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Bar pro-Eritrean activist from Canada, group says

A group of Winnipeggers is trying to prevent a U.S. woman who made incendiary remarks such as "evil" Jews from entering Canada again.

"I don't know how the Canadian border agency would let this woman come again," said Eritrean refugee Daniel Awshek. He attended an event in Winnipeg in 2010 where he said expatriate Eritrean Sophia Tesfamariam made the remarks and shamed people who had fled Eritrea, urging them to send the regime money.

She is expected to visit Canada Sunday, starting with a fundraiser in Vancouver, said Awshek. The U.S.-based Tesfamariam does fundraising and public appearances throughout the Eritrean diaspora, promoting the government of Eritrea.

Ruthless Kidnapping Rings Reach From Desert Sands to U.S. Cities

Just how many Eritreans have been kidnapped isn't known, in part because the global nature of the extortion has limited the ability of any law enforcement authority to track it. But according to a joint study by the Physicians for Human Rights and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, two Israeli nonprofits that run clinics treating victims, an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Eritrean refugees who arrived in that country in the past three years had been tortured. Another 4,000 Eritreans have disappeared and many are presumed dead, according to testimony for the European Union. ...

But according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, some 250,000 Eriteans have fled the country, about half in the past 10 years, which places the country ninth in the top 10 source countries of refugees. "The country is hemorrhaging human capital," said Tricia Hepner, a specialist on the Horn of Africa at the University of Tennessee. " The scale of displacement is comparable to what you'd see in famine or civil war."

(Photo: Semhar Zeratsion praying in Cairo church)

Israel accused of coercing Eritrean refugees to 'volunteer' for deportation

Eritrean refugees imprisoned in Israel are being coerced into signing "voluntary" departure forms to return to Eritrea - where the UN says their lives would be in danger - or go to another country, according to the UN refugee agency here and the Hotline for Migrant Workers.

Local UN officials say the Eritreans are denied their right to seek asylum. They are being told they can either go back home or stay locked up in Israel for at least three years. ...

If the reports are true, this will be the first time Eritreans are returned at Israel's initiative to their country, which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has classified as a totalitarian state that severely violates human rights. ....

(Photo: Eritreans protest deportation policy in Tel Aviv)

Eritrea’s president breaks silence over army mutiny incident

“The 21 January 2013 incident was, and is no cause at all, for apprehension and that the government opted to remain silent regarding the matter so as to give no ground for the authors of sheer lies,” Afewerki told the state news agency ERINA.

He added, “Entertain no worry at all, as there was – and does not exist – any reason for being apprehensive”.

He went on to say that the government of Eritrea deemed it appropriate to refrain from issuing statements on the matter in haste, as doing so was not only outside of its political culture but also would also mean “serving the ploys of [a] bankrupt enemy quarters”.

Eritrea blocks Al Jazeera

The Eritrean information ministry blocked all Al Jazeera channels and issued a decree that prevents anyone in the country from giving access to the news channel to the public.

“The ruling was sent to all government institutions as well as public places such as hotels, restaurants and cafes in different towns and villages,” the report said.

Earlier yesterday, The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani sent a written message to the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki pertaining to the bilateral relations of both countries, QNA reported.

Reverse the exodus from Eritrea

Many commentators called this a “failed coup,” but they missed the point. The protesters were not asking for power, just a crack in the wall, the payoff the entire society has been waiting for over the past half century of sacrifice and struggle, which the leader of their independence movement, Isaias Afwerki, is denying them. And they are not going to stay quiet any longer.

"Only Eritreans can bring this about, but there are things we could do to lessen the suffering of the victims of this tyranny."

Tens of thousands have fled a tyrannical regime often compared to North Korea: Eritrea has one political party; no national elections, ever; no organizations not controlled by the state, including religious denominations; no independent media; no space for raising any questions about government policies. Yet when Eritreans escape, usually at great personal risk, they often find themselves treated like criminals — or just turned away.

FIRST INTERVIEW WITH ERITREA’S ALI ABDU: INFORMATION MINISTER CONFIRMS: HAS LEFT THE REGIME

Expressen newspaper interview translated by Google Translate from Swedish, 30 January 2013

BEIRUT. Eritrean dictator Isaias Afewerkis Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed has fled the country and is living today in a secret location.

It confirms himself today in a world exclusive interview with Expressen Kassem Hamade.

Ali Abdu says he is surprised that the Swedish authorities did not seek him for information about what happened to the imprisoned journalist Dawit Isaak.

But he dare not give any hope to Isaak’s family in Sweden.

Eritrea: When is a mutiny not a mutiny?

On Monday 21 January, a number of unofficial sources reported that 100 or so soldiers had invaded Eritrea’s Ministry of Information and taken over state-owned Eri-TV. During their occupation, the soldiers began broadcasting a statement demanding the implementation of the constitution — never enacted by Parliament — and the release of thousands of political prisoners, including a number of high-profile journalists, and former ministers, senior military officers and officials known as the “G15”, before the station went off air. The rest of the armed forces were described as “quiet”, as was the city, and no shots were fired either in the taking or surrender of the Ministry.

In Eritrea, Whispers Of A Quiet Protest Challenge Years Of Suppression

“As for what shapes the forecast for Eritrea in particular, it winds up toward the middle of the global pack because it's a mixed bag,” says Ulfelder.

“On the one hand, it's a poor country that's internationally isolated, both of which are associated with increased risk of coup attempts. On the other hand, it's a very repressive dictatorship, and regimes like that are historically no more coup-prone than fully democratic ones, other things being equal. The regime's success at quashing dissent is also reflected in the absence of any prior coup attempts, another thing that pulls Eritrea's forecast down.”

The model is so far holding up, since what happened in Eritrea on Monday was not a coup; it did not depose the government and was possibly not intended to do so. ...

A worsening economic crisis may be what’s pulling Eritrea closer to the brink. The UN sanctions are being felt more than ever, especially in a country where the GDP per capita is around $482, according to World Bank data.

What really happened at Asmara’s ministry of (dis)information ?

What really happened that day at the information ministry? Some information began to filter out the next day, and more has emerged since then. But it has not been easy to follow events as they happened. And establishing what this incident means and what it may bode for the future is even harder.

Eritrea is one of the world’s most closed countries and has one of the last totalitarian dictatorships. The mystery surrounding the events of 21 January and the chorus of denials and contradictory comments on social networks are the logical consequence of a situation in which privately-owned media have been banned since 2001 and no foreign press correspondents have been permitted since 2010.