace accord of the two neighbours, "have continued to not only be there but to tighten," Mr Guéhenno said, adding that there are limitations in the security zone and on its north and south sides, diminishing the UN's capacity to monitor the area.
The UN Under-Secretary-General also pointed to troop movements, which have been reported on the Eritrean and Ethiopian sides. According to earlier
United Nations statements, several of these movements were questionable according to the peace accord.
However, "both sides disclaim any intent to go to war," Mr Guéhenno said. While there was "no sign of an imminent war," he added that "the kind of posture that the respective armed forces are taking creates a very unstable and very dangerous situation."
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Saying you are doing something good...that's easy
Wanting to believe that throwing money at the problem will fix everything...that's easy also
Writing to your Congressman in order to get them to Pressure
Eritrea and Ethiopia to respect the Rights of their People
That is an action that really would matter.
Talk is Cheap...