End the negotiations on expelling Eritrean asylum-seekers!

Eritrean community activists are highly concerned about the recent invitation of Eritrean Ambassador Tesfamariam Tekeste to the Knesset Foreign Workers Committee, where possible return of Eritreans to Eritrea was discussed.

Eritreans came to Israel with the expectation to find protection and safety from the dictatorship in Eritrea and are therefore extremely bothered and disappointed that a so-called democratic state invites a representative of a dictatorial regime to discuss the option of deportation.

These negotiations leave us Eritrean asylum-seekers in a state of fear and insecurity.

Eritrean tyranny fuels mass exit

Said Ibrahim (21), orphaned and blind, made a living as a singer in Adi Quala bars when a member of the security police claimed one of his songs had “political” content and detained him at the Adi Abieto prison. After a month he was released but stripped of his monthly disability payments for two years when he declined to identify the lyricist.

“I went back to my village and reflected on it,” he said over tea at an open-air café in the Adi Harush camp, set up in 2010 when the Eritrean refugee camp Mai Aini reached capacity. It is already nearing its limit of 20 000, according to United Nations officials. “If the system could do this to a blind orphan, something was very wrong.”

Eraero, the true meaning of betrayal against Eritrea!

The men and women who languish in PFDJ’s network of jails is I suppose according to the stupid goon of an ambassador not betrayal unparalleled by anything humanity has ever seen…! for crying out loud he should be the last person to use the word betrayal and least of all to a young person (the son of people that have paid the ultimate price- their life for their country!), who spent seven years of his young life being carted from one prison to the next for daring to trust PFDJ and expressing himself in writing! ...

and you also betrayed your own friends! Mr ‘Ambassador’ I note that you said that you turned down the option to become a doctor because you had the guts to fight for Eritrea, you know what? (in the words of JK Rowling): “Then you should have died! Died, rather than betray your friends!”

Before you use the word ‘betray’ ever again I suggest you visit EraEro!

The Youth of Eritrea Must save Eritrea and the People of Eritrea.

In the first part of July 2012 there will be a timely gathering of Eritrean youth from across the world in Ethiopia.  We welcome this strategic initiative without any reservation.

In its last annual congress EGS has resoundingly affirmed its support for the Eritrean youth by stating:

“EGS-JHD will do everything possible to encourage the post- independence generation to find its own voice and nurture its own vision and leadership so that Eritrea’s future can be reassured.  It considers this critical task as one of its prime guiding principles.”

ICER Alert: Unexplained Deaths of Eritreans in South Sudan

Our source in South Sudan confirms that many strangely unexplained things happening to Eritrean refugees in Juba and its environs. Beginning November many have died in a mysterious ways with no perpetrator or perpetrators apprehended for their actions. According to the source the following persons lost their lives in the past eight month.

1. Dawit Fesehaye Ghebremedhin from Kudofelasi, Seraye, age 29. Cause of death unexplained ‘accident’ in Juba . Died in the night of the purported day of ‘accident’, Nov. 11, 2011
2. Two Eritrean nationals, Tedros aged 40 and Bereket 41 years old, died in the month of January 2012. The circumstance of their death is not clearly stated but known to have died as a result of unexplained ‘accident’
3. Fitsum Ghebremeskel aged 41 was found hacked to death in April, 9 2012 in Juba
4. Ghere Issak aged 32 whose birth place Gedele, Akeleguzai, is another victim of the mysterious deaths. The cause of death is knife wound to his torso. The date and time of death unknown.

'Eritrea won't accept forced citizen repatriation'

Eritrea will not accept the forced repatriation of its nationals living in Israel, Ambassador Tesfamariam Tekeste said on Monday, at a lively and at times heated meeting of the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers.

Tekeste said his government’s position remains that it will welcome those who choose to return and will help the Israeli government determine which migrants are Eritreans. He also said his government would ensure the safety of those returning and would not prosecute them for leaving the country, except those who skipped out on mandatory military service.

He then held up a list of what he said were the names of hundreds of Eritreans who had come to his office in the past year to arrange their voluntary return home.

(Photo: Eritrean Ambassador Tesfamariam Tekeste)

EGS-JHD Revamped Its Civic Structure and Civic Duty

To avoid the angles of organizational risks, eliminate the source of fluctuations, and to empower individual citizen for democratic change, the EGS-congress has made two essential changes (a) on the composition of EGS members and (b) on the nature of EGS membership drive. These changes will essentially assure public confidence and organizational integrity as we go forward.

The congress particularly observed the consequence of the hybrid composition of EGS current membership. The organization has experienced “conflict of interest” by its members who possess dual membership (civic and political organization). A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or group promotes one interest over another that they were supposed to promote...

Sister Azezet Kidane has received the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Heroes Award.

On June 19, 2012, Sister Azezet Kidane, originally from Eritrea, a Comboni sister living in Jerusalem, received the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Heroes Award. Sister Azezet was recognized for her extraordinary contribution in exposing and leading, together with Physicians for Human Rights in Israel, a campaign aimed at raising awareness worldwide of the systematic trafficking, kidnapping, and torture of refugees in the Sinai Desert prior to their entry into Israel. The granting of the award coincided with the annual release of the State Department’s annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report.

History and Essential Principles of Rule of Law

The Eritrean struggle like all others in the world has always been a struggle to establish liberty and enshrine guaranteed civil liberties for all Eritreans. And only the rule of law guarantees and protects civil liberties. Not elections and multi-party contests accomplish that, though these are desirable items. If these items as stand alone by themselves were so good without being coupled with the rule of law, then there would have been no human right violations in many  African nations  such as for example: Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia - despite the fact that these nations have working constitutions, parliaments, relatively free press, multiparty contests, relatively free judiciary and etc. (I do not believe Eritrea is even in the same league as these nations, since Eritrea is a lawless state.) As a rule of thumb, a nation that abides by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights respects the rule of law.

5,000 Martyrs’ Day Robo Calls Sent to Telephone Users in Eritrea

June 19, 2012-  Coordinators of the Arbi Harnet (Freedom Friday) Campaign, confirmed that, they transmitted 5,000 robo calls  to random mobile and landline phones in Eritrea.

The messages of solidarity and support were intended to reach Eritrea on the eve of Eritrea’s Remembrance Day, when nationals remember their fallen heroes, who sacrificed their lives during the thirty years of struggle against colonial power and then post independence during a two year border conflict that was daubed ‘the bloodiest conflict of last century’. The organizers of this campaign contend that Eritreans should also remember those heroes that continue to die in prison cells and in exile protesting the lack of freedom and justice in the country.

Angelo’s Dangerous Liaison

Angelo, died a few decades ago, and not of natural causes. If by any chance, he is listed among the tens of thousands who died for ghedli, it must not be believed for he had a “spoiled biography in the EPLF. Like countless others, whose deaths have often been attributed to the violent practices of the organization, his death is not a closed case. He was one of the several thousands of children fathered by Italian soldiers/settlers and abandoned to their mothers. ...

Rest his soul poor Angelo! Though the Sahel, being a place of all horrors, is not a good resting place, hiis body was possibly dumped in unmarked grave without the statues of praying angels that were familiar to his paternal ancestors. No flowers for his “tomb” in all the Souls ‘Day since he passed away. In his last moment before his death, did Angelo shout “awet n‘hafash” in Tigrigna as it is alleged for many, or did he instead say “per niente” in his father’s tongue?

(Picture: Italian cemetery in Asmara)

From Warriors to Urban Dwellers : Ascari and the Military Factor in the Urban Development of Colonial Eritrea*

The aim of this article is to discuss the role played by the military component in the process of urbanisation which Eritrea experienced, between 1890 and 1941, under Italian colonialism. Two main points will be discussed. The first one is the role played by military priorities in determining lines of development in the early colonial urban planning in Eritrea. In this section I will analyse how the criteria of military defensibility, rather than economic or functional priorities, had a significant influence on the main patterns of early colonial settlements in Eritrea. The second point discussed in this article is the nature and extent of the interaction between colonial urban planning and Eritrean society. Here I will discuss how this interaction has reshaped the Eritrean social and economic landscape. In this context special attention will be given to the role of Eritrean colonial troops better known as ascari. ...