Issias Afewerki’s trips: the micro-dams of our new reality

How should IA’s ‘success’ of recent days be measured? Well if you are an airline you would measure it in air miles and conclude that IA has probably clocked up enough air-miles to guarantee him two jumps at the check-in queue if he was a regular human being, but he aint…. If you were an environmentalist you would measure it on his carbon footprints and conclude that his recent frequent flights would be satisfactorily offset by his years of ‘reclusive diplomacy’…(Including the time he decided to hike it to Djibouti and happened to bump into a farmer who spoke perfect Tigrigna!) but I am not much of an environmentalist ...

Unfiltered Notes: Blood Gold -- Western mining companies enabling tyranny in Eritrea

It can be said with almost 100% certainty that Nevsun is using slave labor in Eritrea today. And how does this happen? The regime, through the many companies it owns, assigns itself to be a subcontractor for foreign firms like Nevsun and collects full worker salaries that appear reasonable by ILO standards from them. It then pays the poor Eritreans it has subjugated to slavery under the guise of national service, 400 Nacfa per month -- the equivalent of less than $10 USD at current real market rates.

What can $10 per month buy you? A young family of four, if it has the luxury of three meals a day, and bread is all the family had every single day, the 400 Nacfa will not even last 10 days. That is with nothing left for vegetables, eggs, milk, shelter or...

The Script

There is so much your eyes can absorb from the white screen of a laptop and what is worse is what sinks down your subconscious after you have been done by the quality of material you are working on… it trickles down your very spine in minute droplets of information and gradually swelling up to occupy your mental space. 

It is like an alien invasion trying to snatch your very essence of self until you surrender and serve as a newly acquired host to their reality.  You are dying in the living and there is no way out and no hope.  Sometimes, neither the body and nor the mind can bear that kind of pressure.

NGOS CALL FOR ROBUST UN ACTION IN FACE OF ERITREA’S HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Human Rights Concern Eritrea (HRCE), Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) today called upon the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to conduct a thorough investigation into the wide-ranging human rights violations committed in Eritrea.

Keeping the Hope of Justice Alive in Eritrea

(19-09-2011 London)  Eritreans, Friends of Eritreans and Human rights organisations marked the 10th anniversary of the arrest of journalists and politicians who called for reform in Eritrea, and pied tributes to the thousands of prisoners of conscience in the country.

The event that was, hosted jointly by Eritrean human rights organisations in the UK and  attended by many Eritrean activists, friends and families of prisoners, national and international human rights organisations as well as a representative from the Foreign and Common Wealth Office was convened under the title: Keeping the Hope of Justice in Eritrea Alive.

In the Big Apple: Issias Afewerki faces our new reality!

…so IA is in New York?… good! Now he will realise that you can’t simply sit there and plead innocent because you are a new nation…. Now he will realise that there will be no one hailing him as the leader of African renaissance, now he knows he will be measured against the benchmarks that he willfully trampled all over… he can’t claim the accolades that should rightfully go the people that he has subjected to unbearable reality…

So you see… I am so happy that IA is in the Big Apple to be told that he is butt naked and his nakedness is the most disgusting sight on earth and the world is fed up of him flaunting it all over and the adulation of the crowd that likes to pretend it represents us  will be shown for what it is! A group of silly goons who couldn’t care less if the country burns down to rubbles taking their families along as long as there is a dance floor for them to dance on as they glorify their favourite arsonist!

Eritrean Drought and “Famine”

Eritrean intellectuals, professionals and political leaders who met in Addis Ababa earlier this month (Sept. 5 to Sept.10/2011) agreed that saving the lives of drought victims was more important than engagement in hunger politics on the part of the Eritrean government. 

In a petition to world leaders, they call for an immediate access to drought affected areas and allow independent verification of the magnitude of the food crisis. 

Isaias’ Helter-Skelter Foreign Policy

Isaias’ effort is like a foolish farmer who has a habit of closing the barren after the horse has bolted. By confusing being obdurate with being principled and arrogance with self-confidence, he has single handedly destroyed any sense of institutionalized and expert based modern diplomacy from emerging in Eritrea. By strictly subordinating the fundamental national interest of the State of Eritrea to his power monopolization agenda he has managed to put Eritrea under this no win situation.

He will have his ten minute on the podium and the world will hear words we Eritreans have gotten sick and tired of hearing for over a decade. But the world will see one of the remaining authoritarian tyrants make a feeble attempt to cast a wide accusation, hopefully minus Nikita Khrushchev’s Shoe Banging and Hugo Chavez’s “The Devil Came Here Yesterday” tantrum, against the United States and all other western Powers.  A four o’clock speech with few audiences immediately destine for the archive.

Journalist from Eritrea discusses censorship, hiding, indie media Special

"We ran. I ran faster than I had ever ran before as the soldiers opened fire on us. It was dark and I was jumping in bushes like a gazelle. For two hours I ran one way while the other two journalists ran the other. I listened as the gunfire followed the other two. Then it stopped. I waited for hours for my friends to join me fearing that they had been killed. That was January 6, 2002," Aaron spoke quietly, the memories still painful.

His colleagues were not dead but they had been captured. They remain in a prison camp to this day.

Introduction: Eritrea - Ten Years of Torture

What you are about to read is a transcript of an interview given to Human Rights Concern - Eritrea by Mr Eyob Bahta who was a prison guard from September 2001 until his escape from Eritrea in 2010.

The story begins on the 17th of September 2001 in Embat’kala prison, and moves on to Era’Ero prison where the horror still continues to this day.

Who are the prisoners and what is their crime?

Simply Free

Interview with Eyob Bahta - Part I (VIDEO)

Were there any prisoners who were seriously sick or died in Embat’kala prison?

Yes, three died in Embat’kala. The first who died was Fessehaye (Joshua). He was a journalist, I think. He committed suicide. He hanged himself. General Okbe Abraha tried to commit suicide by trying to cut himself with broken glass. He was given medical attention. He recovered. But he was suffering from asthma and died about six months later. Mohammed Sheriffo fell sick and died. These three died in Embat’kala.