Letter to the Permanent Representatives at the UN Security Council

Nov 8, 2011

Letter to the Permanent Representatives at the UN Security Council

H.E. Ms. Susan E. Rice (USA)
H.E. Mr. Li Baodong (China),
H.E. Mr. Gerard Araud (France),
H.E. Mr. Vitaly Churkin (Russian Federation)
H.E. Sir Mark Lyall Grant (United Kingdom)
H.E. Dr. Peter Wittig (Germany),
H.E. Mr. Ivan Barbalic (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
H.E. Mrs. Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti (Brazil)
H.E. Mr. Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (Colombia),
H.E. Mr. Denis Dangue Rewaka (Gabon)
H.E. Mr. Hardeep Singh (India)
H.E. Mr. Nawaf Salam (Lebanon),
H.E. Mrs. U. Joy Ogwu (Nigeria)
H.E. Mr. José Filipe Moraes Cabral (Portugal),
H. E. Mr. Baso Sangqu (South Africa),

Re: The Asmara regime is primarily a domestic terrorist that is brutalizing its own citizens

Excellencies,

It is to be recalled that on 23rd of December 2009, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), decided to impose sanctions on Eritrea, as a result of its support to armed terrorist groups in the horn of Africa and undermining peace and reconciliation in Somalia, and for not withdrawing its forces following clashes with Djibouti in 2008.

Once more again The Security Council is currently discussing a draft resolution on imposing additional sanctions on Eritrea for its destabilizing actions in the horn of Africa in particular and Africa in general.

There is no doubt that President Isayas Afeworki is the God father of Islamist fundamentalist in the horn of Africa and is a safe haven for known terrorists of the region who have confirmed links to Al Qaeda. The political toxic waste emanating from Eritrea is threatening the stability of an already volatile region of the world.

Furthermore all indications are that President Isayas has become an arms smuggler and a front man for Islamist fundamentalist individuals and governments in the Arab world. The Asmara regime is engaged in a long chain of illegal trade operations in the form of weapons trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking and contraband trade in Africa, notably in Sudan, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda and Angola. The Asmara regime justifiably deserves harsh sanctions from the international community.

Unfortunately UNSC resolution 1907 falls short of incorporating the important issue of “the respect and protection of human rights of the Eritrean people”, neither does the current draft resolution being deliberated upon. The terrorist action of the Asmara regime is not only directed against neighboring states but is primarily directed against its own citizens.

The Sanction is working:-

The actions of the Eritrean government since the implementation of the UNSC resolution 1907, amply demonstrate that the only language that the Eritrean government understands is sanction, punitive action and threat.

The fact that the Eritrean government has withdrawn its troops from the territories of Djibouti it occupied is a direct result of the imposition of the UNSC sanctions. The sanction is working and the international community needs to continue to tighten the noose.

The international community has to understand that the government of Eritrea is a government which understands and respects force and nothing else. It has to be cornered to do the right thing both in regards to its obligations internationally and domestically.

If we look back at the history of the Eritrean government, during the Ethio-Eritrean border war, the Eritrean government, blatantly refused the various mediation efforts by the international community namely, US/Rwanda initiative and the OAU Peace plans, that called for withdrawal of both forces to pre-June 1998 positions. Eritrea accepted international mediation only after Ethiopia outmaneuvered and overpowered Eritrea’s defensive lines and occupied a big chunk of its territory.

The Eritrean people unnecessarily paid a heavy price both in terms of human life and resource because of the stubbornness of their government. The tragedy of the border war could have been avoided if the Eritrean government had accepted the arbitration of the International Community in a timely manner.

Another recent example is the release from detention of British nationals by Eritrea on 12th June, 2011. The Four British men (who were contractors working for PVI), six months after being detained by the Eritrean government without consular access, were released only after the UK government imposed restrictions of mobility on Eritrean diplomats within UK and ordered them to stop collecting the 2% tax from Eritreans residing in the UK.

Human Rights in Eritrea:-

The people of Eritrea are currently living in bondage as serfs. Eritrea is a nation that does not have a constitution, and has no working parliament or has no private press. Freedom of speech is suppressed to such a degree that people are jailed not only for criticizing the government but also for supposedly “thinking of criticizing” the government.

The Isayas regime’s coercion and subjugation machinery are unparalleled. It has built countless and mysterious network of jails and prisons all over the nation. Prisons are filled beyond capacity and empty containers are used to house the overflow. It has perfected the art of torture to such a degree, that the violence, horror, and crimes that are committed in these prisons are very horrendous.

Eritrea is a nation where due process of law is unheard of and where tens of thousands of prisoners of conscious are languishing in prison incommunicado. Detainees are tortured systematically and routinely until they succumb to death. Thousands have perished in prisons, and even their remains were not released for burial nor were their families notified of their death.

Eritrea is a nation where praying to the Lord Jesus is a criminal offence, where reading the bible is punishable by imprisonment, and where thousands of Evangelical Christians are languishing in prison for their faith. His Holiness Abune Antonios, Patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox church, who opposed government interference in church affairs, was stripped of his authority and put under house arrest and held incommunicado since 2005. He is 84.

Eritrea is a nation where hundreds of thousands of youngster are wasting away as slaves serving the government forcibly without pay or compensation indefinitely. The open-ended national service has evolved into a form of state sponsored slavery. Conscripts are hired out to the private sector in return for payment of wages to the Ministry of Defense. Centuries after slavery was abolished in the world, it is still thriving in Eritrea in the 21st Century.

Female national service conscripts are coerced into having sex with commanders, and are raped routinely. Many women become pregnant as a result and are exposed to social ostracism and alienation. These young girls, who were conscripted when they were in their early twenties, young, innocent, beautiful and full of life and aspiration, are now in their mid-thirties, and have aged beyond their years. Unmarried, uneducated, past their prime, they are wasting as serfs.

The massive human rights abuse and indefinite national service also have triggered a mass exodus of Eritreans fleeing persecution. One in four Eritreans are refugees currently. These new post-independence asylum seekers are mostly youngsters who dared to risk the unknown to escape a nation of stolen youth, camouflaged slavery and a land of one vast military camp celebrating death.

Eritrean parents, gripped by intense grief over the fate of their sons and daughters, are groaning in despair and wailing in agony. Even they are not immune from persecution and imprisonment. Thousands of parents most of them aged and infirm are imprisoned incommunicado, under harsh conditions currently in Eritrea falsely accused of facilitating the escape of their children.

Despite a mountain of evidence about the blatant human rights abuse going on in Eritrea, the international community has chosen not to take decisive action against this ruthless tyrant, who has enslaved a whole nation of 5 million people, thereby betraying the cause of human rights by their silence, and granting a license to the Isayas regime to brutalize its citizens with impunity, unhindered and unchecked.

What needs to be done:-

It is time for the International Community to come together to put a stop to the enslavement of a whole nation by a single individual. It is now time to take decisive punitive action against the Isayas regime, on behalf of the millions of voiceless Eritreans based on the horrendous human rights record of the Eritrean regime. You owe it to your creator and your conscience.

Welcoming the steps taken thus far by the Security Council and,
In light of the fact that the Eritrean regime is unrepentant and does not listen to criticism and,
The only language that the regime of Mr. Isayas Afeworki understands is sanction, punitive action and brute force and,
Given the fact that the Eritrean people are abandoned and alone with profound hopelessness and without any other resource and means to end the onslaught on their God given rights and freedoms,
I most humbly ask you to incorporate “the respect and protection of human rights of the Eritrean people” in the proposed sanction until such time that the government of Eritrea respects human rights and civil liberties of its citizens and abide by international and regional human rights treaties and standards.

The Eritrean Dictator should be told in no uncertain terms that, human rights, civil liberties and the rule of law are non-negotiable God given rights of the Eritrean people or face the consequence of refusing.

I am hopeful that the Eritrean people would soon hear from you that you are cognizant of their predicament and that you stand with them in their hour of need.

Humbly Yours,
Ghirmay S. Yeibio
Winnipeg, MB.
Canada.

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