20 Resistance posters in Asmara and nearly 40,000 robo-calls

20 Resistance posters in Asmara and nearly 40,000 robo-calls

(Asmara 31-12-12) Young Activists in Eritrea posted over 20 posters on the streets of Asmara on New Year ’s Eve. The Posters depicting a picture of Mr Idriss Ab-Arre, a disappeared disabled veteran of Eritrea’s struggle for independence, appealed to members of the public to help friends and families of Eritrea’s ‘dissapeared’ in locating their loved ones.

The initiative was a follow up to a campaign that was launched by Project ArbiHarnet (freedom Friday), in commemoration of September 18, 2001 when many politicians seeking political reform and journalists from Eritrea’s independent media disappeared overnight.

Posters were posted in the following buisy location in Asmara, giving ArbiHarnet’s contact details for those who want to help:

* Outside Cinema Roma
* Near Cinema Roma (Education)
* Outside Cathedral
*Outside Bar Diana
* Outside Bar Commercial
* Piazza Michael
*Adulis club in front of the bank
*May Abashawil in two places
* Godena Harnnet in three places
* Meda Ertra

following the event a couple of messages were received by the Project detailing sightings of AbArre and other prisoners around 2005, four years after their disappearance. The Team is investigating these leads and will make any findings detailed in due course.

Reporting on their activities on the day the young Activists from Asmara stated: ‘We started with our postings at the positions near Cinema Roma and the ministry of education and progressed with those near Bars Commerciallo and Ugo as well as Meda Eritrea. Then we were joined by those who were doing May Aba-Shawel when we finished at around 4:00 in the afternoon. We were happy with our work and agreed it was a successful mission as we departed each to our home. We reconvened at 8:30 the following morning to assess reaction around the city and made our tours of the various sites, unlike our previous mission this poster was removed on our return and in some places torn on post. In some places like the ones near bar Ugo the poster was still up and people were still reading it. People were amazed at the content and some were shaking their head and in the background police night patrols were passing by. All in all the poster is big news in Asmara now’.

Meanwhile their counterparts in the diaspora were busy phoning PFDJ officials and warning them to be on the side of the people who are calling for change in Eritrea. Automated robocall messages were sent to 200 key people with important roles and responsibilities inside the country. The New Year Eve calls to PFDJ officials are part of the programme of weekly calls that started in September, targeting different cities and addressing the Eritrean public directly. Nearly 40,000 such calls were made over the four months since September.

Organisers of Project ArbiHarnet state: we really believe 2013 will be the year of new beginning for our people and so as we end the year 2012 we delivered that very message both to our people and to PFDJ officials too. Over the period of four months we contacted nearly 39875 in the following cities:  Barentu (300), Teseney (200), akurdat (300), Massawa (232), Keren (1300), Mendefera (200), DekemHare (215), adikeyiH (200), Assab (188), Asmara (15200), and a further 21540 to mobile phones and land line phones across the country.

The Project aims strengthen the link between the resistance inside the country and the diaspora to carry out more coordinated initiatives in the New Year. It is to be remembered that a similar poster campaigned that was recorded on a phone camera and smuggled out of Eritrea was carried out in the summer of 2012.

Notes :

1. Having gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1991, today Eritrea is daubed Africa’s North Korea owing to the appalling human rights records there. In June the UN Human Rights Council agreed to appoint a Special Rapporteur to look into the human rights violations perpetrated by the regime.
2. ArbiHarnet (Feedom Friday) is an initiative coordinated by Eritrean youth in the diaspora with the aim of narrowing the gulf between the resistance to the government of Eritrea in the diaspora and inside the country.
3. One of the objectives of the initiative is to encourage Eritreans inside the country to indentify communal responses to the dictatorship that has caused thousands of Eritreans to become refugees and prisoners.
4. ArbiHanet is an  inspired by the Arab Spring Revolutions, and works to inspire the Eritrean public to rise up in a similar act of defiance against injustice in Eritrea.

Please contact us  ArbiHarnet on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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