Eritrea Today

African migrants seeking UK 'dream'

2009-10-11T04:28:00.001-07:00

Panorama's Paul Kenyon visited a derelict house near the French port of Calais to hear why so many young African migrants remain determined to reach Britain.

The cellar steps are thick with oil and the walls a congealed buttery yellow. They're steep and twisting, and someone's daubed graffiti in a language I do not recognise.
Clearing work at a Calais migrant camp
The French government has recently dismantled migrant camps in Calais

At the bottom someone has tried to light a fire, and the charcoal remains have been kicked around in the gloom. There is a stinking curtain across a doorway, and when I tug it, a swarm of silent flies tumble out, and bump around the cameraman's light.

On the other side is the skeleton of an arm chair, some half eaten cans of food and an overwhelming smell of stale urine. Upstairs is not much better.

Here in Calais, this is home to around 30 men and two women. They are mostly young and ambitious and some speak several languages.

War zone

They have dreams of becoming doctors, engineers and teachers, yet here in this derelict, abandoned house, they are holed up in a cellar as if they are hiding from the bombs and bullets of a war zone. For many, the sounds of war would ring familiar.

None of them are from here - Europe. They are holed up in this now infamous French port city hoping to find a lorry which they can clamber inside or lash themselves onto.

They tell me they'll even try to cling onto the chassis, which they describe as the best place to catch a ride that they all hope will take them across the Channel.

On the treacherous journey out of Africa, the UK is often whispered about in reverential tones, as a crime-free, multi-cultural nirvana

The lorries that can deliver them to their final destination rumble by every night. They are on their way to Dover - the place that this collection of migrants hiding in the cellar have been planning, plotting and praying to somehow reach.

One of them is called Alex and he is Eritrean. He served in the army of his home country for four years. In Eritrea, mandatory conscription has no apparent end. Some men are conscripted as teenagers and, if they are fortunate enough to survive the perpetual fighting, they are still in the military until late middle age.

Alex told me he grew tired of fighting and deserted. He knows that if he ever returned he would be jailed in grim conditions alongside the politicians, religious leaders, journalists and his fellow deserters. He said he feared he would never come out.

Some call Eritrea Africa's North Korea. It is a brutal regime which is internationally condemned. Those who escape, should they make it safely to Europe, are at the top of the list for political asylum.

Boat burst

Alex reached Europe after crossing the Sahara in a truck crammed with 40 or so others. To preserve the limited supply of water, they had a tactic - they poured petrol into it. It made them want to vomit. After that they only sipped when they really needed it.

Alex ended up on a notorious people-smuggling beach called Zuwarah, in Libya. From there it is 180 miles to Europe. He says he paid around $500 for a place in an inflatable boat.
Clearing work at a Calais migrant camp
French authorities are attempting to dissuade migrants

When they were about 10 minutes into the crossing, it burst. They all tumbled into the sea. There was still some air in the tubes of the boat and despite the chaos, most of them managed to cling on. Two drowned.

After several more failed attempts, Alex made it across the Mediterranean to Italy, the nearest European soil. But Italy was not what he was aiming for. Alex smuggled himself in trucks and trains, travelling further northwards until he arrived at Calais, just 34km from the UK.

He could have claimed political asylum in France, but he resisted.

Despite the views of some commentators in this country, his motivation was not the UK's benefit system.

'Tolerant' Britain

In covering this story of African migration for more than two years, I have met hundreds who braved this clandestine route into Europe and none of them have even heard of hand outs, free housing, or benefit money to be had.

The reasons they want to reach the UK are much more straightforward - they believe it is more tolerant than elsewhere in Europe, they can speak English and they think they can find a job.
African migrants off Tenerife
Many young African migrants risk their lives to reach Europe

Outside the broken-down house with the deep cellar, I tried to explain to Alex that the UK might not be as tolerant of new, illegal migrants and asylum seekers as he thinks.

"Even so, at least there's no crime there," he replied. "I know I can find peace."

"No crime?" I said "There are robberies and murders and kids carry knives in big cities."

He looked genuinely astonished at what I have told him. On the treacherous journey out of Africa, the UK is often whispered about in reverential tones, as a crime-free, multi-cultural nirvana. I have encountered this perception many times.

The men and women hoping for their chance to make that final leap from Calais to the UK are a tiny hard-core of asylum seekers.

Most give up on the idea well before reaching the English Channel. And far from being plagued by asylum seekers, as some in Britain like to suggest, the truth is very different.

Asylum applications per capita in the UK sits 13th in Europe, far behind the top nation, which is Malta. Cyprus, Italy and France all receive more applicants for asylum than Britain.

When we left the cellar in Calais, there was a group of Eritreans surrounding our car. It was a four-wheel drive with a big boot space to fit all the camera gear. The crowd parted apologetically as we approached, and I discovered one man lying on the ground with his head beneath the chassis. I assumed there was an oil leak.

"There is enough room under there, but nothing to hold onto" said one of the men. He was not joking.

When we opened the boot, one of the women tried to slide passed me and tapped a large case to see if it was empty.

"I am very light," she said. "If you are stopped at the port, you just say I broke in. You didn't know I was there."

Two weeks later, the French authorities raided the broken down house in Calais and arrested everyone inside. I have no idea where they are now, but Alex was lucky. He had already applied for asylum in France, and is now living in refugee hostel waiting to hear the result.

Panorama: Migrants Go Home!, BBC One, Monday, 5 October at 2030BS

A product of their homeEmailPrintNormal fontLarge fontOctober 9, 2009

2009-10-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

A product of their home
October 9, 2009

AdvertisementDiafrix are, undeniably, Aussie hip-hop. By Andrew Drever.

IT SEEMS odd, given Australia's vast multiculturalism, but there have been disquieting local scene mutterings and murmurings that Footscray hip-hop outfit Diafrix aren't ''true blue'' enough to be considered part of Australian hip-hop.

Maybe it's their music, which fuses reggae, traditional African influences, soul, dancehall and drum'n'bass, as well as hip-hop. Perhaps it's that their two frontmen are former African refugees. Maybe it's that their lyrics don't contain any cussing. Or is it that it's a world away from the typical and popularised Australian ''skip-hop''?

Whatever it is, Diafrix's Momo (Mohamed Komba) and Azmarino (Khalid Abdulwahab) have a strong view on the matter.

''We are part of the Australian hip-hop scene,'' Abdulwahab says determinedly, while on a leisurely stroll around Footscray. ''A lot of people say no but that's where the debate starts. Why aren't we part of Australian hip-hop? We got a frickin' ABN! Yeah, we are different. We don't do the same music as them but we are part of that culture.''

Komba arrived in Melbourne 23 years ago as a three-year-old with part of his family from the Comoros Islands, off the south-east coast of Africa near Madagascar.

Abdulwahab, 27, is from war-torn Eritrea (in north-east Africa) who, having left his family and three siblings in Eritrea, undertook a decade-long search for citizenship in Italy, Jordan and Switzerland before settling here in 2000.

The duo met in 2001 at a hip-hop workshop run by TZU's Joelistics. Naming themselves after a Footscray cafe (Cafe D'Afrique), the duo were joined by the largely unseen producer Ptero Stylus (Glenn Christiansen), who is responsible for the worldly palette of sounds on their debut album, Concrete Jungle.

''He [Christiansen] had really strong hip-hop, really strong drum'n'bass and really strong reggae production,'' Abdulwahab says. ''So when we did Concrete Jungle, we were sitting comfortably within those genres because we'd been doing them for so many years. It wasn't just typical hip-hop.''

Both Abdulwahab and Komba, who see themselves as products of their dislocation and displacement, conduct music workshops and community-based mentorships for disadvantaged youth and immigrants, as well as holding down day jobs as youth workers.

''We're rapping for our culture,'' Abdulwahab says. ''Being part of the African thing, because of our backgrounds we can't deny that and we don't want to mess it up, because there's only a few of us out there talking the other side of the story.''

Diafrix play at the Espy, St Kilda, on Friday, October 30.

Chalice Gold reports death of employee, contractors in Eritrea

2009-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

Chalice Gold reports death of employee, contractors in Eritrea
October 07 2009, 2:21PM
Chalice Gold Mines Ltd has reported the death of one its employees and two of contractors in a shooting incident near its gold project in Eritrea.

Chalice said in a statement on Wednesday that the incident occurred on a public road 110km south of its Zara project and 35km northwest of the town of Keren.

"The deaths are believed to be the result of a shooting incident and an investigation by the Eritrean authorities is underway," the Perth-based company said.
Executive chairman Tim Goyder said the incident appeared to be an isolated event unrelated to Chalice and its operations.

"Executive director Mike Griffiths is in Eritrea to assist where possible," the company said.

Chalice said the scoping study for the Zara project remained on track for completion later this month.

Shares in the company were up half a cent, or 1.3 per cent, at 39 cents at 1417 AEDT

Gippsland targets base metals, gold in Eritrea - shares jump

2009-10-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 06, 2009
by Peter Gonnella & Andrew McCrea

Perth-based Gippsland Ltd (ASX:GIP; DB:GIX) subsidiary Nubian Resources plc has picked up three prospecting licences in the state of Eritrea that it likes for their base metals and gold prospectivity.

Investors liked the news and sent Gippsland shares 56% higher at one stage, on turnover of 15.22 million shares traded.

The licences span an overall 300 sq km and contain the Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi tantalum resources, which total 142.5 million tonnes and are JORC-Code compliant, however, the company will initially focus on the search for base metals and gold.

Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi occur in the mineral endowed Precambrian Nubian-Arabian Shield, which also takes in the nearby Centamin Egypt-owned (TSX:CEE; ASX:CNT; AIM:CEY) new Sukari gold mine in Egypt.

Sukari hosts current reserves totalling 142 million tonnes grading 1.4 g/t Au for a contained 6.4 million ounces of gold.

In addition, in recent years there have been a number of gold and base metal discoveries made in Eritrea, including Bisha, Zara and around Asmara.

Gippsland plans to undertake an initial sampling program on its new licences during October and November involving the collection of drainage channel samples within the new project areas.

This geochemical technique is known to be effective in the exploration for gold and base metal deposits in Eritrea, according to the company.

Its drainage samples will be analysed for copper, lead, zinc and gold mineralisation.

Jack Telford chief executive of Gippsland said the licences are located in a region that has been the subject of “minimal previous exploration but has the potential to host high-grade gold and base metal deposits”.

Recently, the news pipeline turned positive for the company as leading Australian businessman Ian Gandel’s company Abbotsleigh Pty Ltd provided the Company with a loan of AU$800,000 for working capital.

Which, he elected to convert (the loan) into shares via the issue of 80 million shares to Abbotsleigh Pty Ltd. Abbotsleigh’s shareholding equates to 18.89% of the Company's fully paid ordinary shares on issue.

Gippsland has a world scale tantalum resource at Abu Dabbab in Egypt. With the shut down of some tantalum projects, Abu Dabbab’s project economics will be further boosted by the co-production of tin metal (as well as tantalum revenues).

Additionally, feldspar production, is scheduled to commence after both tantalum & tin production starts, will add substantially to the company's bottom line return.

2008-12-07T13:25:00.001-08:00

An African Scorecard Governance Counts
Saturday, December 06, 2008 12:04 PM
(Source: International Herald Tribune)trackingBy Robert I. Rotberg

African governance is getting better. That is a major, surprising, finding of the second annual Index of African Governance, produced at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and released last month.

Given continued conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 3 million hapless citizens have been killed in civil war since 1990; intensified mayhem in the Sudan, where at least 300,000 Arabs and Africans have been slaughtered since 2003; continued antagonism between north and south in the Ivory Coast, in the Nigerian Delta, in northern Uganda and in Somalia - no governance or bad governance might seem more the sub-Saharan African trend than good governance.

This year's Index, however, shows that 34 of 48 governments have begun delivering improved results to their citizens. Multiparty systems are now more normal in Africa; most countries demand that their leaders step down after two terms. Most economies are open, with old-fashioned socialist ideas now largely junked. Millions of Africans are on the Internet .

Liberia, the most improved country in Africa according to the Index, moved up in rank from 44th to 38th place since last year, largely due to the leadership of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first woman head of state, and to her efforts of post- conflict reconstruction. Countries like Eritrea, with appalling human rights records and suppression of press freedom, moved down strikingly, from 39th to 41st. In both cases, and in nearly all of the others in the Index, political leadership quality helps to determine performance and final national achievements.

The top performers in the Index were the countries, many small, that have been well managed since their achievement of independence from colonial rule. Mauritius, the Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Gabon, Ghana, Sao Tome and Senegal lead the list.

In each of those countries citizens are comparatively wealthy, mostly literate, safe (except for South Africa), free of domestic conflict and accustomed to solid rule of law performance with moderate corruption. Gabon is the outlier in this group, with low scores in the Index for participatory fairness but high scores for security (in a tightly run state).

The African countries internally at war comprise the last 10, from top to bottom: Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Angola, Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia.

2008-11-29T08:34:00.001-08:00

Kingdom lifts ban on import of sheep, cows and camels from Eritrea

RIYADH - The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture has issued a decision lifting the temporary ban imposed on the import of sheep, cows and camels from Eritrea.
The decision stipulates that the exported livestock from Eritrea should be subject to conditions and procedures of the quarantine in Kahtalai (Eritrea).
The procedures include attaching authenticated certificates by the Eritrean veterinary authorities, keeping the exported livestock at the quarantine for a period of 30 days, marking livestock by the quarantine including the number of the animal and the date of its entry for quarantine, examining animals to make sure that they are free from the disease of the rift valley fever or any other epidemic or infectious diseases, vaccination of the animals on the 7th day of their entry for quarantine against the Rift Valley Fever by the vaccine called Smith Burm which is used in the Kingdom.
Moreover the procedures also include the transportation of the animals by clean transportation channels. The decision pointed out that the livestock exported to the Kingdom from Eritrea will be subject to all quarantine procedures in line with the system of the quarantine law carried out by the GCC member states and under its executive statutes.
Moreover, random samples will be taken from the animals for examination to get sure of their immunity level from vaccination against the rift valley fever.
The Ministry of Agriculture said the period of quarantine at the quarantine of Kahtalia before the export of the animals will be reduced from 30 days to 10 days during the Haj season of this year.
The animals will be vaccinated on their first day at the quarantine against the Rift Valley Fever by Smith Burm, the Ministry of Agriculture further said.
The Eritrean economy is largely based on agriculture, which employs 80 percent of the population but currently may contribute as little as 12 percent to GDP.
Agricultural exports include cotton, fruits and vegetables, hides, and meat, but farmers are largely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and growth in this and other sectors is hampered by lack of a dependable water supply.
Worker remittances and other private transfers from abroad currently contribute about 32 percent of GDP. – SPA

2008-11-29T08:30:00.001-08:00

November 26th, 2008 | Categories: Ethiopia, Video | 18 Comments

The report in this video by UK's Channel 4 TV is about the devastating Woyanne-Eritrea war of 1998-2000 in which Woyanne tribal warlords Meles Zenawi and Seye Abraha carelessly and recklessly sacrificed over 100,000 young Ethiopians to liberate a small piece of barren land called Badme.

The only thing that is NOT factual in the video is that the war was not between Ethiopia and Eritrea. It was a war between Woyanne and Eritrea. Unfortunately, it was Ethiopians who were used as cannon fodders by Woyanne, not the Woyanne army.

In that war, Woyanne military leaders used what military experts call 'human wave' –a cruel and inhumane military tactic where tens of thousands of poorly trained soldier are forced to run right into the firing line with no regard to their lives. Those who were retreating in the face of a rain of bullets from the Eritrean soldiers were shot dead by the Woyanne special forces unit called Agazi — an exclusively one-ethnic (Tigrean) army that serves as a praetorian guard for the tribal junta. It is this same unit that had gunned down pro-democracy protesters in 2005 in the streets of Addis Ababa and other cities of Ethiopia.

While sacrificing all these precious young Ethiopian lives for a small, dry piece of land that the United Nations later had asked to be given to Eritrea, the Meles-Sebehat regime gave away thousands of square kilometers of Ethiopia's fertile land to Sudan without the Sudanese government demanding it.

After getting its butt kicked in Somalia by 3,000 ragtag insurgents, Woyanne is currently preparing for another devastating war with Eritrea. This time, however, the result will be different. The people of Ethiopia will stand with the Eritrean army and bring an abrupt end to the Woyanne era of endless misery and war.

2008-11-24T12:47:00.001-08:00

Click here to close this window Mon, Nov 24, 2008 20:53 UT
Eritrean rebels claim killing 285 government troops
Monday 17 November 2008.

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

November 16, 2008 (MEKELLE) – An Eritrean rebel group, The Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) claimed killing over two hundred government troops during an attack carried last week against a military training center inside the country.

The Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) on Sunday said that its fighters have killed at least 285 Eritrean military officers including top military leaders in what it called was the most devastating assault taken earlier this week at a military training base in the remote central Denkelliya region of Afambo local area.

The attack comes after 200 Eritrean Afar-ethnic government Militias willingly surrender to the Afar rebel group two weeks ago.

RSADO’s Executive committee member and head of information and communication ,Yasin Mohamed back from the borders to coordinate the mission and now in Mekelle town says the accomplished mission is well prepared and the most successful and the biggest attack ever attempted by any other Eritrean resistance groups.

"In an unusual attack our gallant fighters on Monday at around 8:30 local time have sneaked a big military training center based at Afambo area and bombarded a hall packed with over 450 Eritrean military officers who were celebrating the end of higher military training," he said.

The rebel official added they also hit a truck carrying gas tanker and a generator outside which completely turned the whole area into massive fire and end up the fun and laughter into shouts, crying and dead bodies.

The Afambo military training base is the biggest training center next to Sawa, an area where tens of thousands of Eritreans from all wakes of life take mandatory military training.

The group explained the success of the attack saying it was taken along with the 200 deserted government militias who had every inside information needed to accomplish the attack.

"We have confirmed the death of at least 285 Eritrean military officers" Yasin said adding "we believe hundreds of others are also wounded or dead then after"

He also said during the occasion, Eritrean military officials who were engaged in training Ethiopian rebels for cross border attacks and also Ethiopia rebel leaders from OLF, ONLF, Tigray rebels who are based In Eritrea were invited .

"We believe Ethiopian former Derg regime’s commander, colonel Selhadin Ali, currently coordinator of cross-border attacks against Ethiopia is killed during the attack” Yasin alleged, adding “ colonel Birhanu head of the attacked military center and top military leader of Eritrean forces is also dead or seriously wounded."

Yasin said, the sudden and massive attack taken has created frustration and resentment to Eritrean authorities, higher military officials and to Eritrean troops in general

“Eritrean president Isayas Afeworki had to postpone his scheduled visit to neighboring Sudan for at least one day after he heard the shocking news” He claimed.

The rebel RSADO is a member of the Eritrean democratic Alliance, umbrella opposition of 13 Eritrean political parties.

In a separate incident the rebel group has also destroyed a radar station in the southern Red sea zone same day same time.

“In parallel to the above raid a different force of RSADO has smashed radar stationed at the mountainous area of Ramllo area” He added.

The group said the latest attack is a big blow to Isayas -led government who repeatedly says "there are no any internal opposition groups in Eritrea ".

(ST)
Copyright © 2003-2008 SudanTribune - All rights reserved.

2008-11-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

Eritrea - Ethiopia
An Ethopian-Eritrean war looms again

Thursday 13 November 2008
Since the withdrawal in July of the United Nation’s Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the two countries' armies find themselves in a dangerous face-off.
Every morning these Ethiopian soldiers inspect the road which connects the town of Badme to the rest of the country. They fear commandos sent by neighboring Eritrea may have hidden land-mines. The threat is real: a few weeks ago three civilians died as their car was blown-up by an anti-tank mine.

Since the withdrawal in July of the United Nation’s Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the two countries' armies find themselves in a dangerous face-off. The memory of the 1998-2000 war, which caused the death of about 80,000 people, is still on everyone’s mind.

Checkpoints, roadblocks, vehicles systematically searched: the Ethiopian army is everywhere in Badme. And this despite a UN Boundary Commission's ruling that Badme belongs to Eritrea. In Badme it is still the Ethiopian flag adorning the top of official buildings.

For the local authorities there’s no question: this was and will always be Ethiopia. Tilahun Guebremedhin, President of the Badme district council says: "For all times, Badme has been Ethiopian. It has a massive significance for us Ethiopians; it is the symbol of the integrity of our country. "

"I would rather die than to see a portion of my land going to the other side.” The wounds left by the Eritrean occupation are still on everyone’s minds. Many lost a relative or a friend during the surprise attack led by the troops of Asmara in 1998. Many here are afraid of another war, yet they openly back up their army.

Mamite Guebresarkan, a farmer says: "Of course I'm worried. They conduct frequent infiltration missions here. But whatever happens we will remain here, it is our land, our country. Victorious or not we'll live and die here.”

Negussa Guebreselassie, farmer and member of an Ethiopian militia, says: “We always expect the war to start again. During the war my wife was shot by Eritrean soldiers. She suffered a lot and it was very difficult to have her treated.”

By the time the UN local mission ended its operation here more than six months ago, it no longer had the means to keep up with its peacekeeping initiative: the Eritrean authorities were doing all they could to hinder its action. And despite what it had declared, Ethiopia was refusing to acknowledge the new borders. Despite the fact that ten thousand residents before the war now only number 4,000, Badme has resigned itself to endure another war.

Letay Kidane, a shopkeeper, says: "It's good if the border problem is solved through a peaceful dialogue. Otherwise, I myself will support and help our soldiers up to the frontline.”

People are psychologically gearing up for war. An entire division of the Ethiopian Army has taken position in a nearby fortified hill… Only a few kilometers away, the Eritrean Army is waiting.

2008-11-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 03, 2008

Nevsun Resources – Finance lined up to develop Bisha

by Sami Kiri

When most of the mining companies find it hard to raise money for exploration Toronto and AMEX listed Nevsun Resources (TSX/AMEX: NSU) has secured the approval for a US$89 million commitment from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (“IDC”). Funds are expected to be utilised for the development of the Bisha Project, Eritrea. This proves the old adage that there are always investors for good projects.

Nevsun presented in one of our investor forums in Toronto during which we as well as our readers had an opportunity to interview the management. John Clarke, Vice Chairman, was optimistic about their ability to move the Bisha Project forward. Bisha is a large precious metal and base metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit located in a newly discovered VMS district in western Eritrea. Suggested models for the deposit include felsic dominated bimodal-siliclastic VMS and Noranda/Kuroko type deposits and a comparison has been made to the Matagami VMS district in Quebec. Nevsun and the Eritrean National Mining Corporation (“ENAMCO”) (collectively the “Sponsors”) own the Project.

IDC is a national development finance institution established to promote economic growth and industrial development in South Africa. Its mandate includes the rest of the Africa continent with a primary objective to contribute to balanced, sustainable economic growth in Africa. In addition to IDC, several other potential lenders have also submitted indicative terms for the remaining funds required and the Sponsors are in the process of evaluating these proposals. Nevsun is clearly not short of investors for Bisha.

Nevsun has also provided updated project economics for Bisha. Benefiting from low site operating costs throughout the projected mine life, Bisha is characterised by its high returns and quick capital payback. A strengthening US dollar is expected to improve the economics further. Bisha has a project Internal Rate of Return of 42% and a pay back period of 1.6 years; impressive by any standard. These are based on conservative assumptions such as Au $600/oz, Cu $1.50/lb, Zn $0.50/lb and Ag $8/oz, and a Preproduction capex of $250 million. No wonder Nevsun has financial backers!

Brisk development activities are underway at Bisha. During spring/summer 2008 Nevsun has upgraded construction camp and facilities. In August 2008 SENET, the EPCM contractor, was mobilized to site enabling site clearance and heavy earth moving for plant construction. In September/ October 2008 Nevsun has advanced town site construction for 400 people. The company is well on its way to get Bisha to production.

Market uncertainties may make investors nervous but attempts by the management of resource companies to advance their projects usher considerable confidence both on the company and projects themselves. Nevsun’s Bisha project and its continued progress is one of those few examples where the management continues with delivering the business plan promised, regardless of market conditions. We will continue our readers tuned in to Nevsun story and soon will get John Clarke and his team present Nevsun in our London forums.

About Nevsun Resources

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is a gold and base metal explorer/developer with a focus on developing mining projects in Africa. Nevsun is currently focused on advancing its high grade gold, copper and zinc Bisha Project in Eritrea. The project is developed with the Eritrean government as a partner. The project has 27.2 million tonnes of measured and indicated resource and 11.7 million tonnes of inferred resource (43-101 compliant).

2008-11-01T05:55:00.001-07:00

The same old theory against Eritrea

Thursday 30 October 2008.

By Ibrahim Ibrahim

Once the United Nations Security Council sentenced Eritrea to vanish for the benefit of USA’s interest and the then close friend and ally Emperor Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia. To reverse the illegal sentence, that is unification of Eritrea to Ethiopia coasted tens of thousands of innocent Eritreans and ended with victory to the rule of law of an independent Eritrea in 1991. The illegal unification of Eritrea to Ethiopia was designed and went for implementation at Washington’s state department and sealed at UNSC’s meeting that resembles with its totality to the current theatrical drama by Djibouti’s President against Eritrea.

The world body, instead of verifying the reality on ground was quick to accuse and condemn Eritrea’s self defense. Eritrea vowed to solve the unwanted provocation by Djibouti in a manner that does not embarrass the President of Djibouti and his immature action.

Last week’s drama with in the same UN building, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs has played crucial roll behind the seen. Unwarranted accusation by the sisterly nation Djibouti against Eritrea has been voiced. The accusation rather surmounts itself for lack of proof and reality on the ground.

President Gelleh of Djibouti’s accusation to Eritrea’s occupation of his countries sovereign land verifies nothing but the bribe paid by Ethiopian minority regime to his Excellency, and orchestrated cooperation to satisfy Ms. Fraser of US State Department who has been challenged with failure over failure in the whole continent. Mr. Gelleh’s accusation surpassed the minority regime in Ethiopia’s expectation, when he played the same roll that Ethiopia used to manipulate sympathy.

The same old theory, the Security Council members failed to try to figure out the main reason behind all these fabricated lies, and carry its legal responsibility. The wording and accusations does not reconcile with the responsibility they UNSC is vested upon.

It was hoped that the same body has learned from its past history in regard to Eritrea as a people who gave their precious lives to reverse the howler and as a free nation and people who are willing to give all what they possess to uphold their freedom. Yet the Security Council seems to have short lived memory and is trying to threat the same people with punishment unless it is bowed to the illegal and corrupted accusation.

The people of Eritrea in defiance of all negative campaigns and threats struggled to achieve its independence with its totality through self-reliance and mutual respect to its neighbors. Exchanging the hand that extended to mutually benefit the peoples of the region into personal and individual benefits of leaders as such Mr. Gelleh and his Ethiopian counter part in corruption, sooner or later will be ditched out by the same people who are using them. The hegemony and irresponsible act by US State Department against the peace loving people of Eritrea and overall the whole region in the Horn of Africa is rejected.

* The author is the Former Bank of Eritrea Administrator currently resides in United States of America. He can be reached at

2008-10-27T04:24:00.001-07:00

A Spectrum of War between Eritrea and Abyssinia (Pseudo-´Ethiopia´)

by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

October 26, 2008

With the defeated Abyssinian army gradually withdrawing from Somalia, with the mutually advanced disintegration of Sudan, Abyssinia (fallaciously re-baptized ´Ethiopia´), Somalia and Yemen, and with the paranoid Abyssinian dictator Zenawi struggling to survive, another phase of the war between Eritrea and Abyssinia seems nigh.

The war would be triggered mainly by the need of the Abyssinian dictator Zenawi to demonstrate his ability to bring to his ailing tyranny some sort of nationalistic success that will help him gain the sympathies of the regime´s Ethio-fascist, chauvinist and criminal elements, the Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinian minority (18% of the total population) that has always controlled the Abyssinian anachronistic, colonial and rogue state.

The Amhara Threat Against Zenawi

The danger for the paranoid, rogue tyrant Zenawi is great; worse than him, worse than any other African dictator, worse than Stalin and worse than Hitler, the evil Amhara leaders of Kinijit and Ginbot – 7 have been hyperactive in order to convince the colonial lobbying of America and Europe that they can "do the job better".

The evil, inhuman and murderous Amhara political establishment has never ´excused´ their Tigray counterpart´s rise to power. Invaded by the most inhuman form of hatred and hysteria and possessed by an abysmal desire for evil, totalitarian power, they played their comedy of resistance against a person, namely the tyrant Meles Zenawi, and even went to the jail in order to diffuse the idea that the Amharas have been persecuted by the Tigray dictator.

This is all a shameful aberration and a theatrical performance geared to confuse the non-insiders.

Amharas: Indivisible and Beneficiary Part of Zenawi´s Regime

If the Amharas were persecuted at the times of the Zenawi administration, the tyrannical Abyssinian state´s army, police, secret services, and public administration would not be manned by Amharas in their majority.

If the Amharas were persecuted at the times of the Zenawi administration, certainly Amharic would not be the official language – tyrannically imposed by the Zenawi administration – of the following regions: Benishangul – Gumuz, Diredawa, Southern Nations, Gambella, and the so-called Addis Ababa (in reality Finfinnee, which should not form a separate region from Oromia, as it is the capital of Oromia).

A War: the Only Means for Zenawi to Survive

The problem is precisely that Zenawi needs a war and a victory in the war, in order to oppose the accusations of the Amhara criminal Ethio-fascists, who want to return to power only to impose a far worse system of tyranny than Zenawi´s, denying the existence of all the subjugated nations of Abyssinia and thus heralding a new, worse circle of genocides; Zenawi has therefore to ´deliver´.

In a country that falls apart only because of the spread of Internet, in a tyranny where life has absolutely no value, the only way for the dictator to survive against the Amhara allegations (that he is undemocratic and that he is destroying the supposedly unitary character of the country – which is a racist Amhara lie) is to make a victorious war. In the aftermath of the Abyssinian defeat in Somalia, and with thousands of coffins having been sent back home from Somalia, Zenawi has to present a certain success.

With Ogaden in chaos, and with the OLF successfully staging attacks against the criminal tribal pseudo-army of the state, Zenawi has only one choice – to attack Eritrea, which has long been the target of the Amhara Ethio-fascists.

What will be the result of a successful war against Eritrea?

Zenawi will be able to convince the ´deep´ state (the military, the paramilitary, the administrative machine, and the influential ´debteraw´ – monks and religious leaders) that he is able to carry on; an invasion of Assab would thus be presented as a great victory, due to which Abyssinia will not be a landlocked state anymore.

An Amhara Military Coup Against Zenawi Possible

With the ´deep state´ unhappy, Zenawi risks facing a military coup at any moment; carried out by Amhara Ethiofascist generals, the coup would simply be a return to Amhara totalitarianism and racism, despite the extreme pro-democracy rhetoric that is expected to be unleashed from the filthy mouths of the Amhara gangsters – generals.

The chances of a military coup against Zenawi, to bring ´democracy´ back to Abyssinia, are by now high. The conflict between two groups of Amhara military and paramilitary (pro-royalist and pro-communist) has caused some confusion and delay, as it is reflected in the existing political formations (Kinijit is full of communist collaborators and ministers of the murderous dictator Haile Mengistu, whereas the Ginbot-7 Ethio-fascist criminal elements are connected with the disreputable remnants of the lewd and barbaric Abyssinian monarchy).

Urgent Eritrean Diplomatic Activity Needed

Eritrean President Afwerki´s Letter to the UN Secretary General is therefore a document of the utmost gravity, as it may be the final official document before a new war phase explodes.

By using the term "clarion call", President Afwerki sent the ball back to the UN Security Council; it´s up to the international body now to take the measures needed to thwart another war that will certainly plunge East Africa to a far worse crisis than any previous.

The UN Security Council, with Turkey as non permanent member, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference are the diplomatic fields where the Eritrean diplomacy has to focus now; Eritrea has the task to prepare "the Black Book of Ethiopia", an extensive if not comprehensive list of crimes perpetrated against Islam by the perfidious, racist, and Anti-Islamic state of "Ethiopia".

"The Black Book of Ethiopia" must be submitted to an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference whereby all members should agree to suspend in unison their diplomatic ties with the evil, anti-Islamic state, and provide Eritrea with all the necessary means to utterly destroy Abyssinia.

A coordination with the tyrannized Afars, Ogadenis, Hadiyas and Oromos, as well as with the oppressed Amhara and Tigray Muslims of Abyssinia will be essential in this regard.

I re-publish integrally President Isaias Afwerki's Letter to the UN Secretary General, and in addition, the Final border report on Ethiopia-Eritrea dispute sent to Security Council, which was the reason of the Eritrean President´s demarche.

President Isaias Afwerki's Letter to the UN Secretary General

http://hornofafrica.de/index.php?id=18&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1132&tx_ttnews[backPid]=12&cHash=d97a5048c4

I would further like to express our gratitude for Your Excellency´s instructions, effected on 2 October this month, to circulate to all UN Security Council Members the Report of Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, the President of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission, of 25 September 2008, and to file it in the official records of the United Nations. The full report is annexed as a reminder.

Your Excellency Ban Ki-Moon

Secretary General

The United Nations

New York

May I kindly request Your Excellency to ensure that this letter is put on the record of the United Nations and circulated to all UN Security Council Member States.

I would further like to express our gratitude for Your Excellency´s instructions, effected on 2 October this month, to circulate to all UN Security Council Members the Report of Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, the President of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission, of 25 September 2008, and to file it in the official records of the United Nations. The full report is annexed as a reminder.

It must be underlined that the message of President Lauterpacht highlights the fundamental legal issue and substantive matters on all the seven points invoked.

In the second point, the Report ascertains that the EEBC´s Delimitation Decision of 13 April 2002 as well as its Determinations of 27 November 2006 are binding on the two parties.

In the third point, the Report underlines that after the refusal of Ethiopia to nominate a replacement for its (deceased) Commissioner, "the Secretary General has not exercised his power of appointment pursuant to Article 4(4) of the Algiers Agreement of 12 December 2000". The implications of this statement must be evident to Your Excellency.

As a fourth point, the EEBC not only ascertains that it has deposited, in the UN registrar, copies of its maps as the last act of the conclusion of its legal mandate but it further underlines the failure of Ethiopia to meet its financial obligations to the EEBC in violation of Article 4(17) of the Algiers Agreement.

In the fifth point, President Lauterpacht´s Report explains the legal rationale and significance of its letter of 18 June 2008 to the Parties.

In the sixth point, the Report underscores the importance of Eritrea´s response of 1 July 2008 while confirming Ethiopia´s failure to give any response.

In the seventh point, the Report asserts that after the completion of ongoing administrative tasks related to the termination of its mandate, the EEBC will effectively consider itself as "functus officio".

Mr. Secretary General,

Your Excellencies: Members of the UN Security Council

This historic message, at this crucial juncture, is a "clarion call" to the UN Security Council. This is a legal and moral message to the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities and ensure the eviction of Ethiopia from Eritrea´s sovereign territories that is occupying in violation of the rule of law, the Charter of the United Nations as well as the final and binding decisions of the EEBC as stipulated in the Algiers Peace Agreement.

Mr. Secretary General

Your Excellencies: Members of the UN Security Council

It is against this backdrop that the US Administration has chosen a "propitious" time to contrive and orchestrate a seemingly new and diversionary scheme under the rubric of a "border conflict". This was effected through the "submission" that the President of Djibouti was made to lodge, anew, to the UN Security Council yesterday. This appalling scheme has further been accompanied by outright intimidation and saber rattling against Eritrea. Eritrea´s position on the whole episode has been clarified repeatedly and does not merit repetition here.

Mr. Secretary General

Your Excellencies: Members of the UN Security Council

Eritrea will not abandon its request for Justice and legality; its adherence to the rule of law; and, its compliance with the Agreement it has signed under deceitful schemes and threats. Eritrea will not indeed succumb to intimidation. Nor will it be dragged into a non-existent conflict.

In the event, I urge the UN Security Council not to shrug its responsibilities but to ensure the eviction of Ethiopia´s occupation from our sovereign territories; including the new occupation of our land at Mount Musa Ali since May this year.

Sincerely

Isaias Afwerki

Final border report on Ethiopia-Eritrea dispute sent to Security Council (http://www.biddho.com/content/view/974/29/lang,english/)

13 October 2008 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has transmitted to the Security Council the last report issued by the independent commission on Ethiopia and Eritrea´s common boundary.

In 2002, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission handed down a final and binding decision awarding Badme, the town that triggered fierce fighting between the neighbouring Horn of Africa nations, to Eritrea. But the two countries have since been at an impasse on that demarcation.

The report notes that the body´s mandate has been fulfilled and that all administrative issues connected to its termination have wrapped up.

The Commission has given both sides a deadline of 26 November 2007 in which to place pillars on the boundary.

In a letter sent to the two countries in June, it wrote that "as there has been no communication from the parties, the Commission must now reach the conclusion that… no further activity on its part is called for, and that it should therefore take the few final steps involved in winding up its operations," including returning resources to the United Nations.

The final report said that it received a response from Asmara, but none from Addis Ababa.

In July, the Security Council voted unanimously voted to terminate the UN peacekeeping mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, known as UNMEE, after restrictions placed on the peacekeeping operation by the latter country undermined its ability to carry out its mandate.

As such, Mr. Ban said in his recent letter to the 15-member body that he will no longer provide regular reports on the situation between the two nations.

United Nations S/2008/630

Security Council

Distr.: General

3 October 2008

Original: English

Letter Dated 2 October 2008 from the Secretary General Addressed to the President of the Security Council

As you are aware, with the termination of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea as of 31 July 2008, I will no longer provide reports to the Security Council on the situation between the two countries on a regular basis. However, I have recently received a final report of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, which the Registrar of the Commission felt would be useful to circulate as a document of the Security Council.

I would be grateful if you could bring the attached report to the attention of the members of the Security Council.

(Signed) Ban Ki-moon

Twenty-seventh Report of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission

1. This is the twenty-seventh and final report of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, covering the period from 1 January to 25 August 2008. The previous report covered the period from 27 September to 31 December 27 (S/2008/40, annex II).

2. In its previous report, the Commission recalled the terms of paragraph 22 of its Statement of 27 November 2006 ("the Statement") and noted that, its meeting with the parties of 6 and 7 September 2007 notwithstanding, no progress had been made towards the construction of boundary pillars in the manner foreseen in the Statement. Noting the positions of the parties as expressed in letters of the Government of Eritrea dated 19 and 29 November 2007 and the letter of the Government of Ethiopia dated 29 November 2007, the Commission reaffirmed the considerations of fact and the statements of law set out in its Statement, and emphasized that the Delimitation Decision of April 2002 and the Statement of 27 November 2006 remained binding on the parties.

3. The Commission notes that, pursuant to articles 4 (4) and 4 (6) of the Algiers Agreement, Ethiopia had until 4 January 2008 in which it might appoint a substitute Commissioner for Sir Arthur Watts KCMG QC. Ethiopia informed the Commission that it did not consider it necessary to appoint a replacement. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has not exercised his power of appointment pursuant to article 4 (4) of the Algiers Agreement of 12 December 2000.

4. As noted in its previous report, the Commission considers that it has fulfilled the mandate given to it. The Commission notes that the following administrative matters connected with the termination of its mandate have now been concluded:

(a) On 17 January 2008, a copy of the maps illustrating the points identified in the annex to the 27 November 2006 Statement was deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Another copy for public reference has been retained in the office of the United Nations Cartographer.

(b) As the Commission noted in its previous report, Ethiopia continues to be in arrears of its share of the Commission´s expenses, in breach of Article 4 (17) of the Algiers Agreement. A final financial account shall be transmitted to the parties and the remaining funds held on deposit shall be returned to the United Nations Trust Fund.

5. On 18 June 2008 the Commission sent a letter to the parties stating that:

"It is now over six months since the expiry of the period which the Commission indicated in its Statement of 27 November 2006 and during which the Commission had hoped that the parties would either themselves proceed to the placing of pillars on the ground or allow the Commission to do so. As there has been no communication from the parties, the Commission must now reach the conclusion that the boundary stands demarcated in accordance with the coordinates annexed to that Statement, that no further activity on its part is called for, and that it should therefore take the few final steps involved in winding up its operations, These include the return of physical assets to the United Nations and the preparation of final accounts.

6. On 1 July 2008, Eritrea responded to the Commission´s letter, stating:

"The meeting that the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission convened with the parties in The Hague on 6 September 2007 to move the process forward was not successful because Ethiopia was still not prepared to accommodate the requirements that the Commission stipulated. While Ethiopia´s refusal to comply with the Commission´s delimitation and demarcation decisions is unfortunate, it in no way undermines the final and binding nature of the Commission´s conclusions.

"When Ethiopia refused to come into compliance within the specified one year period, the Secretary of the Boundary Commission dispatched to the parties 45 maps, on a scale of 1:25,000, containing the demarcation of the boundary by coordinates.

"Eritrea considers that the mandate of the Boundary Commission has been fulfilled as of that time. In this spirit, Eritrea has and continues to press the United Nations Security Council to exercise its legal authority of enforcing the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Commission.

"Eritrea wishes at this point to reiterate its gratitude for the Commission in fulfilling its mandate under these difficult conditions."

7. A copy of Eritrea´s letter of 1 July 2008 is annexed to the present report. Ethiopia did not respond to the Commission´s 18 June 2008 letter within the above time period.

8. Since the Commission has now concluded all administrative matters connected with the termination of its mandate, it now considers itself functus officio.

(Signed)

Sir Elihu Lauterpacht CBE QC

25 August 2008

Annex

Letter Dated 1 July 2008 from Eritrea to the Eritrea – Ethiopia Boundary Commission

Thank you very much for your letter of 18 June 2008 concerning the Boundary Commission´s winding up of its operations.

As emphasized in my letter to you of 29 November 2007, Eritrea has consistently supported the work of the Commission and has from the outset recognized (as required by the Algiers Agreement of 12 December 2000) the Commission´s delimitation and demarcation decisions as authoritative. As stated in article 4, paragraph 15: "The parties agree that the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Commission shall be final and binding."

Eritrea remains committed to this principle and to all of the "delimitation and demarcation determinations" to which this paragraph refers. As my letter of 29 November 2007 clearly states, this includes not only the Commission´s delimitation and demarcation decisions in general but also the Commission´s coordinates:

Eritrea acknowledges as both final and valid the coordinates that the Commission has specified and believes that these coordinates are as binding as other Commission decisions.

In its communication to the parties on 27 November 2006, the Commission notified the parties that it "cannot remain in existence indefinitely". The Commission had further noted:

"If, by the end of that period [November 2007], the parties have not by themselves reached the necessary agreement and proceeded significantly to implement it, or have not requested and enabled the Commission to resume its activity, the Commission hereby determines that the boundary will automatically stand as demarcated by the boundary points listed in the annex hereto and that the mandate of the Commission can then be regarded as fulfilled."

The meeting that the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission convened with the parties in The Hague on 6 September 2007 to move the process forward was not successful because Ethiopia was still not prepared to accommodate the requirements that the Commission stipulated. While Ethiopia´s refusal to comply with the Commission´s delimitation and demarcation decisions is unfortunate, it in no way undermines the final and binding nature of the Commission´s conclusions.

When Ethiopia refused to come into compliance within the specified one-year period, the Secretary of the Boundary Commission dispatched to the parties 45 maps, on a scale of 1:25,000, containing the demarcation of the boundary by coordinates.

Eritrea considers that the mandate of the Boundary Commission has been fulfilled as of that time. In this spirit, Eritrea has and continues to press the United Nations Security Council to exercise its legal authority of enforcing the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Commission (letter dated 18 June 2008 from President Isaias Afwerki to the President of the Security Council attached (see

(Signed)

Professor Lea Brilmayer

Legal Adviser to the Office of the President

Asmara, Eritrea

Enclosure

Letter Dated 18 June 2008 from the President of Eritrea to the President of the Security Council

I have noted the contents of your letter dated 10 June 2008, which states that "the Security Council is considering the terms of a future United Nations engagement, including through a possible further United Nations presence in Ethiopia and Eritrea".

As has been clarified on a number of occasions (S/2008/287, S/2008/200, S/2008/68, S/2008/54, among others) the Temporary Security Zone that was established by the Algiers Agreement has fulfilled its purpose, namely, to serve as a temporary buffer zone until the border between the two countries could be demarcated. The Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission has completed its task by demarcating its final and binding award thereby effectively ending the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea and its oversight of the Temporary Security Zone. In the event, Eritrea strongly believes the key to regional peace and stability is the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from sovereign Eritrean territory.

Indeed, article 4.15 of the Algiers Agreement states: "The Parties agree that the delimitation and demarcation determinations of the Commission shall be final and binding. Each party shall respect the border so determined, as well as the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other party".

Needless to emphasize, the United Nations cannot have legal authority to legitimize occupation under the rubric of engagement. Going forward from this point requires exclusive focus on the provision cited above.

(Signed)

Isaias Afwerki

2008-10-24T02:48:00.001-07:00

Security Council discusses border tensions between Djibouti and Eritrea

Ismail Omar Guelleh, President of the Republic of Djibouti

23 October 2008 – The Security Council heard calls today for the peaceful resolution of the current border dispute between Djibouti and Eritrea, which flared into fighting in the Horn of Africa in June that killed at least 35 people and left dozens of others wounded.

Representatives of Djibouti and Eritrea outlined their positions to a Council meeting that also heard statements from the Council’s 15 members, in which they stressed the need for restraint and backed existing international efforts to mediate a settlement.

Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh, whose country requested the Council meeting, asked the panel to call on Eritrea to meet its international obligations and move to end the dispute, which centres on an undemarcated border in an area known as Doumeira. If not, he said, sanctions may be needed.

The armed conflict erupted in early June after weeks of tensions and military build-up on both sides, and a subsequent UN fact-finding mission reported that the dispute had the potential to destabilize the entire region.

Mr. Guelleh said Djibouti’s priority was to demilitarize the area and re-establish mutual trust by reactivating existing bilateral mechanisms and creating some sort of arbitration to demarcate the border.

He said Eritrea had continued to reinforce its troops and refuse to negotiate since June, and Djibouti therefore had no choice but to mass troops at the border and defend its territory.

Eritrea’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Araya Desta, said his country had already dealt with Djibouti’s “unwarranted statements” at a previous Council meeting on the issue, adding that it was Djibouti that had provoked the conflict in June.

Mr. Desta said Eritrea had exercised restraint and not taken any land belonging to Djibouti, and there had not been any new developments since the fighting four months ago.

“Eritrea will not allow itself to be dragged into and invited to engage in a diversionary and fabricated conflict,” he said, noting that his Government stood ready to resolve the dispute.

Eritrea refused to receive the UN fact-finding mission when it visited after the fighting, and consequently only Djibouti’s version of events was made available to it. The mission concluded that Djibouti was being drawn into a crippling and expensive military mobilization to deal with the situation.

2008-10-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

Somalia
Uproar as Islamic Courts faction appoints 'new chairman'
By
Oct 12, 2008 - 5:20:42 PM

MOGADISHU, Somalia Oct 12 (Garowe Online) - Political infighting within the Islamic Courts movement deepened on Sunday when the Eritrea-based faction announced the election of a new chairman, Radio Garowe reported.

An Islamic Courts delegation from Eritrea now visiting the Somali capital Mogadishu told a press conference that the group elected Sheikh Omar Iman as the new chairman, replacing Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed at the top.

The visiting delegation's spokesman, Ismail Haji Addow, told reporters that the new executive council chairman will hold office "until the next gathering."

Sheikh Omar Iman, the chairman-elect, lives in Eritrea and was deputy of the Islamic Courts' legislative council (Shura) since 2006.

Mr. Haji Addow had strong words for Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Ghelle, saying that Ghelle's recent comments were "unexpected" from a Djiboutian leader. [ Full story]

He accused UN Special Envoy to Somalia, Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, of being an "American agent" who is working to divide up the anti-Ethiopia insurgency.

The Special Envoy was instrumental in facilitating the Somali peace talks in Djibouti, which led to the signing of a peace agreement last June between Sharif Sharif and interim Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein.

Challenge

Some Islamic Courts commanders have publicly come out and rejected Sheikh Omar Iman's ascension to the group's top.

A group of Islamist officials on the ground, including the official spokesman Abdirahim Isse Addow, argued that a Shura Council meeting must be held to vote out the executive chairman.

Sheikh Mohamud Jim'ale was quoted by local media in Mogadishu, saying: "The Asmara [Eritrea] meeting was attended by only three members of the Shura Council and the remaining 88 members were not present."

Another senior official, Sheikh Abdulkadir Ali Omar, told reporters that "fighters on the ground are neutral" about the growing political dispute among Islamic Courts leaders.

Both Islamic Courts officers extended support to Sheikh Sharif's leadership "until a Shura Council conference is held" to elect a new chairman.

Since June, the Islamic Courts fractured into two major camps based in Djibouti and Eritrea, led by Sheikh Sharif and Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, respectively.

Islamist rebels are leading an anti-Ethiopia insurgency in parts of Somalia, which has killed at least 9,500 people so far and contributed negatively to the humanitarian crisis in the country.

Source: Garowe Online

2008-10-11T11:58:00.001-07:00

October 9, 2008 - 8:48 AM

Asylum applications rise again

The number of asylum seekers arriving in Switzerland has increased in the third quarter by almost 40 per cent over the previous three months.

More than 4,400 applications have been handed in, according to the Federal Migration Office, making a total so far this year of 10,351 - up 29.4 per cent on 2007.

The largest number of asylum seekers came from Eritrea, with 704, followed by Somalia, 551, and Serbia and Kosovo, 405.

By contrast, the number of approved applications dropped by four per cent in the third quarter and repatriations increased compared with 2007.

Last month Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf called for a tightening of asylum regulations as the number of applications rises.

She said Swiss embassies abroad should no longer accept asylum requests, and proceedings within the Federal Migration Office should be made more efficient.

2008-09-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

Refugees Could Be Victims of New Smuggling Ring in Sudan
By Lisa Schlein Geneva 25 September 2008

Schlein report - Download (MP3)
Schlein report - Listen (MP3)

The U.N. refugee agency says it is concerned that new, smuggling rings taking advantage of refugees may be developing in eastern Sudan. It says 21 refugees from Eritrea and Somalia are feared to have drowned recently when their overloaded boat capsized in the Atbara River, near the Shagarab refugee camp in eastern Sudan. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

Local authorities are investigating the presumed death by drowning of the refugees. The bodies have not yet been recovered.

The U.N. refugee agency says this tragic incident occurred a couple of days ago. Eyewitnesses report the 21 refugees were part of a larger group that tried to cross the Atbara River in four boats. They say the boat that capsized was meant to carry 15 passengers, but was packed with 26. Four Eritrean men and one Somali woman survived.

U.N. refugee spokesman Ron Redmond says aid workers who arrived on the spot shortly after the incident found 70 other people waiting to cross the river. He tells VOA smuggling routes are opening up across this remote part of eastern Sudan, not far from the 12 refugee camps managed by the UNHCR.

"So, it is obviously becoming a more popular solution among these refugees," said Redmond. "We are extremely concerned because the smugglers who are carrying these people do not have their safety in mind. And, it is an extremely dangerous undertaking crossing this river because they are overloading the boats. These people are paying about $100 each to take the trip across the river and then on towards Khartoum by road."

Eleven Eritrean and Somali families, including eight women and at least three children are among the missing.

The UNHCR estimates around 130,000 refugees are in eastern Sudan. About 100,000 live in 12 camps where they receive international assistance. Most are from Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Redmond says thousands of these refugees have been living in eastern Sudan for more than four decades. He says living conditions in the camps are very bad and many refugees feel hopeless about their future.

"The refugees are confined basically to the camps," said Redmond. "They are not supposed to travel anywhere else in the country without authorization. So, they are in a very difficult situation. They are desperate. They want a future and, as we have seen in other parts of the world, particularly across the Gulf of Aden, they will take their lives into their own hands if they think it is worth the risk."

Redmond says the refugees who get involved with smugglers and embark on these perilous journeys hope to reach the capital Khartoum and, ultimately, make their way to Europe.

2008-09-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

Journalist jailed in Eritrea for seven years

Published: 23 Sep 08 11:23 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/14508/20080923/

Today marks the seventh anniversary since Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak was arrested and put in an Eritrean prison.

Four other journalists imprisoned at the same time have died in their cells.

On the anniversary of the arrest, several groups working for Isaak’s release are petitioning the Eritrean embassy.

Each group has submitted a protest letter and within the week Leif Öbrink, head of the Free Dawit support group, will meet with staff from the embassy.

“I want to try to get permission to travel there and see Dawit and see how he’s doing. The foreign ministry has also been working on it, but hasn’t succeeded,” he said to the TT news agency.

Isaak has a wife and three children in Gothenburg. Neither they nor anyone else has been allowed to contact him.

Through sources in Eritrea, Öbrink knows that Isaak is doing well under the circumstances.

“But seven years in a prison cell has its effects. Still, he’s doing better than many other journalists who were arrested at the same time, thanks to the work of the foreign ministry and all of the news reports about him,” said Öbrink.

Thirteen journalists and several Eritrean opposition political leaders were arrested in a police raid in 2001.

At the same time, the Eritrean government banned free press in the country.’

According to Reporters Without Borders, four of the journalists have died in prison. One has been released and now resides in Sweden.

Isaak came to Sweden twenty years ago as a refugee, and became a Swedish citizen in 1992.

He and his wife, along with their three children, took up residence in Gothenburg.

When Eritrea gained independence, Isaak returned to the country without his family to work for Setit, an independent news magazine.

In September 2001, the magazine published an open letter from political dissidents which demanded democracy, justice and transparency.

Shortly thereafter, Isaak and around twenty other journalists and opposition members were arrested, and all independent and privately owned media outlets were banned.

Since then he’s sat in prison without a trial.

Isaak was released once in November 2005, but was arrested two days later on his way to see a doctor.

Eritrea’s expressed opinion on the case of Isaak , who holds both Swedish and Eritrean citizenship, is that it is an Eritrean matter which has nothing to do with Sweden.

2008-09-22T09:35:00.001-07:00

Eritrea opposition pledges to restore people to people relations with Ethiopia

Saturday 20 September 2008.

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

September 19, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — Eritrea’s biggest opposition umbrella, the Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA) says it is committed to exert utmost efforts to restore roughen relations between the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

After Ethiopia and Eritrea went on a bloody border war in 1998-2000 which claim 70,000 people, the relations of the peoples of both nations still remain at odds.

"The brotherly people of both countries have sacrificed their lives in a joint struggle to throw the latter DERG regime." EDA executive committee chairman, Tewolde Gebreslasse said adding “EDA will put maximum efforts to heal worsen relations of both people, which is ruined by the aggressive policy and false propaganda” of Asmara government he added.

According to the official, EDA is not only going to put efforts to restore relations but also will work in ways both people will jointly work persistently to bring positive changes in different aspects.

The opposition top official said that the long relations and history between Eritrean and Ethiopian people must not be affected by the Eritrean government policy.

He also called upon Eritrean people to not support blindly the government of the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) which is the only legal political entity in Eritrea.

"It is time the Eritrean people stand by peace seeking opposition forces in a fight to throw the regime and bring democratic rule in Eritrea," added the head of the opposition alliance which is supported by the Ethiopian government.

Recently, the alliance of 13 Eritrean opposition groups reached an agreement with the Ethiopian authorities to shelter Eritreans who are being deported from Egypt and Libya.

(ST)

2008-09-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International, svenska sektionen

ERITREA: Sju år sedan samvetsfångar frihetsberövades

2008-09-19 16:31

Det var den 18 september 2001 som hundratals tidigare regeringsrepresentanter, journalister från oberoende media och tjänstemän greps av den eritreanska regeringen. Sju år senare tros de flesta fortfarande sitta i isolererade i fängsligt förvar.

Bland de fängslade finns den svenske medborgaren, Dawit Isaak, han greps
tillsammans med flera andra journalister. Amnesty anser att de är
samvetsfångar, fängslade för att fredligt ha uttryckt sina politiska
åsikter. Den eritreanska regeringen har vägrat uppge var personerna hålls
fängslade och har heller inte bemött anklagelserna om att flera av
fångarna har dött i fångenskap. Amnestymedlemmar över hela världen har
under sju år krävt svar på dessa frågor.

Ingen av de häktade har ställts inför rätta och regeringen i Eritrea gör
allt för att dessa fångar ska falla i glömska och deras familjer har inte
tillåtelse att besöka dem i fängelset.

Fångarna lever under svåra förhållanden och hålls isolerade, de utsätts
för tortyr eller förnedrande behandling och bestraffning, och troligtvis
blir de nekade läkarvård.

Eritrea fortsätter att godtyckligt gripa människor och tusentals personer
har fängslats på grund av sina åsikter eller sin tro. De lever under samma
svåra förhållanden, som de som greps för sju år sedan. Familjemedlemmar,
till dem som fängslats de senaste sju åren, utsätts också för hot.

För att markera sju-årsdagen upprepar Amnesty sin uppmaning till
regeringen i Eritrea att ovillkorligen släppa alla de som greps för sju år
sedan, som fortfarande hålls fängslade utan åtal och utan att ha ställts
inför rätta. Regeringen i Eritrea måste avslöja var fångarna hålls och ge
deras familjer tillstånd att besöka dem. Samvetsfångarna ska även få
tillgång till läkarvård och rättsligt ombud. Hoten och trakasserierna mot
fångarnas anhöriga måste upphöra.

Amnesty uppmanar det internationella samfundet att inte glömma bort dessa
fångar utan istället använda sig av alla diplomatiska möjligheter för att
få samtliga samvetsfångarna frigivna.

Evelina Franzén
Amnesty Press och media (praktikant)

2008-09-22T09:32:00.001-07:00

Political prisoners in Eritrea (September 18, 2008)

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union

On 18 September 2001 a group of eleven prominent members of parliament and of the people’s front for democracy and justice, the only political party in Eritrea, was arrested. A few days later, 10 independent journalists were also arrested. Since then, other individuals have been arrested and detained incommunicado, with no charges and with their right to a due process suspended.

Despite repeated appeals by the international community, including the EU, and several governmental and non-governmental human rights bodies, these prisoners remain in detention, without having been charged with any offence, and without access to a free and fair trial. None has been brought before a magistrate, although Eritrean laws require this to be done within 48 hours.

This treatment as well as the lack of information about their place of detention, detention conditions and health status are also not consistent with the obligations foreseen in several international treaties ratified by the government of Eritrea, such as the UN convenant on civil and political rights and other internationals declarations, such as the resolution no. 45/111 about basic principles for the treatment of prisoners, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 14th December 1990.

The European Union remains deeply concerned that the government of the state of Eritrea continues to severely violate basic human rights in violation of its obligations under domestic and international law. The European Union profoundly deplores the continuing lack of progress on this matter and urges the government of the state of Eritrea to disclose evidence of the place of detention, detention conditions and health status of the prisoners. Furthermore, the European Union urges the government of the state of Eritrea to allow the families, legal representatives and medical doctors of their choice to have access to the prisoners. The European Union also urges the government of the state of Eritrea to unconditionally release all the political prisoners.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.

2008-09-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

CSW seeks urgent action from EU over Eritrea human rights abuses Posted: Friday, September 19, 2008, 9:10 (BST) CSW took part in a special hearing on Thursday urging the European Union to take urgent action over its policy on serious human rights violations in Eritrea. Presentations on the dire situation of Eritrean refugees took place in the European Parliament, hosted by Portuguese MEP, Ana Gomes. CSW, one of the co-organisers, presented an overview of the religious liberty situation in Eritrea, where over 2,000 Christians are still detained without charge or trial in centres where human rights abuses occur routinely. CSW representative, Dr Khataza Gondwe, explained how the Eritrean Government has systematically targeted all religious groups, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Muslims. She called on EU officials to push for access to prisons and detention centres. Mr Kebreab Yimesgen Hailegiorgis, co-founder and former General Secretary of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance for Africa and the Middle East, also addressed the assembly, sharing his personal experience of close friends, neighbours and colleagues being ‘disappeared’ by the Eritrean Government. Mr Hailegiorgis called for independent observers to visit the country in order to examine the plight of its prisoners: “These prisoners are detained solely for their religious beliefs. None have been officially charged or brought before a recognised court of law. They are held for weeks, months, even years in police stations, open air facilities in military camps and ordinary jails. "Some are held, either in isolation, or with others in metal shipping containers, in cramped, poorly ventilated cells, in underground cells, and even in sealed caves. Many have been subjected to torture, and some have died during or as a consequence of it, while others have been disabled.” Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director said it was a "travesty" that the situation in Eritrea had received so little attention from the international community, "and that this silence has been interpreted by the Eritrean regime as tacit support for its brutal policies". "We urge the European Union to put respect for human rights at the top of its priorities in its relations with Eritrea and make their concerns crystal clear to the regime," she said. "The Eritrean people have already suffered for far too long.”

CSW seeks urgent action from EU over Eritrea human rights abuses

Posted: Friday, September 19, 2008, 9:10 (BST)

CSW took part in a special hearing on Thursday urging the European Union to take urgent action over its policy on serious human rights violations in Eritrea.

Presentations on the dire situation of Eritrean refugees took place in the European Parliament, hosted by Portuguese MEP, Ana Gomes.

CSW, one of the co-organisers, presented an overview of the religious liberty situation in Eritrea, where over 2,000 Christians are still detained without charge or trial in centres where human rights abuses occur routinely.

CSW representative, Dr Khataza Gondwe, explained how the Eritrean Government has systematically targeted all religious groups, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Muslims. She called on EU officials to push for access to prisons and detention centres.

Mr Kebreab Yimesgen Hailegiorgis, co-founder and former General Secretary of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance for Africa and the Middle East, also addressed the assembly, sharing his personal experience of close friends, neighbours and colleagues being ‘disappeared’ by the Eritrean Government.

Mr Hailegiorgis called for independent observers to visit the country in order to examine the plight of its prisoners: “These prisoners are detained solely for their religious beliefs. None have been officially charged or brought before a recognised court of law. They are held for weeks, months, even years in police stations, open air facilities in military camps and ordinary jails.

"Some are held, either in isolation, or with others in metal shipping containers, in cramped, poorly ventilated cells, in underground cells, and even in sealed caves. Many have been subjected to torture, and some have died during or as a consequence of it, while others have been disabled.”

Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director said it was a "travesty" that the situation in Eritrea had received so little attention from the international community, "and that this silence has been interpreted by the Eritrean regime as tacit support for its brutal policies".

"We urge the European Union to put respect for human rights at the top of its priorities in its relations with Eritrea and make their concerns crystal clear to the regime," she said. "The Eritrean people have already suffered for far too long.”

2008-09-19T00:20:00.002-07:00

Ottawa provokes diplomatic flap

Posted By Sun Media

This is one of those stories that defies reason and underscores the occasional lunacy of bureaucracy.

The Government of Canada — or rather our ministries of both foreign affairs and immigration — have denied a visa to the foreign minister of Eritrea on grounds he participated in Eritrea’s war of liberation against the tyrannical Marxist regime of Ethiopia that ended 17 years ago.

Foreign Minister Osman Saleh was denied a visa to visit Canada’s large Eritrean community because (according to a letter delivered to Eritrea’s ambassador in Nairobi, Kenya, from the Canadian counsellor): “You were a member of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) between 1979 and 1991 ... a group that engaged in the subversion of a government by force.”

The letter added: “Canadian federal court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient to render inadmissibility.”

Holy mackerel! It was a war the EPLF was fighting — and won in 1991, gaining independence and sovereignty in 1993. It is now a member of the African Union. (Eritrea had been an Italian African colony and after the Second World War the UN made Ethiopia its “guardian”).

It was a war the Tigryan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) also fought — and won — against Ethiopia’s homicidal regime of Col. Hariam Mengistu. The TPLF leader, Meles Zenawi, is now Ethiopia’s PM — and presumably would also be denied a visa to Canada for “subverting” an existing government.

Most of the countries of Africa, at one time or another, overthrew the previous existing government by coup or force.

By the standards applied to the Eritrean foreign minister, Canada should deny a visa to Nelson Mandela because he was a member of the African National Congress (ANC) seeking to subvert the white apartheid government of South Africa. Today Mandela is an honorary Canadian citizen.

With what seemed a sigh of relief, a Canadian foreign ministry spokesman said the visa decision was not theirs, but the immigration department’s.

An immigration spokesman acknowledged she knew of the Eritrean case, but “I can’t speak to specific cases” (privacy and all that). As far as she was concerned, the case stands. She said the only one who could give permission to speak about the case would be the prime minister.

Eritrea’s ambassador to Canada, Ahfrom Berhame, is puzzled and appalled at the Canadian decision. He said foreign minister Salah meets all the qualifications to be accepted, and to call the EPLF a “subversive organization” makes no sense, since it comprises the core of the Eritrean government today.

“We have always had good relations with Canada,” he said. “Canadian businesses operate in Eritrea. Your soldiers were peacekeepers after the 1998 border war with Ethiopia. In the war of liberation, my wife was a fighter. I was a fighter. We were all EPLF. Why is Canada doing this?”

In condemning what it called “this hostile act,” Eritrea wonders if it is “sheer ignorance by a junior government official, or a deliberate desire by the government of Canada to desecrate Eritrea’s legitimate struggle against colonial occupation that exacted more than 60,000 of our best sons and daughters?”

One hopes it is the former. At very least an apology seems in order — unless Canada knows something about foreign minister Saleh no one else does.

Peter Worthington is a Sun Media columnist from Toronto.

2008-09-19T00:20:00.001-07:00

Dawit Isaaks öde blir teater

På lördag har föreställningen Isaak premiär i Malmö, en skildring av den fängslade journalisten Dawit Isaaks liv. Teater utan hund, som sätter upp pjäsen, samarbetar med Amnesty International.- Vi vill helt enkelt mobilisera all kraft som finns, säger producenten Hanna Olsson.

Få har kunnat undgå att beröras av Dawit Isaaks öde. Den svensk-eretrianske journalisten, författaren och dramatikern kom 1987 till Sverige som krigsflykting och bosatte sig i Lerum. 2001 arresterades han och ett antal andra journalister av den eritreanska regimen för att de skildrat en demokratisk rörelse i landet. Nu har han suttit fängslad i Eritrea i sju år utan rättegång, enbart för att han utövat sitt yrke.

Gruppen Teater utan hund i Malmö gestaltar nu hans öde i föreställningen Isaak i regi av David Jonsson efter ett manus av Jens Peter Karlsson.

Premiären äger rum på Inkonst nu på lördag, och publiken uppmanas till direkt praktisk handling direkt efter föreställningens slut.

- Vår förhoppning är att publiken ska engagera sig i fallet, förklarar producenten Hanna Olsson.

- De ska med Amnestys hjälp kunna skriva protestbrev redan i foajén, bland annat till Eritreas ambassad och landets president. Vi vill att det ska hända något och att Dawit Isaak ska bli frigiven.

2008-09-14T02:18:00.000-07:00

Eritrean minister denied Canadian visa

Entire government shares same rebel past, community leader says

September 13, 2008

Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Immigration Reporter

The entire Eritrean government belongs to the former rebel army that Canada used as a reason to refuse entry to its foreign minister, the director of Toronto's Eritrean Cultural Centre said yesterday.

"This is a foolish act on the part of the Canadian government. It is embarrassing," said Estifanos Mehari, who described himself as a proud member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front and "a proud Canadian, too."

Foreign minister Osman Saleh Mohammed learned he was being denied a visitor's visa in an undated letter from immigration counsellor Tracey Vansickle at the Canadian High Commission in Kenya, who cited his membership in the EPLF between 1979 and 1991.

"The EPLF was a group that engaged in the subversion of a government by force," Vansickle wrote. "Canadian Federal Court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient to render inadmissibility."

Saleh Mohammed was to have visited the city for an annual festival marking the East African nation's hard-fought independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s.

About 2,000 attended the Aug. 2-4 event at Earlscourt Park.

The front was one of the rebel groups that liberated Eritrea, with which Canada set up full diplomatic ties in 1993. Saleh Mohammed was its first education minister.

"This guy is a hero," said Mehari. Canada has never before refused entry to an Eritrean official, he said, even though "100 per cent of the government of Eritrea are proud members of the EPLF" who are "creating a nation from scratch."

"Is it sheer ignorance by a junior government official or a deliberate desire by the Government of Canada to desecrate Eritrea's legitimate struggle against colonial occupation?" the foreign minister said in a release. It said Eritrea "strongly condemns this hostile act and expressly requests the Canadian authorities to rectify this outrageous conduct."

Canadian foreign affairs spokesperson Rodney Moore insisted it was an immigration matter rather than a diplomatic one and declined to comment further.

Comments on this story are moderated

Rebuffing Eritrean Dictatorship

This Canadian Immigration Law is no doubt very controversial. But the Ottawa authorities were right in denying entry visa to Eritrean officials including Dictator Isayas Afewerki unless they embrace such values as human rights, justice and rule of law. I am certain the Canadian Government would have allowed the Eritrean Foreign Minister to visit Canada despite his past participation in the struggle to ‘subvert’ the former authoritarian Ethiopian regime under Col Mengistu. Unfortunately, the Eritrean former rebel leaders, now ruling Eritrea, have not learned any lesson from history and have, in some respects, turned out to be much worse than Mengistu’s idiotic authoritarianism. The purpose of the Minister’s visit was aimed to boost Eritrean government fundraising activities in Canada, and to intimidate democratic Eritrean Canadians and other Eritrean legal residents. Democratic Eritreans are uplifted by the Canadian action not to let this happen.

Posted by Woldu Ab at 7:13 PM Saturday, September 13 2008

A wrong decision That Needs reconsideration.

The Immigration Counselor has clearly made a futile mistake in denying an entry Visa to Eritrea's Foreign Minister. EPLF was a highly appraised liberation movement during the struggle. It fought against Ethiopian colonialism and oppression in a most organised and principled manner. Western media such as CBC and BBC who covered the movement in the eighty's would attest to such fact. Thus, it makes no sense for Canada to deny an entry visa to a man whose only crime is for spending his youth life fighting against injustices inflicted by an occupying force. I wish that Mr. Rodney Moore, a Spokesman for Canada's foreign affairs would clarify his statement on such issue than just to dismiss it as been an Immigration matter. If you're in agreement with the decision of the Counselor to deny visa to Eritrea's foreign minister, would it make sense, then, for Canada to engage diplomatically with officialls it perceives a threat based on their involment with a ligitimate movement?

Posted by Amanuel Tseggai at 4:26 PM Saturday, September 13 2008

Very nice job, Canada

It's wonderful to see representatives of abusive governments rejected and humiliated by those civilized countries who uphold the rule of law. Canada has led the way for those countries who want to stand up for human rights and justice for the people of Eritrea.

Posted by liberty at 3:40 PM Saturday, September 13 2008

This is very good news!

Of course this is a legal excuse of the Canadian government not to allow high-level officials from Eritrea into their country. The real reason seems to be the unspeakably bad human rights record and repression of the Eritrean government, which is broadly documented in many places on the internet. So, to say "this guy is a hero" of the former Minister of Education, who for example did nothing to prevent the closure of the only university in his country by order of Eritrea's dictator Issayas Afewerki, is nothing but a typical example of the blindness of a diaspora supporter of the PFDJ, Eritrean's only political party derived from the EPLF. See http://www.delina.org/blog/cs?hdmo=2&id=1126&view=article for an eyewitness record of what is currently happening in the country... I therefore applaud the courageous stance of the Canadian government and wish more governments would follow their example! (somebody who knows the country very well from first-hand experience)

Posted by onein100 at 12:56 PM Saturday, September 13 2008

2008-09-13T01:16:00.001-07:00

Denying Coastline Access to the LTTE is Starving them of Weapons

Sat, 2008-09-13 02:40

In the last three months the Sri Lankan Security Forces have captured much of the coastline held by the Tamil Tigers. By denying coastline access to the LTTE, they are being starved out of their re-supply capability. These observations were made by Shanaka Jayasekara, at the World Summit on Counter Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel (8-11 Sept) hosted by the International Institute for Counter Terrorism, Israel.

Mr Jayasekara, an Associate Lecturer at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism (PICT) at Macquarie University in Sydney, was a guest speaker at the World Summit on Counter Terrorism in Israel. He was speaking on the nexus between Islamist militants and nationalist terror groups with particular reference to weapons procurement networks.

In his presentation, he highlighted the growing concern over Eritrea as a major hub and transshipment point for the informal arms market in the horn of Africa and also the role of Eritrea as a key weapons supplier to the Islamist groups in Somalia. He stated that since independence Eritrea has been engaged in a protracted war with its larger and more powerful neighbor Ethiopia over disputed territorial claims. Following the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia and Ethiopian support to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia, Eritrea pursued a strategy of supporting the opponents of the Ethiopian invasion. The Islamic Court Union a constituent member of the Union of Islam (Al Ittihad al Islamiya) headed by Hassan Dahir Aweys had control of southern areas of Somalia and the Bakaaraha arms market in Mogadishu. As a result of the Ethiopian invasion, the ICU lost much of its control and influence. This resulted in several splinter groups known as Al Shabaab (the youth) a younger breed of Jihadists emerged to fill the power vacuum. The two most prominent Shabaab groups are the Hizbul Shabaab (Party of Youth) and the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations (PRM).

The Shabaab groups have Jihadist objectives and recruits to wage war against the enemies of Islam, intertwined with opposition to the Ethiopian incursion. It is believed that Aden Hashi Farah (aka Ayro) a protégé of Awey’s has a prominent leadership position within Shabaab. In a statement made by a Somali Cabinet Minister in March 2007 suggests that Ayro has been appointed AQ leader for the Horn, but this has never been corroborated. Eritrea is accused of providing weapons and training to the Shabaab groups.

The UN arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea set the stage for a flourishing informal arms market in the horn. Many merchants of death (arms dealers) disposing stockpiles from eastern European states found sanctuary in Eritrea. The fusion of these dynamics resulted in Eritrea becoming a hub for the informal arms market. The LTTE has an active presence in Eritrea with members of the procurement unit and a shipping front suspected to be operating in the country.

On 24 May 2006, an Asian intelligence agency intercepted a fax sent by the Tamil Tigers using a satellite phone connection to the President of Eritrea, Isaias Afewerki. The fax was signed by leader of the Tamil Tigers Velupillai Prabakaran. The Eritrean-LTTE relationship was further documented in the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee report dated 15 December 2006 in which it stated that the Eritrean government provided direct support to the LTTE. It is believed the LTTE engages in Consolidated Purchasing with other groups including Islamist groups operating in the Eritrean arms market.

Mr Jayasekara also credited much of the battlefield success of the Sri Lankan Security Forces to the technological advantage resulting from Israeli hardware. The frontline attack craft of the Sri Lankan Airforce and Navy are of Israeli origin as well as reconnaissance drones such as the Searcher Mark II have played an indispensable role in the fight against the LTTE.

- Asian Tribune -

2008-09-13T01:14:00.001-07:00

Ethiopia says Eritrea "incapable" of another war

Fri 12 Sep 2008, 12:05 GMT

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has said its neighbour and foe Eritrea is "incapable" of launching a war across its border even as regional diplomats fear the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers has heightened that possibility.

"Eritrea could not risk another war with Ethiopia, because its troops do not match the power of Ethiopian armed forces. They are not capable," Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Thursday night in the latest rhetoric between the two.

At the end of July the U.N. Security Council disbanded its peacekeeping mission on the volatile border where Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 war that killed 70,000 people.

The two governments intensely dislike each other and still do not agree on their frontier despite its "virtual demarcation" on maps by an independent boundary commission.

Both say they do not want another war, but keep their militaries on alert and accuse each other of fomenting tensions.

"Eritrea also knows the consequences of igniting another conflict with Ethiopia," added Meles in a statement on state TV.

Because it knew it could not win on the battleground, Eritrea was trying to destabilise Ethiopia by "sending armed terrorists" into its neighbour and round the region, Meles said.

"As the whole world knows, Eritrea is now engaged in training, arming and dispatching armed terrorists to destabilise countries of the Horn," he said.

Eritrea backs, but denies concretely aiding, Islamist insurgents fighting Somalia's Ethiopian-backed government.

It also denies backing rebel groups inside Ethiopia.

Asmara accuses Ethiopia of "occupying" Somalia, and scoffs at claims against it in the constant toing-and-froing of accusations between the two nations.

2008-09-12T02:29:00.001-07:00

Eritrea embroiled in row with Canada over visa refusal

Thu 11 Sep 2008, 8:56 GMT

[-] Text [+]

By Jack Kimball

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Eritrea on Thursday condemned Canada's refusal to grant its foreign minister a visa on the grounds that he took part in the Red Sea state's 30-year war for independence from Ethiopia.

The conflict which led to independence in 1991 has taken on mythic proportions for many Eritreans.

"The Government of Eritrea strongly condemns this hostile act and expressly requests the Canadian authorities to rectify this outrageous conduct," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on state-run Web site www.shabait.com.

The government also posted a letter from Canada's embassy in Kenya, which said Osman Saleh's involvement in the 1961-1991 war with Addis Ababa had prevented him from getting a visa.

"You were a member of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front between 1979 and 1991. The EPLF was a group that engaged in the subversion of a government by force," the letter said.

"Canadian Federal Court jurisprudence confirms that membership in a group that attempts to subvert even a despotic government is sufficient to render inadmissibility," it added.

Canadian officials in Nairobi were not immediately available for comment.

Some Western nations have been slow to take Cold War-era African rebels off their old terrorist lists. In June, U.S. lawmakers finally erased "terrorist" references to South Africa's Nelson Mandela.

Eritrea has recently enjoyed relatively good relations with Canada, particularly compared to its strained ties with the United States. Asmara accuses Washington of failing to force Ethiopia to withdraw troops from a disputed border region.

In its statement, Eritrea's Foreign Ministry said Canada's move was an "embarrassing aberration" in diplomatic conduct.

"What is more horrendous is, however, the reasons that the country's immigration authorities have given to explain their provocative act," Asmara said.

During Osman's time in the EPLF, Eritrean rebels battled the forces of Ethiopian dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam, whose "Red Terror" regime murdered tens of thousands until he was overthrown in 1991.

Eritrea and Ethiopia went to war in 1998 over the Horn of Africa neighbours' frontier, killing 70,000 people. Both nations remain deadlocked over the 1000-km (620-mile) border.

2008-09-07T11:27:00.001-07:00

Video parlour blast in Ethiopia

There has been a large explosion in the Ethiopian capital's crowded Merkato business district where people gather socially after work.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says the blast happened in a video parlour.

A local radio station said that four people were killed and another 24 were wounded. The police have not released any figures.

Sporadic attacks are usually blamed on Eritrean-backed rebels.

Tensions between the two countries stem from Ethiopia's failure to hand over the disputed border town of Badme, which a UN-backed commission awarded to Eritrea.

The two countries fought a bloody war between 1998 and 2000.

Our correspondent says the explosion happened at around 1700 local time (1400 GMT).

Lots of ambulances rushed to the scene - between the main Friday Mosque and bus station - and the whole area was cordoned off by police, she says.

2008-09-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

Nevsun Resources Ltd.: Bisha Construction Underway

Last update: 12:53 p.m. EDT Sept. 3, 2008

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Sep 03, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Nevsun Resources Ltd.,

2:31pm 09/03/2008

("Nevsun") is pleased to announce that the Bisha development project in Eritrea is well underway.

Preparation of the plant site has commenced by local contractor, Segen Construction, under the supervision of Bisha's EPCM contractor, SENET of South Africa. Since early 2008 Bisha has ordered critical long lead items, expanded construction camp facilities, engaged local contractors, increased its project management capacity, commenced with local infrastructure, continued responsible social activity, secured significant procurement commitments and now has plant site earthworks underway. Commissioning is expected in Q1 2010.

During the last week of August a short-listed group of bankers visited the country to carry out due diligence in preparation for project finance. The bankers' independent engineer, Micon International, has provided a positive report to Endeavour Financial, the project finance advisor to Bisha. Over a few days the banking group toured the Bisha site, Massawa port facilities and the capital city of Asmara and also met with a number of senior Government officials, who clearly demonstrated their support for the project. Nevsun is very encouraged by the consistent and clear message from Government in its support for the industry. We are very fortunate to have such a robust project to launch the mining industry in the country.

In developing the Bisha mining agreement the Government recognized the need to establish strong relationships that are attractive to the industry. Bisha is a significant beneficiary to the Government's commercial approach, whereby the Eritrean National Mining Corporation has been contributing its proportionate share to fund the project. Nevsun looks forward to the continued support of the Government and advancing project finance with the consortium of bankers.

Forward Looking Statements: The above contains forward-looking statements concerning commissioning of the mine, government support for the Bisha project and suggestions of near future project financing. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible" and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions or results "will", "may", "could" or "should" occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are statements about the future and are inherently uncertain, and actual achievements of the Company or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, those described in the Management Discussion and Analysis of the Company. The Company's forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of management on the date the statements are made and the Company assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements in the future. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

2008-09-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Sara Communication Initiative helps a young widow return to school in Eritrea

Meriem Abubeker, a 22-year-old widow and mother, reads her poem on the role of educated women during the Sara Communication Festival in Eritrea.

By Awet Araya and Samuel Yohannes

HASHISHAY, Eritrea, 2 September 2008 – Amid the dry heat and the scorching sun of Hashishay village in the north-west of Eritrea, there lies an oasis of huts made of mud-brick walls and grass-and-bamboo roofs. Meriem Abubeker, a 22-year-old widow, lives in Hashishay with her four-year-old son.

Although her means of livelihood is selling tea, Ms. Abubeker has lofty goals. To achieve those goals, against the odds, she has returned to school with help from a UNICEF-supported initiative.

When a UNICEF and Ministry of Education team visited Ms. Abubeker, she was preparing tea for her customers. She came out of her hut to welcome the team and offered water for their feet, as is custom in the village.

She explained that she dropped out of school and got married at the age of 15 to comply with her parents’ wishes. Her husband – who fought in the armed struggle for Eritrean independence and later became a member of the national defense force – was away for most of their married life. But throughout that time, she felt a strong desire to continue her interrupted education.

Never too late for schooling
Just four years after their marriage and one month after the birth of their son, Ms. Abubeker received news of her husband’s death. Family and friends tried to console her, but she was devastated.

Slowly, she picked up courage and decided to face the challenge of completing her basic education. She re-entered school and continued her studies in grade six at the age of 21.

Early marriage is a common phenomenon in Ms. Abubeker’s locality. Some 46 per cent of girls in Eritrea are married before they turned 18; in rural areas, that number climbs to 60 per cent. Indeed, Ms. Abubeker’s return to school still astonishes many villagers, several of whom disapprove of her actions. But she knows that unless she follows through with her education, she will not be in a position to help her child to succeed in life.

Multimedia tool for social change
Ms. Abubeker, a high achiever, is doing well in school. She is also an active member of the school’s Sara Club, part of the Sara Communication Initiative (SCI) in Eritrea.

A multimedia tool for social change, the initiative uses drama, poems, music, traditional skits and visual arts to educate students on issues such as eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM), preventing HIV/AIDS and supporting people who are living with the disease.

SCI also addresses the disadvantages of early marriage and teenage pregnancy, as well as the importance of girl’s education.

Sara Clubs nationwide
UNICEF launched SCI in 2003, under the leadership of the Ministry of Health. In 2005, the Ministry of Education assumed the task of running the programme in conjunction with other health-related activities in schools.

Since then, SCI has expanded to other parts of the country.

There are now 263 Sara Clubs in junior and high schools across Eritrea. Club activities target students but also extend to local communities and out-of-school children.

‘Doing the right thing’
“When I go out and read my poems and participate in girls’ education and FGM drama as a member of these clubs, I feel empowered in spite of all my difficulties,” said Ms. Abubeker. “I know that I am doing the right thing.”

During last year’s Sara Communication Festival, in which 41 school clubs in the district participated, Ms. Abubeker presented – and won an award for – a poem on the role of educated women in society. She still treasures her memories of the event .

“Thanks to the Sara Club, I am able to share my story with many who are suffering and do not know how to change their fate,” she said with a beaming smile.

2008-08-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

EGYPT - REFUGEES

Egypt, port of call for African refugees

Saturday 23 August 2008

Eritrean refugees fleeing dictatorship find precarious shelter in Egypt. For some, their stay in Cairo is only a stage in their journey to Israel, a destination more and more African refugees choose despite the many dangers this journey entails.

Three years ago, fearing persecution by the Eritrean regime, Hamed fled his homeland to seek asylum in Egypt. A journalist in Eritrea, he now earns his living in construction. Hamed’s status as a refugee prevents him from working legally. Hence, like thousands of other African refugees and migrants living in Egypt, he must earn his living illegally.

In addition to finding work, Hamid obtained refugee status. Thousands of Eritreans have entered Egypt unlawfully, but, according to Michael Kagan, a defender of refugees and asylum seekers’ rights, so far this year over 1000 have been deported.

We meet up with Hamed at his home in downtown Cairo. He shares this run-down flat with three other refugees. Hamed hasn’t seen his wife or his three children for three years. They are in Sudan and he won’t leave Egypt for fear of being denied re-entry.

Yasser is Sudanese and he has only one goal on his mind, to leave and go north by whatever means necessary. Israel is the first choice of most Africans. We show Yasser images of people crossing the border into Israel illegally. The images, taken by a smuggler on a cellular telephone, make him grin.

Like the vast majority of migrants in Egypt he swears he has never thought of making the voyage. But, judjing by the number of asylum seekers in Israel, clearly many are still willing to make this journey. A journey which, since the beginning of 2008, has cost more than 20 people their lives.

Eritreans in Minnesota weigh a dream gone mad

2008-08-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

By Douglas McGill ,

August 20, 2008

The following headline popped up last week in my email alerts set for Eritrea, a tiny nation bordering the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa: “Eritrea Shuts Christian Students into Shipping Containers.”

Shipping containers? What on earth is happening in Eritrea?

I know Eritrea is small, but Georgia is small, too. In such small places we often glimpse our fates and futures.

And stuffing human beings into bare shipping containers, isn’t that something only a crazed and perverted monster would do?

The fiercely proud, patient, hospitable people of Eritrea wouldn’t possibly condone this.

Who or what then is their monster?

Religious Persecution

My summer project has been to learn all that I can about the Horn of Africa – sometimes called the “third front” in the War on Terror our country is waging — by meeting with refugees from the region who live in Minnesota.

About 50,000 immigrants from the Horn of Africa live in Minnesota, most of them refugees from civil wars, famine, and political and religious persecution in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea.

Not every alarmist headline checks out, of course. But where there’s smoke there’s often fire, so I did some digging on Eritrea’s cargo container prisons.

I discovered what many Minnesota’s Eritreans have known for years: the Eritrean government is filling up its prisons with dissidents, journalists and practitioners of outlawed religions so fast it’s grabbing rusty old cargo containers from their Red Sea ports to handle the overflow.

No Fantasy

They put the containers, which have no plumbing or toilets, in the desert.

Why hasn’t this news gotten around more, not just in Minnesota but worldwide? And within what larger picture of Eritrea do these shipping containers fit?

The Eritrean community in the Twin Cities hosted a talk recently on the current human rights situation in their country, at the First Cup Café in south Minneapolis, an African diaspora hub. I stopped by to listen.

The speaker, Seyoum Tesfaye, an Eritrean American political writer and blogger, said that Eritrea’s president, Isaias Afwerki, has in recent years carried out a firm policy of jailing, torturing and often killing anyone who even mildly disagrees with his statements and policies.

“Pretending this is not happening is a fantasy,” Tesfaye told the group of about 20 Eritrean immigrants living Minnesota. “People are being picked up at the airport and disappearing. The organic cause of the Eritrean crisis is the present one-party dictatorship. Our puny tyrant is doing it.”

Sky-High Hopes

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the deterioration of human rights in Eritrea in recent years, corroborating every claim of Tesfaye’s and more.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea’s press dead last in this year’s world press freedoms index, even below the North Korea press. Even reporters at Eritrea’s state-run TV station have been arrested and jailed.

Mass conscription of young people for military service, and using forced labor to build infrastructure projects, are also widely documented.

But even now many Eritreans are still in denial, Tesfaye said. That’s thanks to the sky-high hopes that followed Eritrea’s seemingly miraculous secession from Ethiopia following a 30-year struggle in 1991.

Isaias Afwerki was one of the dashing, brilliant and courageous revolutionaries who led the country to that victory. When he became president, hopes ran high that finally a leader had arrived who would stand up to outside aggression and fashion a genuine, thriving Eritrean state.

Electrification Projects

Even through several disastrous stumbles, such as the calamitous 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia that claimed 75,000 lives, Eritreans mostly held their faith that Afwerki would pull the country through to better days.

Today, keeping such faith in Afwerki is a fool’s dream, Tesfaye says.

“Somewhere along the line we made a big mistake,” Tesfaye added. “We considered ourselves so special, so different. Instead of putting our faith in the rule of law, we put it in a man, who is weak and flawed like the rest of us.”

At these words, one aggrieved young Eritrean-American in the audience practically jumped out of his seat in protest.

“You are manufacturing facts as you go along!” the young man bellowed. “The fact is that there has been a lot of progress under the government. They have built 500 hospitals, put in paved roads, reduced malaria deaths by 40 percent, and built small dams and electrification projects in rural areas!”

Warning Signals

“Mussolini built roads too,” Tesfaye coolly replied. “Did that make him a great leader? Yes, there are new schools, but who is attending them? There are 197,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan and who is responsible for that?”

Several older Eritrean men in the audience, showing the young man respect but trying to head off an escalation, nervously patted the air to calm things down.

After the meeting, I chatted with several Eritrean Minnesotans but none wanted to give me their names, saying they feared for the safety of relatives who still live in Eritrea if their names appeared in print.

The world’s smallest places often clearly exhibit the symptoms of global dysfunction, offering warning signals of a potentially spreading cancer.

The grip of fear that reaches all the way to Minnesota – all the way from those shipping containers — seems like a powerful warning signal to me.

Douglas McGill has reported for the New York Times and Bloomberg News—and now the Daily Planet.

To contact Doug McGill: doug@mcgillreport.org.

2008-08-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Eritrea Has Become One Big Jail, Activist Says

August 19, 2008

Woman fights for release of prisoners of conscience

By Jane Morse
Staff Writer

Washington -- Eritrea “has become one big jail,” says an activist whose sister and brother-in-law have been imprisoned for speaking out against the current regime. Senait Yohannes is the sister of Aster Yohannes, who is married to Petros

Solomon. Aster and her husband have been imprisoned for years for their role in seeking political reform and implementation of the Eritrean constitution. Neither has been heard from since they were taken into custody, and the four children they left behind are being raised by their grandparents, according to Senait.

Senait was in New York City July 24 to help bring to world attention the plight of prisoners of conscience, both in her country and the world over. At a panel discussion hosted by the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, she was one of six panelists -- the others being from Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Syria and Uzbekistan -- to speak out on behalf of those who are not allowed to speak for themselves.

In remarks to an audience of more than 120 diplomats, representatives of nongovernmental organizations and journalists, Senait said many of the people who fought so hard in the decades-long battle for Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia now find themselves in jail with no recourse and no contact with the outside world.

“My sister’s story is one of many thousands in Eritrea,” Senait said. “The regime is extremely hostile to any democratic notion or rule of law.” All private news media have been closed down, and many journalists arrested, she said.

Senait’s brother-in-law, who was a Cabinet minister, and 14 other colleagues (known as the Group of 15 or G-15) wrote an open letter to President Isaias Afwerki and the Eritrean people regarding the need for political reform. The 11 who were in Eritrea at the time were rounded up and have been held incommunicado since 2001.

On December 11, 2003, Senait’s sister Aster returned home to Eritrea to be with her four children after studying for three years in Phoenix, Arizona. She was taken by security personnel from the airport to an undisclosed location and has not been seen or heard from since. In the years since her disappearance, the government of Eritrea has neither charged her nor given any reason for detaining her.

Senait, who was born and raised in Asmara, Eritrea, left her country just as the 30-year war with Ethiopia ended in 1991. She traveled to Ethiopia and Europe before settling in Canada in 1994, where she is now a citizen.

She has been seeking the release of her sister through www.FriendsofAster.org and publicly speaking about her family’s suffering and the plight of Eritrean people and refugees. She currently is working to get humanitarian assistance to Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia and Sudan.

Senait is also a board member of St. Andrew’s Refugee Association, an organization that provides resettlement assistance and helps sponsor refugees upon their arrival in Canada.

At the U.N. event, Senait demanded that Eritrea allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees, and she called for increased international pressure on governments keeping prisoners of conscience.

Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on December 10, 1948, declares that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion, there are still governments that detain thousands of people because of their beliefs or political views.

In June 2008, the United States and 63 other U.N. member states sponsored the U.N. Declaration of Prisoners of Conscience. That declaration calls on nations to work for the freedom of prisoners of conscience and to make the release of these prisoners an international priority.

According to Ambassador T. Vance McMahan, U.S. representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, who moderated the July 24 panel discussion called “Courageous Voices,” prisoners of conscience are “courageous men and women who have or continue to suffer from government repression for peacefully advocating change.”

McMahan called for all U.N. member states and nongovernmental organizations “to redouble current efforts to assist prisoners of conscience and their families and to put an end to all forms of persecution.”

2008-08-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Example Ethiopian leaders must learn from

Saturday 16 August 2008.

By Ibrahim Ibrahim

August 15, 2008 — On Thursday August 14, 2008 Nigeria officially handed over to its neighborly country Cameroon the once disputed Bakassi peninsula.

This very important step that brings peace and friendly neighborhood to the region received a great admiration and respect to the Nigerians and their government who kept their promise to abide by the rule of law.

As is well stated by the Nigerian Attorney General Mr. Michael Aondaokaa, “As painful as it is, we have a responsibility to keep our commitment to the international community, promote international peace and cooperation and advance the cause of African brotherhood and good neighborliness…” amazing phrase that could be lectured with in the Ethiopian government. It may not get a brain that can absorb the true concept and true meaning within the circle of the regime, but is truly a lesson to learn from.

Unfortunately, it has passed six long years since the world court of arbitration EEBC’s ruling of the border demarcation between Ethiopia and Eritrea. At that time some had vested hope of peace in that region. At least those who do not have knowledge of the regime in Ethiopia took the words expressed by its foreign minister acceptance of the ruling. The expression did not stop there but also continue to call upon the world community “to pressure Eritrea to accept the ruling.” Not long though the regime contradicted to its own words saying “the EEBC ruling is illegal.

The verdict of the EEBC has been based on the agreements both contenders put their signatures of the Algiers Peace Agreement pillared to be final and binding.

The problem arises from the regime in Ethiopia that is not capable to think beyond temporary benefits. The click does not even have the gat to revise its stand and come out from the self made cage of fear subsequently that does not exist. The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea without question want to live in peace and harmony as their brethren’s in the whole continent. The sole obstacle in this arena is the lawless regime of Ethiopia.

This honorable action taken by the people and government of Nigeria should be of great example to the people and government of Ethiopia. Learning from this will in return garner peace and harmony. If Ethiopia is to comply with the rule of law, and refrain from atrocities, with no time it can come out from the cycle of hunger and poverty. This has been proofed between 1992 and 1996. Ethiopia is able to self feed and beyond. Its people can come out from their trade mark of being skulls of baggers to productive proud citizens.

Ethiopia never been poor but is unfortunate to produce a true selfless leaders. Ethiopia indeed need leaders who priorities their citizens well being above all. Unlike the current regime, known by its trade mark of “Lie Machine” leaders who abide by the rule of law.

* The author is the Former Bank of Eritrea Administrator currently resides in United States of America. He can be reached at Ibrahim_Ibrahim@experienceworks.org

2008-08-14T12:24:00.001-07:00

May 14th, 2008

Where is Eritrea headed?

Posted by: Reuters Staff

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is probably one of Africa’s least-known yet controversial leaders. After a successful 30-year independence war against neighbouring Ethiopia, he won praise from the West in the 1990s for being part of a “new generation” of progressive African leaders. In recent years, however, the Eritrean president has been increasingly criticised from abroad as running his small Horn of African nation along authoritarian lines.

Not usually keen on giving interviews to Western media, President Isaias Afwerki sat down this week for a nearly two-hour chat with Reuters’ Asmara correspondent Jack Kimball and East Africa bureau chief Andrew Cawthorne. In it, he criticised the United Nations, denied an incursion into Djibouti, outlined Eritrea’s economic policies and accused the United States of trying to destabilise his country.

Has Isaias Afwerki been good or bad for Eritrea and Africa. What do you think?

2008-08-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Yemen's Interior Ministry charges Eritrea of torturing 42 fishermen

10/08/2008

Sahwa Net- Yemen's Interior Ministry has accused the Eritrean authorities of arresting 42 Yemeni fishermen and torturing them off the Red Sea.

The ministry further explained that the Eritrean authorities seized four Yemeni boats, confiscated their contents and then returned the fishermen on one of the four boats to Hodaida port.

According to Yemen coastguard authority in Hodaida, the fishermen were subject to mistreatment and beatings by the Eritrean authorities.

2008-08-07T15:51:00.000-07:00

Unfinished Peace in the Horn of Africa
By Daniela Kroslak
Commentary by
Friday, August 08, 2008

When Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a deal in 2000, it was supposed to mark the end of their two-year war. The so-called "Algiers process" did deliver a cease-fire as well as a mechanism designed to resolve their border dispute. But eight years on the two countries are no closer to lasting peace, constantly on the verge of returning to the all-out violence that took 100,000 lives a decade ago.

Fears over regime survival and aspirations to subjugate the other have brought the leaderships of both countries to support - by hosting and supporting financially and militarily - the enemies of the other, domestically and regionally. Resolving the border issue and wider security concerns between Ethiopia and Eritrea would thus bring benefits to more than just these countries. Somalia in particular is unlikely to see peace until the two states, which are currently fighting a proxy war there, settle a final deal.

Under the Algiers agreement the Ethiopia Eritrea Boundary Commission was established to make the final determination on the location of the border between the two countries. However, once that body marked the line on the map in 2002, handing the small but symbolic village of Badme to Eritrea, Ethiopia refused to implement the decision. In November 2007, the Boundary Commission washed its hands of the dispute and demarcated the border by coordinates - what became known as "virtual demarcation."

For years unhappy with the United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNMEE), Eritrea finally expelled it from the Temporary Security Zone, a 25-kilometer-wide area on Eritrean territory that had been acting as a buffer between the two sides, saying that as the border was now demarcated, the UN had fulfilled its mandate and should leave. This action has won the Eritreans few friends - though quite frankly they did not have many before that - and it has refocused international attention away from insisting on Ethiopia's compliance to dealing with Eritrea's bad behavior.

The lingering, slow-simmering conflict on the border is unsustainable. Not only does it risk war, but it is used by both countries' governments to justify political repression. With an enemy always threatening and a war ever near, both regimes have clamped down on their societies, impeding all hope of democracy and economic growth.

The international community's overall approach has been weak, first failing to push Ethiopia to comply with the Boundary Commission's decision, which both had agreed would be final and binding, and then not reacting more strongly to Eritrea's de-facto termination of UNMEE. The official closing of the mission by the Security Council last Thursday was a reflection of this unassertiveness.

What is needed now is a new international envoy of considerable regional standing to initiate a fresh process. The aim would be to facilitate physical demarcation, but crucially also to address the deep-seated issues which remain fundamental to a resolution of the conflict, such as growing authoritarianism and regional rivalry. The process will only be successful if it emphasizes win-win scenarios on each issue and develops incentives for both sides to remain engaged. This should include development project pledges from donors, in coordination with the European Commission's Horn of Africa strategy.

The key obstacle to convening such a process would be finding the political will from both parties, but also the international will to seek their renewed cooperation. The United States government is important in this respect because of its strong relationship with Ethiopia.

Cementing the fragile peace into a lasting one will take a number of steps. First, all parties - Ethiopia, Eritrea and the UN Security Council - should formally endorse the Boundary Commission's virtual demarcation of the border and declare it legally binding. Following that endorsement, the UN should appoint a special envoy to launch a political dialogue to address the disengagement of troops from the border, the normalization of bilateral relations and ending support to the armed groups in the other country. The result should be the physical demarcation of the border in accordance with Boundary Commission's decision, accompanied by cross-border development projects. To this end, the Security Council should aim to reconfigure its peacekeeping mission to facilitate demarcation and press on with the demining of the war zone.

Convincing the two sides will obviously not be easy, but there are some attractions for both to help the process along. Eritrea wants to consolidate its independence, prefers physical border demarcation to virtual demarcation, seeks Ethiopian withdrawal from Badme in particular and desires better relations with the West. Ethiopia is keen to obtain access to Eritrean ports and an end to Eritrean support for its internal armed insurgencies. Those factors should encourage the two sides to move past stalemate to lasting peace.

And if that does not convince the two sides and the international community, the prospect of a devastating return to all-out war - still very possible in the current stand-off - ought to focus everyone's mind on finding a lasting settlement.

Daniela Kroslak is deputy director of the Africa Program at the International Crisis Group. She wrote this commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

2008-08-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

Minsk says that it supplied weapons to Armenia, Eritrea and Sudan last year

The Belarusian government has announced that it did not import any conventional weapons and supplied arms only to Armenia, Eritrea and Sudan in 2007, BelaPAN said.

A report sent to the UN Register of Conventional Arms says that Belarus supplied Sudan with two modernized versions of the BTR-70 armored personnel carrier, sold 10 122-milimeter D-30 howitzer guns to Armenia and nine Uragan multiple launch rocket systems to Eritrea.

The value of the contracts was not disclosed.

In 2006, Belarus shipped 41 T-72 tanks to Azerbaijan in its only arms trade deal that year.

In 2005, Belarus supplied Azerbaijan with 19 T-72 tanks, exported two Mi-8 helicopters to Slovakia and two Mi-24 choppers to Djibouti, the lowest amount of weapons sold by the country in a decade.

In 2004, Belarus supplied Sudan with 21 BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles, seven BTR-80 and 10 BTR-70 armored personnel carriers and a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle. In addition, Belarus sold two Su-25 fighter jets to Ivory Coast.

In 2003, Belarus exported nine BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, 39 BRDM-2s and 32 artillery systems to Sudan, 19 missiles for the Igla mobile anti-aircraft system to Sweden and 20 armored vehicles and 16 artillery systems to Ivory Coast.

Between 1996 and 2002, Belarus sold arms to Iran, Algeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Peru, Congo, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Uganda, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine.

2008-08-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

Eritrea: Reuters Confused or Confused Reuters?

August 02, 2008 11:29 PM

By Amanuel Biedemariam

Negative publicity is a double-edged sword. What you dish out can come back to you, and thanks to the Internet, what Reuters or other news organizations do can be countered in exact same manner.

I am writing this in response to an article by Jack Kimball, Reuters / July 17, 2008, “In Eritrea, youth say frustrated by long service” This article caught my attention for two reasons: perspective and timing.

Perspective:

Reuters could have provided different perspectives on how a national service impacts a nation, how it relates to Eritrean national struggle, and the idea of nation building or compare it to the history of national service of other countries.

Furthermore, Reuters could have looked at the current Eritrean economic situation and provide alternative views by interviewing economists and provide in depth analysis to give people perspective. Reuters could have asked Eritreans who went back to their country for the first time after independence 1991 and compare it to how it is today.

Reuters could have provided historical accounts of services that demanded nations and people to do more than expected, mandated or considered standards set in the respective nations. A good example is World War II. US service men and women who were called on to go to war and give up their life in order to save other nations. The US was not willing to involve itself in the war effort, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt deemed it necessary to send troops to Europe and fight Nazi Germany because he was convinced it was the right thing to do.

For nations that are in the process of building and defending their nation from enemies day and night like Eritrea, national service should be looked at as an example not an object of ridicule. Eritrean youth are forced to defend and build their nation in this manner by necessity not by choice. Reuters could have chosen to draw comparison to what is happening in Iraq with US troops who are in their third and forth tour of duties, or the Marshal plan. One could look at the US depression of the 1920s and try to relate it and draw a historic comparison of countries in hardship and how they got out of it.

Timing:

Reuters could have chosen to release the article at later or earlier periods; instead, they released it at a time when Eritrea was conducting a major youth campaign in Sawa and around the world. Reuters released the article when Eritrean families were celebrating the graduation of their kids from the military and academic institution of Sawa. The article is meant to counter any good news Eritrea can get out the youth celebration. Over 10,000 students graduated from Sawa and every one of them was present for graduation. Those who graduated have alleviated the overstretched service requirements by becoming buffers while enlarging the pool. That in-turn will create a larger pool of educated youth with expertise needed to safeguard and build the country’s interests.

Reuters-Confused or Confused Reuters?

Reuters confused: because they have lost a sense of obligation, a sense of decency, a sense of Journalistic integrity, balance and fairness when they decided to forgo their Journalistic profession and decided to play comedian by telling or regurgitating an old tired joke while addressing a matter of a great importance to the people of Eritrea.

Reuters is confusing the idea of National Services to ones self-interest. Eritrea introduced National service to break free from the chains of colonialism, neo-colonialism and barbaric hands of the Western Colonizers. It is breaking free from the tentacles that chained Africa. Reuters is confused because Eritrea, a country that was supposed to have failed six months after the war of 1998; is turning the tide thanks to National Service and other programs. It is confused because Eritrea is doing what most African countries can not do; find indigenous solutions contrary to Western interests. Confused is Reuters by the tenacity of the Eritrean psyche that is united and uniformly committed to educate itself, strengthen, nurture itself and grow against their wishes.

Reuters thought Eritreans will not challenge the negative PR propaganda timed to coincide with Eritrean accomplishment and counter what has been achieved with great success. Eritrea is breaking a historic trend of Third World incompetence by leaders who bow and beg to the West. Eritrea is breaking the trend of ineptitude and helplessness by teaching self-reliance and by walking the walk.

What is unambiguously clear at this point is the fact that there is no free press. The Western press is here to push the Agenda of the powers! They pay the journalist and have them report a story angle as directed. Few conglomerates with finical interest control information and agendas that prop Western political agendas. To expect Reuters to act differently is a dream; because their purpose is to manipulate news in order to serve the rich and powerful West, since it is all about their vested interest.

Added: August 03, 2008 02:45 AM

?? ?? ??? ??????/ too late to save the young

hej,
I would say ,your are neither influenced (non of your family have been involved in the defence of the beloved country)nor visited the country . please do not try at least the young exodos,coz of the long National service.

Added: August 03, 2008 07:10 AM

Person without any senses

Are you kidding Amanuel??? what a non-sense article. I am sure you are living outside Eritrea, most probably in western countries. And you don't have any kind of feelings for Eritrean youths. Shame on you. Actually, today, true Eritreans do not say like this..... At least be sympathetic what happened to Eritrean families.

By:

Aklilu

Added: August 03, 2008 08:33 AM

Indeed how true!

Well said, man! Eritrea's "threat of good example" started spilling and getting grass roots all over the place in Africa, and Reuters and the rest fake crooked journalsits era of sugare coating of their evile agenda is over for good!

By:

Joseph

2008-08-02T04:34:00.001-07:00

Eritrea allays fears over new war

The UN has already withdrawn most of its peacekeepers from Eritrea

Eritrea says the UN's decision to end the peace mission on its border with Ethiopia will not make war likely.

Tens of thousands of people died in a two-year border war that ended in 2000.

A government spokesman said the UN mission had only been "symbolic" and diplomatic efforts to remove Ethiopia from Eritrean soil would continue.

Eritrea withdrew its support for the UN peace force in February as it was angered by Ethiopia's refusal to comply with an international border ruling.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council voted to end its 1,700-strong mission, known as Unmee.

In April, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of a possible return to war if the peacekeepers pulled out of Eritrea and Ethiopia.

'No impact'

Eritrean government spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel said the termination of the UN mission mandate was "long overdue" and would have little impact on the region.

Legally Ethiopia's occupation of Eritrea is untenable

Yemane Gebremeskel
Eritrean government spokesman

"Unmee's presence was really symbolic, it was not a peace enforcement force, it does not have the capability of deterrent - so it's not going to have any impact," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said that the job of delimiting and demarcating the border between the two countries had been finished, so the UN's mission should end.

But he added that Ethiopia continued to occupy Eritrean territory.

"Legally Ethiopia's occupation of Eritrea is untenable - it cannot be accepted by the international community - I think our focus has been on the legal end and the diplomatic dimensions of the issue," he said.

Before Wednesday's UN Security Council vote, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said he thought a return to hostilities unlikely.

"The peacekeepers played an important role, but one cannot say that their role was irreplaceable in the sense of maintaining the relative peace along the borders that we now have," he told the BBC.

2008-08-01T08:12:00.001-07:00

UN Peacekeepers Set to Leave Ethiopia-Eritrea Border
By Derek Kilner Nairobi 31 July 2008

Kilner report - Download (MP3)
Kilner report - Listen (MP3)

United Nations peacekeepers prepared to leave the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, with the mission's mandate set to expire at midnight. As Derek Kilner reports from VOA's East Africa bureau in Nairobi, the governments of both Eritrea and Ethiopia played down the threat of renewed conflict in the wake of the mission's departure, and blamed one another for the continued failure to resolve the border dispute.

Ethiopia and Eritrea

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to end the peacekeeping mission, known as UNMEE, which has monitored a buffer zone along the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea for the past eight years.

On Thursday, Bereket Simon, an advisor to Ethiopia's prime minister, said Ethiopia would continue to search for a solution to the dispute, but put the blame for the mission's departure squarely on the government of Eritrea.

"The mission was not able to function because of the obstacles created by the Eritrean government. The Eritrean government has trespassed the agreement and entered into the Temporary Security Zone. It has created all sorts of obstacles. Freedom of movement was curtailed by the Eritrean government so UNMEE was not in a position to do the rounds to observe the situation, so it was impossible for them to continue," he said.

Earlier this year, the Eritrean government cut off fuel supplies for U.N. peacekeepers, causing the bulk of the mission's presence in the Eritrean side to leave the country. The U.N. had explored the possibility of a scaled-down force to replace UNMEE, but a statement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that option had been rejected by both sides.

Eritrean presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel on Tuesday reiterated his government's position that there has already been a legal ruling on the border and that the UN mission, having failed to enforce the decision, serves no purpose.

"Whether peacekeepers are there or not, it has no impact. Nothing has changed. At the end of the day, UNMEE's presence was simply nominal to create the conditions for the implementation of the agreement. But that has not taken place for the last eight years simply because the Security Council has failed to act on the decision of the commission. And that's because the Americans have been blocking implementation of the decision," he said.

Following the 2000 Algiers Agreement that ended the two-year border war between the two countries, a boundary commission gave much of the disputed territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea. But Eritrea's increasingly antagonistic posture has lost the country much of its international sympathy.

Both governments have minimized the possibility that the U.N.'s departure will invite a return to conflict. But many observers are less optimistic, warning that that the removal of peacekeepers removes one of the few remaining buffers between the thousands of troops amassed by each side along the border.

2008-07-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

Country 'Has Become One Big Jail,' Activist Says
America.gov (Washington, DC) 30 July 2008
By Jane Morse
Eritrea “has become one big jail,” says an activist whose sister and brother-in-law have been imprisoned for speaking out against the current regime.

Senait Yohannes is the sister of Aster Yohannes, who is married to Petros Solomon. Aster and her husband have been imprisoned for years for their role in seeking political reform and implementation of the Eritrean constitution. Neither has been heard from since they were taken into custody, and the four children they left behind are being raised by their grandparents, according to Senait.

In remarks to an audience of more than 120 diplomats, representatives of nongovernmental organizations and journalists, Senait said many of the people who fought so hard in the decades-long battle for Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia now find themselves in jail with no recourse and no contact with the outside world.

"My sister's story is one of many thousands in Eritrea," Senait said. "The regime is extremely hostile to any democratic notion or rule of law." All private news media have been closed down, and many journalists arrested, she said.

Senait's brother-in-law, who was a Cabinet minister, and 14 other colleagues (known as the Group of 15 or G-15) wrote an open letter to President Isaias Afwerki and the Eritrean people regarding the need for political reform. The 11 who were in Eritrea at the time were rounded up and have been held incommunicado since 2001.

On December 11, 2003, Senait's sister Aster returned home to Eritrea to be with her four children after studying for three years in Phoenix, Arizona. She was taken by security personnel from the airport to an undisclosed location and has not been seen or heard from since. In the years since her disappearance, the government of Eritrea has neither charged her nor given any reason for detaining her.

She has been seeking the release of her sister through www.FriendsofAster.org and publicly speaking about her family's suffering and the plight of Eritrean people and refugees. She currently is working to get humanitarian assistance to Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia and Sudan.

Senait is also a board member of St. Andrew's Refugee Association, an organization that provides resettlement assistance and helps sponsor refugees upon their arrival in Canada.

According to Ambassador T. Vance McMahan, U.S. representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, who moderated the July 24 panel discussion called "Courageous Voices," prisoners of conscience are "courageous men and women who have or continue to suffer from government repression for peacefully advocating change."

McMahan called for all U.N. member states and nongovernmental organizations "to redouble current efforts to assist prisoners of conscience and their families and to put an end to all forms of persecution."

2008-07-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Date: 28 Jul 2008

Refugee voices: Looking for hope in Ethiopia

Some 25 kilometers inside Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea, the Shimelba Refugee Camp is home to more than 17,900 individuals who have fled from Eritrea for reasons that include religious persecution, fear of forced military conscription of males from age 18 to 40 that generally includes hard labor, and attempting to rejoin family left behind during the border conflict. The majority of camp residents are young males, many university educated and frustrated about the irreparable loss of the prime years of potential professional careers.

During Refugees International’s visit to Ethiopia in April 2008, one young refugee at Shimelba, who we’ll call Emmanuel, explained his situation: "I was born in Ethiopia, but was later deported to Eritrea in 1998 during the border conflict." Emmanuel recalled, "Officials came to our house, told me to fix my bag, and took me to prison. Later they moved us to Eritrea by car."

Emmanuel reported that he returned to Ethiopia five years ago. He said, "It is difficult to get nationality here. The Ethiopian government seems to give privilege for us to live in the country, but I don’t want to take any chances. They took our property before. How can we believe that they will give us nationality now? I fear for my life in Eritrea, but there is no democracy here either. The distance between the law and its implementation is like the distance between the sun and the moon. Nobody knows that distance or how to close it."

Emmanuel’s parents were born in the part of Ethiopia that is now Eritrea. They met and married in what is now Ethiopia, and that is where Emmanuel was born. "The Eritreans don’t consider my parents as Eritrean. They don’t consider me as Eritrean either, though I have an Eritrean identification card as a document. That’s why I came here as a refugee. Now I consider myself as a prisoner in this camp."

While thankful to be safely outside of Eritrea, Emmanuel explains that in addition to the general problems of refugee camp life such as insufficient food rations and health concerns like malaria, it is not easy to get out of the camp to carry out normal activities such as using the internet. First, a person must obtain a day pass, only 25 of which are issued every day. A bus to Shirraro, the nearest town, needs to be arranged and one must be able to cover the cost of bus fare and internet fees, which start at 15 Birr (US$ 1.56). He would like to continue his studies. "I have read the same physics textbook several times, but I would really like to study meteorology."

The situation for Emmanuel’s siblings is not any easier than it is for him. One of his sisters escaped to another neighboring country, where she also lives in a refugee camp, at least as far as he knows. "I have had no news from her in 5 years," Emmanuel says. "One of my other brothers was caught and imprisoned during his attempt to leave Eritrea. My youngest brother died trying to go to Sudan. There is no hope."

Source: Refugees International (RI)

2008-07-25T15:05:00.001-07:00

Somali opposition says it could fight UN peacekeepers

The Associated Press

Friday, July 25, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya: Somalia's new hard-line opposition leader promised Friday to pacify his shattered country through Islamic law, warning U.N. peacekeepers they will face attack if they deploy and support the government.

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, whose Islamic regime was ousted from power in 2006 with tacit support from the United States, is gaining influence again as a deadly insurgency ruptures Somalia. Thousands have been killed in the fighting since 2007.

This week, Aweys took over the Islamist opposition movement, which operates in exile in Eritrea, pushing out a more moderate cleric who signed a peace agreement with Somalia's U.N.-backed government last month.

"Fighting U.N. peacekeepers depends on how they behave in Somalia," Aweys told The Associated Press in an interview that touched on subjects ranging from accusations of terrorism which he denied to his four wives and 22 children.

The U.N. Security Council has said it would consider deploying peacekeepers to replace African Union troops if political reconciliation and security improve.

But the badly undermanned African Union force has struggled in its efforts to keep the peace, and Aweys' accession to the leadership of the opposition does not appear to promise further reconciliation.

An Iraq-style Islamic insurgency, which Aweys promised after he was driven from power with the help of Ethiopian troops, has contributed to a humanitarian emergency, with millions of Somalis dependent on aid. The United States fears Somalia could become a haven for al-Qaida.

Nicole Thompson, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said the U.S. does not consider Aweys a legitimate representative of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.

"Aweys' self-proclamation of leadership over the ARS does not reflect the sentiment, as we understand it, of other ARS members, nor does it reflect the desire of the Somali people for peace and stability," Thompson said.

In New York, the U.N. envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, dismissed Aweys' warning to the peacekeepers. "This is classic. The only way for him to get a headline is to say outrageous statements," Ould-Abdallah told several reporters Friday at U.N. headquarters.

Ould-Abdallah, a Mauritanian diplomat who was appointed the Somalia envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September, predicted Aweys' threat would not affect U.N. Security Council decisions on Somalia."It is very easy to say, 'I will threaten,' he said. Everywhere peacekeepers go they are threatened."

Ould-Abdallah also said he does not believe that Aweys, a terrorist, is a legitimate representative of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.

Aweys is designated a terrorist under a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Aweys and a spokesman for the movement have confirmed he was voted into power Tuesday. A communique from the alliance, dated July 22 and obtained by the AP, announces his leadership.

Speaking by phone from the opposition base in Eritrea, Aweys said his fighters will battle any U.N. force that supports the government or the Ethiopian troops propping up that fragile administration.

"The issue is clear," he said. "If they side with the (government) and with Ethiopians, we will fight them."

The last U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia included American troops who arrived in 1992 and tried to arrest warlords and create a government. That experiment in nation-building ended in October 1993, when fighters shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter during a battle that killed 18 American soldiers.

"We don't want foreigners, definitely," Aweys said. "We know their harm."

Aweys, who sports the henna-stained beard of distinguished Somali men, refused to say how many fighters are backing him, but said he is confident he can end the 17 years of chaos that have followed the ouster of a dictatorship left Somalia without a government.

"I am married to four women and they don't fight," he said. "Don't you think the man who can manage four wives can manage a government?"

After the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S., Washington put Aweys on a terrorist watch list because he and an Islamic group he founded al-Itihaad were believed to have had links to Osama bin Laden when bin Laden lived in Sudan in the early 1990s.

"Even if I met him, is it a crime?" Aweys said. But he denied links to terrorism.

"The whole world killed us, kicked us out just on the rumor that we are allied with al-Qaida," he said. "Where is the justice? The world jumped to conclusions."

Aweys went into hiding after the Sept. 11 attack and didn't re-emerge until 2005, when he helped found a radical Islamic militia that became known as the Council of Islamic Courts.

The militia brought southern Somalia a semblance of stability, but also terrified people with threats of public executions and floggings. Aweys' group ruled the capital and much of the south for six months in 2006 before troops from neighboring Ethiopia defeated it.

Aweys' group then launched an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and shattered a country that already was one of the most violent and impoverished in the world. The Ethiopian troops resented in Somalia as occupiers have been accused of abusing their power.

The opposition went into exile in Eritrea, under the leadership of a more moderate cleric, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. On Tuesday night, Aweys forced Ahmed out, denouncing a recent peace agreement he signed with the government.

Ahmed and the government agreed to end months of violence, and agreed in principle to the eventual withdrawal of Ethiopian troops, but the deal has had no effect on the ground. Aweys refuses to talk with the government until Ethiopia withdraws its troops.

Ethiopia and the Somali government refused to comment on Aweys' re-emergence or his warnings.

Somalia sits in the Horn of Africa, an area roughly half the size of the United States that is home to about 165 million people in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti. Corrupt governments, porous borders and widespread poverty have created a region ripe for Islamic fundamentalism.

Kenya, and Tanzania just to its south, have already been victims of al-Qaida terrorism. The U.S. embassies in those countries were bombed in 1998, and militants attacked a hotel and an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002.

The attacks emanated from Somalia.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when clan warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The current government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations but has failed to protect citizens from violence or the country's breathtaking poverty.

In recent years, the United States backed a secret program to pay Mogadishu's widely detested warlords to help track down those in Somalia with links to terrorism. But the policy backfired when the Islamists united under Aweys and ousted the warlords from the capital.

The United States now supports Somalia's ineffectual transitional government.

Aweys, however, said only Islamic law can help Somalia.

"Somalis are Muslims," he said. "We have asked them and they want Islamic rule."

2008-07-25T00:16:00.002-07:00

Ethiopia/Eritrea: After UNMEE

A significant restraint on renewed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea may be lost on Thursday, when the mandate for the UN’s peace-keeping mission along the disputed border (UNMEE) is set to expire.

UNMEE, established as part of the Algiers peace process which ended the 1998-2000 border war, has already been under operational constraints imposed by Eritrea since Asmara imposed a de facto fuel embargo in December. In fairly short order, UNMEE’s mission became untenable, and after it was initially scaled down nearly all troops were returned to their home countries by April.

Although the two sides have proved irreconcilable over the demarcation of the border, blocking the fulfilment of the Algiers agreement and the restoration of relations, UNMEE at least used to provide a buffer between Africa’s two largest armies -- deployed, in some places, only metres apart. The absence of this buffer raises the risk of an accidental engagement or other mishap escalating into a war. Neither side wants one, and Eritrea’s regime stands to lose significantly -- but this has not stopped it from racheting up its rhetoric, or from clashing with neighbouring Djibouti (now Ethiopia’s main trade conduit) in a new border dispute.

The Security Council is considering its options for UNMEE, and may convert it into a small observer mission, in order to at least react quickly to a renewal in conflict. After UNMEE, tensions are set to rise.

2008-07-25T00:16:00.001-07:00

Somali Islamist leader vows to protect aid workers

Thu 24 Jul 2008

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's new hardline opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has vowed to protect aid workers in the Horn of Africa nation where insecurity has stopped many groups from working.

The United Nations said last week that recent killings and kidnappings of aid workers in Somalia threatened to wreck all efforts to end one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

Aweys, an Islamist cleric who is on U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda suspects, called on the international community to help his Eritrea-based opposition group expel Ethiopian forces supporting the country's fragile Western-backed government.

Islamist insurgents have waged an Iraq-style insurgency of roadside bombs, mortar attacks and assassinations against the administration and its Ethiopian allies since early last year.

The rebels have blamed government hardliners for a wave of attacks targeting humanitarian staff.

In one such incident, gunmen stormed the offices of Rome-based Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud and kidnapped two Italian workers and their Somalian colleague.

But Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters on Thursday the two Italians, at least, were alive.

"Contacts are in progress to free them," he added in Rome.

Somali officials deny that they are behind the kidnappings.

"We are very grateful to the aid workers who are helping the starving Somali community and we strongly condemn those who kill or abduct them," Aweys told Reuters by telephone from Asmara.

"We shall do what we can to safeguard aid workers especially in the areas under our control. We shall help, escort and defend them. They are killed by the enemies who then put the blame on us," the former prison service colonel said late on Wednesday.

Somalia's deputy prime minister and information minister, Ahmed Abdisalan, called for unity in the country, which is awash with arms. He said groups opposed to peace were behind the attacks on humanitarian workers.

"We are saddened by the attacks on foreign and local aid workers. As long as we are divided and still have arms in our possession, groups opposed to peace will take advantage of the chaos to inflict harm on aid workers," he said.

The killings and threats against humanitarian workers have shocked U.N. agencies and aid groups and forced many to consider suspending operations in the lawless nation, which has not had an effective central government since 1991.

In the latest incident of intimidation, the Elman Peace and Human Rights group said it had been forced into hiding.

On Thursday, clashes between the rebels and Ethiopians killed at least five people in the central town of Beledweyne.

More than 8,000 civilians have been killed and 1 million uprooted since allied Somali-Ethiopian soldiers routed Aweys' sharia courts group from Mogadishu at the start of last year.

Aweys took control of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), an umbrella group based in the Eritrean capital, on Tuesday after expelling the moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed for signing a peace deal with the interim government.

On Wednesday, the African Union said a small peace force it sent to Mogadishu was unable to stabilise the situation and urged the United Nations to take over its duties.

2008-07-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Ethiopia gives Djibouti's Guelleh farmland-officials

Tue 22 Jul 2008,

[-] Text [+]

ADDIS ABABA, July 22 (Reuters) - Land-locked Ethiopia has given Djiboutian President Omar Ismail Guelleh large tracts of land for wheat farming and a lakeside holiday home, officials said on Tuesday.

The Red Sea state has been Ethiopia's major outlet to the sea since Addis Ababa lost the ports of Assab and Massawa when Eritrea won independence in 1991.

Ethiopia gave Guelleh 7,000 hectares of land some 400 km (250 miles) south of Addis Ababa, where government officials say he will grow wheat.

"A team of experts has already started preliminary work to set up a modern and mechanized farm," said the officials, who spoke on the condition on anonymity.

Guelleh, who was in Ethiopia last week with his wife and a ministerial delegation, was also given 10,000 square metres of lakeside land some 45 km (30 miles) east of the capital on which to build a holiday home, the officials said.

Guelleh already owns a $5 million presidential residence in Ethiopia's eastern town of Dire Dawa, they said.

Djibouti's port earns about $300 million a year from handling some 4.6 million tonnes of Ethiopian goods, and recently said it would raise its tariffs on port services, prompting Ethiopia to send its trade minister to Djibouti.

Last month Djibouti accused Eritrea, which is also at loggerheads with Ethiopia, of starting clashes on their border in which 12 Djiboutian soldiers were killed and 55 wounded.

Eritrea denied its troops had crossed the border and rejected Western criticism that it had started the fighting. (For Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issue, visit http://africa.reuters.com/) (Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse, editing by Jack Kimball and Tim Pearce)

In Eritrea, youth say frustrated by long service

2008-07-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

By Jack Kimball

ASMARA (Reuters) - God surveys the world one day, seeing the mountains, valleys, seas and all there is.

Suddenly God stops and exclaims: "Why is Eritrea so green? I specifically made that country dry and yellow!"

The angel Gabriel leans over and whispers: "My Lord, those are army uniforms."

So goes a joke about mandatory national service in Eritrea, a Red Sea state that keeps an estimated 1 in 15 people in the army often for years beyond the obligatory 12 to 18 months.

One of Africa's newest and smallest nations boasts one of the continent's largest armies in an area where a war in Somalia and Eritrea's own border dispute with Ethiopia fuel instability.

At least 320,000 Eritreans are in the army out of a population of 4.7 million, the World Bank says.

Asmara has the largest armed forces in sub-Saharan Africa, ahead of arch-foe Ethiopia with 138,000 troops, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The government in this tightly ruled country says a large army is needed because of tensions with Ethiopia. Troops also work on development projects, it says.

But many young Eritreans say they are frustrated with having to spend years doing national service and only making around $20 per month. Some have even begun fleeing the Red Sea state.

"I want to serve my country, but not forever," said one young man, who has served four years so far and asked not to be named -- like many in Eritrea when talking to journalists.

All Eritreans over 18 and under 40 must do 12 to 18 months of national service, according to a proclamation that followed Eritrea's independence from Ethiopia in 1991.

But in practice, military service can be extended indefinitely, analysts and human rights groups say.

Up to 25,000 Eritreans leave illegally each year, most crossing into Sudan and Ethiopia to make their way to Europe or the Middle East, diplomats and aid agencies say.

Many say they are fleeing national service. Eritrea restricts exit visas and passports of military-eligible men and women under 50 and 47 respectively.

"FORCED"

The military culture runs deep in a country that was born of war: most people here know how to use a Kalashnikov.

Eritrea fought for 30 years with its neighbor Ethiopia before independence. Then, conflict over their shared border raged between 1998 and 2000, killing 70,000 people.

Eritrea says Ethiopia's failure to comply with a 2002 border ruling by an independent boundary commission means it has to keep a big army.

"Eritrea is forced to have the army it has now due to the threat it has had since the border conflict," said an article on the Web site of the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), www.shaebia.org.

Rights groups accuse President Isaias Afwerki and his government of using the border impasse to crush dissidents and imprison thousands for alleged political crimes.

The government denies this, saying it has taken some temporary security measures forced upon it by a "no war, no peace" situation with Addis Ababa.

The simmering border dispute is not just a political issue: it is also affecting Eritrea's growth. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the deadlock will continue to hurt the largely agricultural economy.

The IMF has said Eritrea's gross domestic product (GDP) grew in 2007 by an estimated 1.3 percent due to construction work and a better harvest, after the economy shrank by 1.0 percent the previous year. The IMF estimates Eritrea's economy will grow by 1.2 percent this year.

Eritrea is believed to be rich in gold and industrial metals, but few hard facts are known about its economy, which depends heavily on remittances. The mining sector is however expected to stimulate growth in coming years.

Eritrea's long-established diaspora -- which helped fund the independence war and is found mainly in Europe, the United States and Gulf countries -- continues to provide up to a third of the nation's gross domestic product through remittances.

But analysts and diplomats say the diaspora -- estimated at a quarter of all Eritreans -- has yet to produce an organized opposition force.

"ORCHESTRATED ATTEMPT"

At night in Asmara, military police in distinctive sandy-colored uniforms and carrying yellow sticks patrol the streets. Diplomats say that as well as providing security, the military search for Eritreans dodging military service.

Young Eritreans say they will not venture outside without an identity card and movement papers, which have biographical facts and, crucially, their national service status.

Without those papers, they can be arrested.

According to IISS and U.N. data, Eritrea makes up some 18 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's total armed forces, but only about 0.6 percent of its population.

"I love my country, but I'm a young man and I want to earn money to support my family," said one Eritrean national service recruit, who makes 145 Nakfa ($9.6) per month. "We have a saying here. Service without reward is punishment."

As well as serving on the border with Ethiopia, recruits are a crucial source of labor for development and commercial projects and for the civil service in a country where the World Bank says there are few private companies.

The ruling PFDJ says recruits work in defense, infrastructure, agriculture, education and capacity building.

For those who decide to leave rather than serve, the risks and costs are high, activists say.

Diplomats say Eritreans pay middlemen several thousand U.S. dollars to lead them to Sudan. If caught, the would-be migrant will spend months in jail and be interrogated for days for information about the middlemen, according to rights groups and diplomats in Asmara.

Even if they leave, activists say illegal immigrants' families can be fined up to 50,000 Nakfa ($3,333) -- an enormous sum in a nation where the average per-capita income is $200.

Isaias told Reuters in an interview in mid-May that U.S. and British intelligence officials and the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) were luring away Eritrea's youth.

"Hundreds of young have been misled that there is heaven outside ... It's an orchestrated attempt to deplete this nation of its young," he said.

Eritrea has brokered deals with some neighboring countries to repatriate fleeing citizens, rights groups say. In June, Egypt deported up to 1,000 Eritrean asylum seekers, despite activists' concerns they might face torture at home.

"(Eritrea's youth) have no educational and career prospects, and the only thing they can look forward to is a lifetime of quiet servitude," said a foreign-based Eritrean opposition Web site, www.awate.com.

(For a feature on Eritrea's history of self-reliance, please double-click on))

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)

(Editing by Clar Ni Chonghaile)

The Consequences Of Love by Sulaiman Addonia

2008-07-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

July 18, 2008

The Times review by Christina Koning

A boy meets a girl. They fall in love. They decide they want to be together. These simple ingredients constitute the plot of Addonia's debut. What saves the work from being just another sensitively realised coming-of-age story is that it is set in Saudi Arabia during the 1980s, and what would otherwise be a straightforward rite of passage is fraught with terrible difficulty.

When we meet him, 20- year-old Naser is working as a car-wash attendant in Jeddah. The product of a liberal upbringing in his native Eritrea, from which he and his younger brother fled ten years before, Naser is privately appalled by the intolerance around him, based as it is on Wahhibist ideology, which insists on the absolute segregation of men and women. For the handsome young man, desperate to find a girl he can call his own, such a view is anathema. Nor is he safe from the sexual overtures of other men.

In the street one day, a black-veiled woman drops a piece of paper at Naser's feet that turns out to be a love letter. From this moment on, his life changes for ever, as he and the girl he names Fiore - or “flower” - embark on a dangerous flirtation that could end, if it is discovered, in their deaths. Fiore takes steps to identify herself to her lover in the ranks of women in their black abayas. This she does by wearing pink high-heeled shoes, symbolising the contrast between the restrictive regime under which the young couple are living, and the sexual freedom to which they aspire.

As Naser and his habibati prepare to risk everything for love, he reflects on the absurdity of the system that has placed them under restraint: “It was a gloomy world where everyone feared something, a world where laughter was a sin...(and) where looking at a woman's face...was a serious crime.” The author allows his indignation to express itself through the thoughts of his characters, making us see their predicament as our own.

The Consequences Of Love by Sulaiman Addonia
Chatto & Windus, £12.99 Buy the book here

2008-07-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

Ethiopia's dependence on Djibouti Port was made possible by Treasonous and Criminal despot Zenawi
By Saba

File Photo: Djibouti Port

We have the treasonous and criminal despot Meles Zenawi to thank for our dependence on Djibouti. This development is a huge blow to the destitute Ethiopian public who will be forced to pay for Meles’s folly and treachery in the form of exorbitant prices for imported goods. The chicken are coming home to roost.

Meles and TPLF have done an irreparable damage to the long-term future, security and prosperity of our country. Our children and their children will feel the loss of our ports more than we do today as the country accelerates its effort to end its centuries old isolation and engages in more international commerce.

Eritrea is not just a piece of land sold off to our enemies. It is a strategic advantage, an economic and political upper hand squandered by a traitor and a despot. The end result is a vulnerable Ethiopia there to be coerced in to compromising deals, to be blackmailed and to be taken hostage.

Ethiopia’s dependence on their ports gives Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia huge bargaining advantages in all sorts of areas of importance to us. It is very difficult to say the trained monkey (Meles) was not aware of that when he decided to surrender Eritrea to our enemies which vindicates any one who tends to think land locking Ethiopia could be the most significant step in TPLF’s original plan to establish an independent Tigray republic as revealed by it’s estranged founding members.

We have seen countries cross continents and oceans to crush distant enemies and lay claim to their lands. Meles, on the other, hand surrenders our own land there by creating enemies right on our backyard.

Eritrea has been a thorn on Ethiopia’s side ever since it became a separate entity for the first time in history. It is madness and suicidal (pure treachery in the case of Meles and the TPLF) to create another enemy on our doorstep in the form of Eritrea led by an equally despotic and deranged Esayas.

Ethiopia never needed another enemy. As it is we are surrounded by ill wishers left, right and centre just like scavengers surround dead bodies. Our enemies must be jumping for joy because their work is cut out for them. Meles has achieved in just few years what they have not been able to accomplish for centuries. Thanks to Meles, Ethiopia is a more divided and a more weakened country it has ever been before

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2008-07-08T12:55:00.001-07:00

Eritrea/Ethiopia: Refugee voices - no longer stateless, but still in limbo

A centuries-long history of unity and separation continues to vex Ethiopia and Eritrea. Between May 1998 and June 2000, the two countries engaged in a border war in which tens of thousands of combatants were killed and some 650,000 civilians displaced. The Ethiopian government denationalized citizens of Eritrean origin, and expelled 75,000 of them from the country, alleging that they posed a state security risk and that by voting in Eritrea's 1993 referendum for independence they had claimed Eritrean citizenship, essentially depriving them of Ethiopian citizenship. Individuals of Ethiopian origin were also expelled from Eritrea.

People rendered stateless by denationalization policies still seek solutions outside Ethiopia and Eritrea. One man who managed to reacquire citizenship before leaving Ethiopia now resides in Kenya and recently told his story to Refugees International. The account presented below is devoid of details to protect the individual's identity and that of his family and friends.

"I was born and raised in Ethiopia, but my parents are Eritrean," Tesfay explained as he tried to describe the complex background of his current situation. "My family was the first to come from Eritrea and other relatives followed us, but everyone, including my grandparents, was sent back during the war. We were the only ones who stayed in Ethiopia." Today, despite a sense of relative safety in Kenya, Tesfay is still cautious about offering details about his past or present situation. "When the war broke out, we became stateless. We did not belong to Eritrea or Ethiopia."

Tesfay believes that it was his close association with a church and the family's non-political, church-related activities that saved them and others from being deported to Eritrea at that time. Nonetheless, Tesfay's mother was told not to come back to work. His father was already retired. At Tesfay's workplace, it was not long before the boss started to become uneasy after government representatives started calling to ask questions about Tesfay. After some time, the young employee felt compelled to quit his job and initially went back to school.

"We were busy with church, but there were so many screenings to make sure we were not supporting the Eritrean government. Police came to our house and watched us even at church, though I didn't know it at the time. We had made investments before the war, such as in trucking and transport, but so many of our things were confiscated. People sent back to Eritrea, who used to be professional, are poor. The ones who stayed are getting poorer and poorer. They depend on remittances from friends or relatives abroad." But even in Kenya it is not possible for urban refugees, whether recognized or not, to work in the formal sector.

"I was born and raised in Ethiopia, so I think like an Ethiopian," Tesfay explained. "Though deep down inside I am Eritrean. Deep down Ethiopians don't feel what I feel." He stressed the psychological and sociological difficulty he faced during and after the border conflict. "I didn't know who to believe. I was torn apart. I lost several of my uncles during the war. It was a very difficult and tense time. The head thinks one thing, the heart feels another. I lived like that for six or seven years."

"At that time one had to blend in or disappear," Tesfay continued. "Eritreans in Addis used to live in one neighborhood, but those houses are government houses now. Today Eritreans are dispersed in Addis and are rarely able to meet in groups. But in the last three or four years, we have been allowed to get citizenship. Now I have an Ethiopian passport, but both my passport and my identification card states that my origin is Eritrean. Many Eritrean people in Ethiopia have identification cards like mine, but if there was an accident or explosion, they might be arrested or detained. Those who moved to Canada or the U.S. are OK."

Before the war, Tesfay was engaged and planning to marry an Eritrean woman. "We were pledged to each other, but couldn't marry," Tesfay recalled. "My fiancée couldn't come to Ethiopia, and I couldn't go to Eritrea." He continued, "If I went there I would be forced into military service, so I stayed in Addis Ababa. People from the church supported our family. But the situation was nearly unbearable. Most Eritreans in Ethiopia would leave if they had the chance. I was able to get citizenship and then leave the country though it meant I had to abandon my family. The good news is that my wife is now with me. But that is a very l-o-n-g story."

2008-07-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Eritrea and PRC conclude agreement on sending agricultural experts (China)

Eritrea and the People's Republic of China (PRC) today concluded an agreement here in the capital on sending senior Chinese agricultural experts to Eritrea so as to reinforce endeavors towards achieving food security.

The experts would provide training to Eritrean agricultural professionals in formulating agricultural action programs and advisory services, in addition to promoting technical competence and know-how on boosting strategic crops, among others.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Arefaine Berhe, Minister of Agriculture, on the Eritrean side, and Mr. Shu Chan, Ambassador of the PRC, on the side of China.

2008-07-06T12:32:00.001-07:00

Eritreans on the run

The plight of Eritrean asylum-seekers trying to flee war in their homeland and hoping to find refuge in Egypt only to be forcibly deported has incurred the wrath of human rights organisations, writes Gamal Nkrumah

Emerging unsteadily from the Cairo-based Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) a legal Eritrean refugee lamented that he did not know the whereabouts of his brother and cousin, who are seeking asylum. "I haven't a clue." He was one of thousands of Horn of Africa asylum- seekers in Egypt trying to find out more about the fate of friends and family members thought to be caught up in the latest round of forced deportations of African refugees in the country. Hundreds of Eritreans seeking asylum in Egypt are being summarily returned to their native Eritrea that is currently in a state of war with two of its neighbours Djibouti and Ethiopia. Thousands of Eritrean men are being recruited in preparation of possible armed conflict. Many of them have fled northwards across the desolate moonscapes and rugged mountainous terrain of northern Eritrea and eastern Sudan into Egypt. Most have been rounded up by the authorities and detained, many are subsequently deported, according to human rights organisations.

In Eritrea, human activists warn, they are subjected to persecution and some are held incommunicado, tortured and maltreated. That is especially the case if they try to avoid military conscription. However, it seems that those who inhabit the African Union (AU) c o rridors of powers are oblivious to nightmare.

"It is ironic that even as Egypt hosts the 11th AU Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, widely considered the most important pan-African annual event, that the country is also deporting large numbers of Africans in clear violation of international conventions and the rights of asylum- seekers and refugees," Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Hossam Bahgat told Al-Ahram Weekly.

The forced deportation of Eritreans has attracted the attention of several international and local Egyptian organisations, including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which has expressed concern for the Eritreans many of whom are believed to be held in the Shallal Military Camp. Observers and activists point out that Egypt is a signatory to the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to the Status of Refugees (Article 3) and the Organisation of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa which was ratified by Egypt in 1980 and stipulates that the country uphold refugee rights. "Egypt is, therefore, under obligation to respect the principle of non-refoulement [non-forcible repatriation]," Bahgat added.

According to the UNHCR and Reuters (based on leaks from state security personnel) an estimated 1,500 Eritrean asylum-seekers were detained and many of them deported in the past month. "These asylum-seekers should have been deported to, and resettled in, a third country and not forcibly returned to a country at war," Bahgat stressed.

He protested that his official complaint to the Foreign Ministry about the deportation of the Eritreans was ignored. The EIPR, along with some 30 other mainly African human rights organisations, officially filed a complaint to the Egyptian authorities and the African Union requesting immediate action. Again, Bahgat says, the complaint was ignored.

"It is in very poor taste that the Eritrean- Djibouti dispute was discussed at the Sharm El-Sheikh summit. And, at the same time, hundreds of Eritreans were forcibly returned to the war zone which they fled from in the first place because they were trying to avoid forcible recruitment into the Eritrean armed forces," Bahgat explained.

"This is cruel and unethical, and it contravenes international laws and violates the rights of African asylum-seekers," Bahgat added. "People cannot be forced to return to their country of origin if their lives are threatened or they would be subjected to torture."

Other activists and academics concur. Barbara Harrell-Bond, former professor of Forced Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo, is of the opinion that the Egyptian authorities have come under tremendous political pressure from the United States and Israel to prevent African refugees from using Egypt as a conduit to settle in Israel. "The Israelis want to stem the tide of African refugees. It is shameful that the US and Israel are stepping up pressure on Egypt and that the Egyptian authorities are succumbing to that pressure," Harrell- Bond explained.

IMF sees Eritrea growth hampered by border impasse

2008-06-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

ASMARA - Eritrea's deadlock with arch-foe Ethiopia over their shared border will continue to hurt the Red Sea state's economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.
In a report seen by Reuters this week, the IMF said Eritrea's gross domestic product (GDP) grew in 2007 by an estimated 1.3 percent due to construction work and a better harvest, after the economy shrank by 1.0 percent the previous year. The IMF estimates Eritrea's economy will grow by 1.2 percent this year.
The country is believed to be rich in gold and industrial metals, but few hard facts are known about its largely agricultural economy, which depends heavily on remittances.
‘The war with Ethiopia and subsequent stalemate have put major pressure on fiscal aggregates and fuelled domestic and external imbalances, resulting in high inflation, low growth, low reserves, unsustainable debt and an overvalued exchange rate,’ the IMF said.
Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a 1998-2000 border war, and have been deadlocked over their shared frontier ever since. The impasse ties up resources and tens of thousands of soldiers.
Asmara does not publish a budget and per capita income remains just $200 a year.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki told Reuters in a recent interview that growth figures used by Western economists were a misleading indicator, with quality of life and reductions in wealth inequalities better measures for poor nations.
The IMF said Eritrea's income from remittances declined to some 23 percent of GDP in 2007 from 41 percent in 2005. It said this was partly offset by limiting imports.
The IMF said interest rates below the rate of inflation, low private investment, limited outside support and foreign exchange shortages would continue to hurt growth.
It said inflation increased to 12.3 percent in 2007 from 9 percent in 2006 due to imported food costs and monetary growth, and the banking sector was burdened by nonperforming loans. ‘About half of all loans to borrowers other than the government were nonperforming in 2007.’
The report said total public debt stood at 157 percent of GDP and external debt at 65 percent of GDP as of 2007.
‘Nevertheless, institutional discipline and social cohesion have brought the country welfare gains,’ it added.
MINING
Eritrea's mining sector is expected to stimulate growth in coming years, the IMF said. The government estimates the first mine will go into production by the end of 2009.
Experts predict a mining boom for Eritrea, a nation of some 4.5 million people where half a dozen foreign firms operate in joint ventures with the government.
IMF predicted GDP growth ‘at 2 percent in 2009, supported by mining-related construction. Thereafter, economic growth could average about 5 percent through 2012 as the mining projects come on stream.
‘Although imports would also rise, receipts for mining exports would help bring the external current account to near-balance by 2012, so gross international reserves would rise gradually to 2 months of imports,’ the report said
Eritrea's minister of mines told Reuters in a recent interview the government would decide on another five applications for mining exploration licences this year.

At UN, Djibouti Admits French Copter Flights, Blames Eritrea for Shoot-outs,

2008-06-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN:
News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, June 24 --
The standoff between Djibouti and Eritrea was explained, at least by Djibouti, on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said Eritrea's motive is to gain control of a military position and associated waterway at Doumeira. While advancing on the position, according to Youssouf, scores of Eritrean soldiers deserted. That, he said, was when the shooting started on June 10, implying that Eritrea fired at its own defecting troops. Djibouti responded, and soon there were deaths and captured soldiers on both sides.
Inner City Press asked Minister Youssouf about Eritrea's claim that French helicopters landed on or near its territory, and that an Eritrean speedboat was recently sunk, allegedly by non-Djiboutian forces. To his credit, Youssouf did not dodge these questions. Video here. He acknowledged that a French helicopter had carried him, his President and Prime Minister Dileita Mohamed Dileita to the disputed area, so they could see for themselves. He agreed that an Eritrean speedboat was recently sunk, but said that Djibouti itself has been responsible. He said that a Velo-bound, hundred-some page pamphlet prepared for submission to the Security Council on Tuesday afternoon contained proof and even photos of all this.
Eritrea - Ethiopia border, per UN -- Doumeira and even-handedness not shown
Inner City Press obtained a copy of the pamphlet, which strangely is dated February 2008, before the conflict at issue. The timeline inside, however, contains Djibouti's version of events, sometimes by the hour. On June 10 at 12:30, "the Eritrean troops opened fire to stop ("empecher") their soldiers from deserting," the Djiboutian presentation says. At 6:40 p.m., "the hour of prayer," the Eritreans again opened fire, the pamphlet continues.
What is Eritrea's side of the story? It appears that Eritrea will not make a presentation to the Council on Tuesday afternoon. [In fact, they did, text here.] To the President of Yemen, Ali Abdallah Salih, Eritrea has called the conflict a "fabrication," and has blamed it on the United States. There are reports that the U.S. plans a second base in Djibouti, closer to Eritrean territory.
Inner City Press asked Minister Youssouf how much of the conflict may spring from Djibouti having hosted Somali talks between the Transitional Federal Government and portions of the Alliance to Re-liberate Somalia which have since left Asmara. Youssouf acknowledged some connection or effect, speculating that Eritrea is against peace in Somalia because it wants Ethiopian troops to have to remain there. Since Eritrea has not held a UN press conference, we must look elsewhere their views. According to Awate's reports, they have said there'd be peace if Djibouti "takes its hands off the affairs of the Somali opposition, and if the U.S. pressures Ethiopia to vacate Eritrean territories based on the ruling of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission."
Update: Eritrea's Permanent Representative to the UN did, in fact, refer to the EEBC in prepared remarks, here. After the Council's session, Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff if the U.S. intends to build a second base in Djibouti. Video here. Not that I know of, Wolff said, while the U.S. Mission's Deputy Spokesman suggested asking the Pentagon, not the State Department. Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert about his country's helicopter shuttling Djibouti's leaders to the Eritrean border. We have a defense agreement, he said, adding that everything they do is at the request of Djibouti. Video here. Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson answered Inner City Press than Ban has "never spoken to the President of Eritrea." Okay then. We will continue to follow these issues.

AU commission investigations on Djibouti-Eritrea clashes

2008-06-27T18:56:00.000-07:00

afrol News, 27 June -
African Union has commissioned a team of investigators to unravel route cause of Djibouti and Eritrea clashes. The fact-finding mission commissioned today will resume work in Djibouti and end its mission in Eritrea in an undisclosed time frame.
Djibouti which has accused Eritrea of moving its troops across the border and also digging trenches and building fortifications on the Djiboutian side of the frontier in mid April leading to an army confrontation which killed a dozen Djiboutian soldiers with others wounded.This month's confrontation was the first clash since 1996. Tensions upped between the two neighbours two months ago had raised fears of full military confrontation.The two countries had in the past clashed twice over the border area at the southern end of the Red Sea.AU Commission chairman, Jean Ping expressed his concerns on hostilities between the two countries, urging both parties to find a happy solution to their situation.The violent clashes between two states prompted U.N. Security Council to call on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send a mission to the region to find out details of the contentious situation.Following the mission, Mr Joao Honwana, U.N. director of department of political affairs' Africa Division said "The situation along the joint border was calm but tense, with military regrouping occurring on both sides and a de facto cease-fire continuing to hold".Djibouti has claimed calmness on the border last week since being backed by French troops, saying despite the situation, French warships would arrive off its coast soon.Djibouti hosts French largest overseas military base since signing a mutual defense pact with Paris in 1977. It also hosts a United States military base.Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993 from Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territorial demarcations with its neighbours.
By staff writer

Lost opportunities in the Horn of Africa - How conflicts connect and peace agreements unravel

2008-06-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

Source: Chatham House
Date: 23 Jun 2008

Executive summary

This report is a study of three peace processes in the Horn of Africa, a region of Africa distinguished by the prevalence and persistence of armed conflict. It deals with the Algiers Agreement of December 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Somalia National Peace and Reconciliation Process concluded in October 2004 and the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 2005. It examines in turn the background and historical context of the conflicts that these peace agreements were intended to resolve. It charts the developments since the agreements were signed, seeking to assess how far they have achieved successful outcomes for peace and stability. The results are very mixed.
The Algiers Agreement continues to provide a framework for relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But it has not created a permanent settlement between the two sides and now seems unlikely to do so. The two instruments created by Algiers to help Ethiopia and Eritrea reach a permanent peace were the Eritrea–Ethiopia Boundary Commission and the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). These both appear to have run their course. The two countries have not returned to war. But their fierce enmity has been played out elsewhere in the region, notably through proxies in Somalia. There is no sign of it ending.
Somalia’sMbgathi peace process produced a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that was supposed to establish a transitional government and administration based in Mogadishu. The TFG still exists and is recognized as the government of Somalia in the region. But it has proved quite unable to establish its authority inside Somalia. When the Islamic Courts took control of Mogadishu in 2006, Ethiopia decided to install the TFG by force. Since then Mogadishu has been in the grip of a powerful insurgency, part anti-Ethiopian, part Islamist, directed against the TFG and its Ethiopian sponsors. An undersized African Union peacekeeping force is helplessly caught in the middle. Reconciliation efforts pushed by the international community have made little headway. The conflict in South Central Somalia continues to deepen and spread at a terrible human cost, creating conditions that aremuch worse than those that existed before the peace process began.
Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has made progress. The South of Sudan has established its own government and the two sides rely heavily on the CPA text to manage their relations. However, some critically important questions remain to be resolved about the territorial definition of the South and the make-up of the Southern population. The results of the recently completed census will be vital. Slippage in the implementation timetable caused a political crisis and near breakdown in late 2007. Anxiety and lack of trust hinder progress; there is much still to do, including elections, before a referendum on independence for the South in 2011. The failure to reach political settlements on key issues of demarcation
and administration in the oil-rich region of Abyei bodes badly. Lack of political will, lack of capacity, lack of trust and the long shadow of conflict in Darfur continue to pose major challenges.
The prevalence of identity politics and processes of state formation and disintegration are identified as common structural features of conflict in the region. The assessments of the peace processes helped to illustrate the ways in which interactions between the states of the region support and sustain the conflicts within them in a systemic way. The interplay of regional and global interests is especially problematic in a region of Africa where the ‘global war on terrorism’ has some resonance.
High levels of security interdependence exist among the countries of the Horn, suggesting that it constitutes a Regional Security Complex. Historical memory plays an important part in how the states and leaderships of the region understand and formulate security threats. It also impedes the prospects for a more stable security order. The regional institution that should take the lead on conflict management, IGAD (the Intergovernmental Authority for Development), is severely hampered by conflict among its member states. In the long term, economic change and growing economic interdependence – an area deserving of further research – seem the most likely drivers of stability.
The study ends with four broad conclusions that have implications for outsiders engaged in conflict analysis or designing conflict resolution interventions:
1 - The need to take account of the long history of amity and enmity in the region as a whole, recognizing that the protagonists of contemporary conflicts experience them as part of a long continuum of warfare. Outsiders have limited influence over conflict dynamics in the region and should set suitably modest goals.
2 - The need to appreciate the problematic nature of the state and its relations with its subjects, especially those on the periphery and in unstable border zones who have long struggled to resist incorporation. This raises some real questions over the applicability of the commonly used weak and fragile state analysis as well as the familiar ‘state-building’ approach to conflict resolution.
3 - The need to see the Horn of Africa as a Regional Security Complex in which the security problems of each country impact on the security of all. The different conflicts interlock with and feed into each other, determining regional foreign policy positions that exacerbate conflict. The regional body, IGAD, is unfortunately too compromised by conflicts among its member states to develop a new framework. Outside actors cannot succeed with a conflict-byconflict approach and need to factor other regional players into their conflict solutions.
4 - Attention must be paid to the influence on the Horn of global agendas. This is a two-way process, with external actors seeking strategic alliances and the regional players courting the attention of the key global players. Conflict has been exacerbated by the insertion of the logic of the globalwar on terrorismin an already complex web of regional conflict. It has polarized parties and reduced the space for mediation. Outsiders interested in mediation need to respond judiciously to the allegations of terrorism levelled against various parties to conflict in the Horn and to seek to develop space for dialogue.
Given the apparent inability of the countries of the Horn to develop a framework for a common regional security order and the limited influence of outsider powers to push successful settlements, the paper recommends a policy approach that:
- Is even-handed in dealing with the states of the region, requiring all of them to conform to the normal conventions of international conduct;
- Prioritizes human security and the need to protect people caught up in conflict;
- Favours local partners, whether states or non-state actors, that protect their people and not those who claim to protect Western interests.

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Djibouti alleges Eritrean incursion

2008-06-22T03:37:00.000-07:00

Djibouti has produced documents showing Eritrean troops on Djiboutian land
Djibouti has accused neighbouring Eritrea of illegally intruding into its territory.
Mahmoud Ali Youssef, the Djiboutian foreign minister, told Al Jazeera on Friday that Eritrean troops crossed the border on the Bab Al Mandeb Strait and took control of Djiboutian land.
Youssef said: "Eritrean troops entered Djiboutian territory and took more land.
"Right now, Eritrean troops are stationed inside Djiboutian territories."
The Bab Al Mandeb Strait south of the Red Sea is a key navigation route and the subject of a border dispute between the two countries.
Youssef continued: "The UN Security Council has asked for both countries to withdraw their troops from this area.
"The Djiboutian government has withdrawn its forces up to 5km inside the Djiboutian land. But Eritrean forces have advanced."
The Bab Al Mandab Strait is a strategic passage separating the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa. It is a key trade and oil route linking Europe to the east.
Eritrea denies its troops have crossed the border.
'Documented evidence'
But Youssef showed Al Jazeera documents, pictures and maps that have been submitted to the UN.
According to him, these show the trenches dug by Eritrean troops on Djiboutian land.
Last week troops of the two countries clashed.
Some analysts think Eritrea has already claimed the Bab Al Mandab Strait.
Mahmoud Taha Towkal, a political analyst, said: "There is a new reality. Under recent developments, the Bab Al Mandeb Strait is no longer under the control of Djibouti and Yemen.
"It is now controlled by three countries: Djibouti, Eritrea and Yemen. It is no longer under the control of the Arab countries."
Both the US and France have military bases in Djibouti. France also has a mutual defence accord with its former colony and supplies it with intelligence.
Observers say this may deter a widespread conflict.

Ethiopia / Eritrea / Beyond the Fragile Peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea: Averting New War

2008-06-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

ADDIS ABABA, Éthiopia, June 17, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)
The Ethiopia-Eritrea impasse is a major source of instability in the Horn of Africa region and risks becoming a new deadly war.
Beyond the Fragile Peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea: Averting New War,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, analyses the frozen border conflict between two states who fought a major war in 1998-2000 and recommends an approach to overcome the stalemate. Following Ethiopia’s refusal to accept virtual demarcation of the border by the now defunct Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Commission (EEBC), Asmara unilaterally implemented it and forced out the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE), significantly raising the stakes and shattering the status quo.
“The departure of the Boundary Commission and the UN peacekeepers has made this conflict much more dangerous, removing the means both for dialogue between the parties and for stopping small problems from escalating”, says Andebrhan Giorgis, Crisis Group’s Senior Africa Adviser. “Neither regime wants war at present. Both prefer to keep tensions simmering, giving them an excuse to maintain authoritarian rule, but a minor border incident or miscalculation could produce a disastrous return to conflict”.
The Security Council has been largely passive, refusing to take strong action against either Ethiopia for breaking its commitment under the 2000 Algiers peace agreements to accept the EEBC border decisions or Eritrea for its provocations. Preoccupation with its counter-terrorism concerns has made the U.S. unwilling to use its influence with Ethiopia. But the bilateral dispute is also increasingly dangerous for the region, in particular in Somalia, where Eritrean proxies are fighting Ethiopian troops who support the Transitional Federal Government.
It will not be easy to overcome either the parties’ entrenched positions or the West’s neglect, but the stakes are too high not to make an attempt. A strongly backed international action plan which reconfigures the old failed process from the 2000 peace agreements is needed to break the deadlock.
The immediate priority is to persuade Ethiopia to withdraw from all land the EEBC awarded Eritrea, and Eritrea to pull back from the Temporary Security Zone. Wider dialogue on normalisation of relations demanded by Ethiopia should start in parallel with progressive border demarcation required by Eritrea. This would be consistent with Security Council resolutions, which demanded both Ethiopian implementation of EEBC decisions and the start of a normalisation dialogue, but might also give both sides more reason to show flexibility, since each would get something it wants early in the process.
“The basic goals remain to get Ethiopia to accept the border, Eritrea to accept the need for dialogue and the international community to provide the real carrots and sticks needed to press the parties”, says Daniela Kroslak, Africa Program Deputy Director.
SOURCE : International Crisis Group

UNHCR welcomes access to asylum seekers in detention centres in Egypt

2008-06-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

17 Jun 2008 Source: UNHCR
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
UNHCR welcomes the decision of the Egyptian authorities for UNHCR to have unhindered access to asylum seekers in detention centres in Egypt and to resume refugee status determination interviews. UNHCR staff arrived in Aswan on Sunday night to prepare for UNHCR teams to carry out interviews and individual assessment of the need for international protection of persons in detention seeking asylum, in particular of Eritrean nationals. On Monday, the team visited two locations in Aswan in Shalal and Nasr ElNouba areas where they met some of the asylum seekers. The team reported they saw close to 180 asylum seekers including a group of 40 Ethiopians.
A similar preparatory team will proceed to Hurghada today to prepare the ground for the deployment of our teams. We also plan to send UNHCR teams to other locations in Egypt where reportedly asylum seekers are in detention. In the coming days we will be discussing and reviewing the operational details with our governmental counterparts and proceed with the determination of the status of the concerned group.
On Sunday, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to High Commissioner António Guterres reaffirming Egypt's commitment to uphold its obligations in accordance with international instruments relating to the protection of refugees and to grant UNHCR in Cairo access to Eritrean citizens who have entered Egypt illegally with a view to determining their status.
Egypt has seen a surge of Eritreans entering the country illegally in recent months by land from Sudan or directly from Eritrea via the Red Sea. The Egyptian authorities on 27 February 2008 had suspended access of UNHCR protection staff to asylum seekers in detention. Since then, UNHCR has been in continuous contact with relevant authorities through official communications and meetings with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting access to asylum seekers in detention to evaluate their need for international protection as well as to identify humanitarian solutions to their plight.

2008-06-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

French missile sinks Eritrean gunboat off Djibouti?
by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 06/16/2008
Somali newspaper Somaliland Times website reported June 15 that at least one Eritrean gunboat was sunk after being hit by a missile. All the crew are believed dead, sources said. It is not known whether the missile was fired by French warships or the Djiboutian navy. Eritrea has reportedly been using two gunboats to fire on Djiboutian ground troops attempting to dislodge Eritrean forces from positions within Djiboutian territory they seized June 10. (Asmara Gazette, June 16)
Djibouti says more French warships will arrive off its coast in coming days following last week's apparent clashes with Eritrea, which reportedly left a dozen Djiboutian soldiers dead and dozens more wounded. Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf said fighting has no ceased in the border area overlooking strategic Red Sea shipping lanes. "France will send warships in the coming days to the Ras Doumeira area...our forces remain vigilant," he told reporters.
In Paris, the Defense Ministry said three French ships were in the region, and two—a helicopter carrier and a frigate—have reached Djibouti's territorial waters. "For the moment, their mission is to provide logistical, medical and intelligence support—there is no participation in combat," armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck told Reuters.
(Reuters, June 16)

2008-06-13T02:14:00.001-07:00

Amnesty criticizes Egypt for deporting Eritreans

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF – 10 hours ago

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Amnesty International criticized Egypt on Thursday for deporting 200 Eritreans seeking asylum, saying the Africans would be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment at home.

The rights group said Egypt was preparing to deport an additional 1,400 Eritreans, despite U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees guidelines discouraging the return of asylum seekers to Eritrea because of serious human rights violations.

A senior Egyptian security official tasked with detaining and deporting illegal immigrants confirmed 200 Eritreans were sent home Wednesday but said only 650 remain in custody.

The reason for the discrepancy in numbers could not be immediately explained.

The remaining Eritreans will also be deported, but an exact date has not yet been set, said the security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The Eritrean Embassy in Egypt did not have information on the deported citizens or those who remain in the country.

Thousands of Africans sneak into Egypt every year seeking employment or passage to Israel in search of a better life. Many are arrested, and some are even shot and killed, as they sneak across Egypt's borders or reach the country by sea.

Amnesty said the UNHCR office in Egypt has not been granted access to any of the Eritreans to assess their asylum claims.

2008-06-13T02:09:00.001-07:00

Eritrea/Ethiopia: 415 persons repatriated

Asmara/ Addis Ababa (ICRC) - On 11 June,

400 persons were repatriated from Eritrea to Ethiopia under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This number includes a former prisoner of war who recently requested to be repatriated.

In the same operation, 15 civilians were repatriated from Ethiopia to Eritrea.

Acting in its capacity as a neutral and independent intermediary, the ICRC carried out this repatriation based on the consent of each individual and with the cooperation of the authorities. ICRC delegates based in Eritrea and an ambulance team of the Eritrean Red Cross accompanied the civilians going to Ethiopia on the first part of their journey from Asmara, Eritrea's capital, to the border. At the crossing point at Mereb River, located between the towns of Adi Quala in Eritrea and Rama in Ethiopia, the group was met by ICRC delegates based in Ethiopia, before being placed in the care of the Ethiopian authorities.

Likewise, ICRC delegates based in Ethiopia accompanied the civilians going to Eritrea to the border, where they were met by ICRC delegates based in Eritrea, before being placed in the care of the Eritrean authorities.

The ICRC has assisted people affected by the 1998-2000 armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea regarding their repatriation since June 2000 and strives to ensure compliance with the rules and principles of International Humanitarian Law; in particular, the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Djibouti troops killed on border

2008-06-11T13:50:00.001-07:00

Two Djiboutian soldiers have been killed and 17 wounded in border clashes with Eritrean troops, Djibouti says.
Fighting continued on Wednesday morning after clashes broke out on Tuesday following weeks of rising tension.
Djibouti said its forces were forced to fight back after coming under fire from Eritrean troops demanding the return of deserters who had fled to Djibouti.
Last month, Djibouti complained to the UN that Eritrea was fortifying its side of the border.
At the time, Eritrea denied it was planning for war and has not commented so far on the latest incident.
Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the Horn of Africa country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.
Both US and France have military bases in Djibouti.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Eritrean, Djiboutian troops exchange fire at border

2008-06-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

DJIBOUTI (AFP) —
Djiboutian and Eritrean troops exchanged fire Tuesday for the first time since a tense stand-off started at their border two months ago, the Djiboutian military said in a statement.
The clashes took place in the Ras Doumeira area at Djibouti's northern border, where Eritrean troops carried out an incursion on April 16 that sparked military tension between the two neighbours.
"During the pursuit of an Eritrean deserter who tried to rally the Djiboutian armed forces, the Eritrean military opened fire on our units at around 12:30 am (0930 GMT)," the Djioutian army said in a statement.
"The Djiboutian armed forces retaliated with their weapons," it added.
The army explained that Eritrean military officials posted on Mount Gabla then issued an ultimatum for Djibouti to turn in all 30 Eritrean deserters on its soil or face armed action.
"At 6:40 pm (1540 GMT), under the cover of darkness and prayer time, Eritrean troops opened fire on our soldiers," the statement went on.
"In the face of this attack, our military struck back... As this statement is published, the fighting continues."
The clash was the first since tension between the two neighbours escalated two months ago and raised fears of an all-out military confrontation that would plunge the already restive region into further chaos.
Djibouti and Eritrea had already clashed twice over the border area at the southern end of the Red Sea.
In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Eritrea of shelling the town of Ras Doumeira.
In 1999, Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara's arch-foe Ethiopia, while Djibouti accused its neighbour of supporting Djiboutian rebels and having designs on the Ras Doumeira region. Eritrea has denied this.
Djibouti has accused Eritrean forces of digging trenches on both sides of the border on April 16, infringing several hundred metres (yards) on to Djiboutian territory, an accusation Asmara has vehemently denied.
On May 19, Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki described talk of a military standoff as "a wild invention."
"We are not willing to accept an invitation to get involved in a new problem or regional crisis," he said in a statement.
The tiny Red Sea state of Djibouti also has borders with Ethiopia and Somalia, where regional power struggles have played out for years.
Somali political rivals on Monday reached an agreement -- which includes a three-month truce to begin within a month -- during UN-sponsored talks in Djibouti.
According to international rights organisations, thousands of young Eritreans attempt to leave their country every year. Ethiopia recently reported that 1,300 Eritrean had defected and crossed the border in six months.

2008-06-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Eritrean rebels not welcome: Ottawa

'Acts Of Terror'

Stewart Bell, Published: Monday, June

A woman applaudes a truckload of Eritrean students leaving for military service from the Eritrean capital Asmara, May 19, 2000.

The Eritrean Liberation Front was formed in Cairo, trained in Syria and had an office in Sudan but now its members are turning up in Canada.

Members of the obscure east African guerrilla group have been arriving and requesting asylum, but federal immigration authorities have told them they cannot stay.

During Eritrea's 30-year fight for independence, the ELF hijacked an Ethiopian airliner, kidnapped British and U.S. civilians and killed a Dutch missionary nurse.

That makes them terrorists, according to the Canada Border Services Agency, which has been fighting in court to ensure the former guerrillas do not resettle in this country.

Roughly the size of Pennsylvania, Eritrea borders Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Red Sea. Ethiopia annexed the region in 1962. Eritreans responded by launching a guerrilla war.

The ELF was the main Eritrean armed group until a split within the organization led to the creation of the leftist Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which won independence for the country in 1991. According to a Canadian immigration document, the ELF was responsible for attacks on civilians intended to "compel the Ethiopian government to listen to the demands of the ELF.... In my opinion, the above constitute acts of terror."

The report was filed in the Federal Court of Canada as part of the government's case against Shewainesch Tsegai Ugbazghi, 56, who allegedly joined the ELF at age 24 and now lives in Toronto.

"Ms. Tsegai Ugbazghi was a member of the Eritrean Liberation Front," begins a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which interviewed her. "She indicated that she was a member of the ELF from March, 1977, to December, 1992. ... She discussed her long struggle in Eritrea due to her affiliation with the ELF.

"She stated her duties included distributing written materials, participating in meetings and encouraging Eritreans to join the ELF and give financial support."

The case is one of a half-dozen before the Federal Court involving alleged ELF members, including one described by an immigration officer as having held a "leadership position within the organization."

Ms. Ugbazghi was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1952. Her father was in the ELF. She was 14 when her family arranged her marriage to the manager of a soap factory. By the time she was 24, she had seven children.

"I joined the ELF, the main opposition group, in 1977," she wrote in her refugee claim. "I used to distribute written materials; participate [in] meetings and I would encourage Eritrean people to join ELF and giving [sic] financial support to ELF."

She was arrested in 2001 after returning to Ethiopia from Germany. She was released after seven days, but was detained again in 2002, accused of being a spy. She says she was tortured and spent two weeks in hospital recovering.

That same year, she came to Canada and, in 2003, was accepted as a refugee, but when she applied for permanent residence she was turned down because of her ELF past.

A 2007 immigration report said there was no indication she was personally involved in violence, and she claimed to be unaware the ELF had committed terrorism.

"Unfortunately, pleading ignorance is not a good enough defence," the immigration officer wrote. "It cannot be argued that she was too young or too uneducated to make a decision to advance the goals of the group."

Her lawyer said the group in which she was active was "more of a support group" and that her involvement fell short of full-fledged membership.

"My involvement with the ELF consisted primarily of attending meetings once every month or two," she wrote in an affidavit. "The meetings were held on Sundays after church and were attended primarily by a small group of women.

"I went to these meetings because I was aware that the government of Ethiopia at the time was carrying on a campaign against Eritrean people within Ethiopia. Eritreans were being killed and their lives were being destroyed."

The group consisted of about 10 people and she says she had no formal position and did not carry a membership card, although she admits she gave small sums of money to buy food and clothing for the "freedom fighters."

But the CBSA determined she had been a member of an organization that engaged in terrorism, and she was therefore inadmissible to Canada. The Federal Court upheld that decision in a May 30 ruling.

"While I can't comment on the ELF cases specifically, I can tell you that CBSA's first priority is to remove those in Canada who are threats to national security or have been engaged in serious criminality," CBSA spokesman Chris Williams said.

National Post

2008-06-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

Death toll rises to 16 in Mogadishu violence
Sat 7 Jun 2008,

By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADSIHU (Reuters) - Eight more people died in Somalia's capital on Saturday, residents said, bringing the death toll in Mogadishu from two days of violence to 16.
The rubble-strewn city had been relatively peaceful this week during tentative U.N. peace talks in Djibouti between the interim government and opposition figures based in Eritrea.

But the calm was shattered on Friday when at least eight people were killed, and locals said eight more died on Saturday.
Witness Ismail Hussain said Ethiopian troops supporting the government shot dead three students in Waberi district.
"They were in school uniform but carried no books. I think the soldiers suspected them (of being insurgents)," he said.
Elsewhere, residents said five people, including two government troops, died overnight in a fierce battle in northern Mogadishu's Industrial Area.
"Government forces came early this morning and took two of the dead, who were in uniform. The other three wore ordinary clothes and are unidentified," local resident Fatuma Osman said.
In Qashadeere, a town in central Somalia, residents said another government soldier was killed by unknown assailants.
There was little progress at this week's discussions in Djibouti, with opposition officials demanding Ethiopian troops leave Somalia before face-to-face negotiations could take place.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that it sees no immediate improvement in the country's humanitarian crisis, which aid workers say may be the worst in Africa.
At least a million people have been uprooted by fighting between the government and Islamist insurgents since early last year, and their plight has been worsened by record food prices, hyper-inflation and drought.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdi Mohamed; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Charles Dick)
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

2008-06-04T04:53:00.000-07:00

From The Times

June 4, 2008

Refugees from Eritrea, a young state riven with conflict and divided by faith

Catherine Philp

It is a testament to the troubled history of Eritrea that no one seems sure exactly how many of its people have left to start new lives elsewhere.

Somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 of them came to Britain, fleeing first the long war of independence from Ethiopia, then the 1998-2000 border war with its former overlord, and now the twin evils of political and religious repression.

Even after independence in 1993, arriving Eritrean refugees were often listed simply as “Ethiopian”. When Eritrea finally won its own listing, it quickly sprinted up the Home Office’s chart of top asylum-seeking nationalities. A total of 2,195 Eritreans applied for asylum in Britain last year, a number exceeded only by asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and Iran. The vast majority who come to Britain stay in London, where they have formed close-knit communities, centred around their places of worship. The four million-strong population of Eritrea is split almost evenly between Christians, the natives of the highlands, and Muslim coastal dwellers. Arsema was a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the largest and oldest Christian Church in the country and one of the oldest in the world.

Recent religious repression has meant Eritrea is wrongly portrayed as a Muslim state that persecutes Christians. In reality, it is the Orthodox Church’s antipathy towards new evangelical groups that has inspired much of the persecution. When the Government introduced legislation in 2002, forcing all religious organisations to register, it seized the opportunity to shut down the growing number of Pentecostal churches, citing such groups as a threat to national security, along with extremist Islamist groups. Mass arrests have taken place at weddings, services and Bible-study meetings, and thousands are in jail for their political beliefs. At least four evangelical Christians have been tortured to death.

Had Arsema stayed in Eritrea, her education would have ended abruptly when she turned 18 and became eligible for compulsory military service. No one between the ages of 18 and 40, even mothers, is exempt. Eritrea’s army is proportionally the largest in the world, with a quarter of its population under arms or on active reserve.

Nearly 1,000 men and women flee the threat of service every month, over the borders with Sudan or Ethiopia. The border dispute with Ethiopia is still unresolved and tensions flare regularly, meaning that the people of Eritrea live with the constant threat of more war.

With its Government now weighing in to a proxy war in Somalia, backing the Islamic militants that Ethiopia is fighting, thousands more Eritreans soon may have to flee too.

2008-06-02T05:34:00.001-07:00

Sudan bans activities of Eritrean opposition

Monday 2 June 2008.

June 1, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has banned the activities of the Eritrean opposition in the country after years of support. The move indicates the level of good relations between Asmara and Khartoum.

The Sudanese government officially notified the representative of the Eritrean opposition in the Khartoum to stop political activities against Asmara government and close their venues.

According to Islam Today website, which is well informed about Islamist movements in the Horn of Africa, the Sudanese government also ordered the Eritrean groups to render houses and vehicles granted by the Sudanese security service.

In 1994 Eritrea severed bilateral ties accused the Islamist led government in Khartoum of harbouring the Eritrean opposition and particularly the Eritrean Islamic Jihad Movement. The two countries repaired relations at the end of 2000 thanks to Qatari mediation.

However, Eritrea continued to accuse Sudan of embracing "terrorist groups" while it maintained its support to the Sudanese opposition parties settled in Asmara since 1996.

Following the signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement by the Sudanese government and the former rebel SPLM in January 2005, Sudan and Eritrea started a timid rapprochement under the initiative of the former ally of Asmara, the SPLM. The Eritrean mediation to end the eastern Sudan conflict in October 2007 strengthened the bilateral ties between the two countries.

Since the closure of the opposition radio station, Al-Sharq in November 2006, Eritrean opposition forces moved its activities to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Actually, Sudan since 2005 refused to allow it to hold a conference in Khartoum.

However, an analyst who required anonymity said this move could mean that Sudan wants more decisive Eritrean action against the rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement who are still have some presence in Asmara.

He further said that the arrest of Abdel-Aziz Abu Ashr, the head of JEM intelligence and half brother of its chairman Khalil Ibrahim, in eastern Sudan while he was preparing to cross the border to Eritrea has a big significance for Sudanese authorities.

The opposition Eritrean Democratic Alliance consists of thirteen parties including two Islamist organizations, Eritrean Islamic Party for Justice and Development, and Eritrean Islamic Congress. The opposition alliance in its conference held in Addis Ababa last May elected Ould Cyprslasi Chairman of the Executive Office, Abdullah Mahmoud head of the Office of the leading opposition coalition.

(ST)

2008-05-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

Tiny Eritrea makes big footprint in Africa

Fri 30 May 2008

By Andrew Cawthorne

NAIROBI, May 30 (Reuters) - Most nations erect grandiose monuments to their historical triumphs.

Eritrea put up a pair of sandals.

The sculpted black metal shoes in Asmara's Shida (Sandal) Square, recalling the footwear of Eritrea's rebels, were a symbol of its remarkable 30-year independence war against its giant neighbour Ethiopia that ended with secession in 1991.

And despite its small territory and population of just 4.7 million people, Eritrea has, from independence until today, continued to make big footprints on east African politics.

To detractors, including the United States, Eritrea is a nasty oppressor at home and troublesome meddler abroad. Washington has threatened to put President Isaias Afwerki's government on its terrorism list for involvement in Somalia.

But to supporters, Isaias symbolises the Eritrea of the sandals: plucky self-reliance and noble resistance to bullying superpowers. "We are all soldiers here, ready to defend our country," one Eritrean man proudly told a visitor.

Either way, nobody underestimates Eritrea's influence at a critical time for the Horn of Africa, where the Somalia war and Eritrea-Ethiopia border dispute fuel instability and keep the region on a war footing.

"Whether one likes it or not, Eritrea is an actor to be reckoned with," Horn of Africa expert Matt Bryden said.

"The focus of Eritrean foreign policy is its dispute with Ethiopia, everything else takes a back seat or is related in some way. ... Domestic politics in Eritrea are frozen."

Isaias, 62, and Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi, 53, go back a long way. Their respective guerrilla movements played a role in bringing down Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991.

Initially feted by the West as part of a new generation of progressive African leaders, Meles and Isaias soon fell out, going to war between 1998-2000, and explaining authoritarian tendencies at home in the context of that still unresolved feud.

The United Nations fears a new war. Now both nations keep thousands of troops near their borders, oppose each other in Somalia, and make mutual accusations of internal interference.

To outsiders, it may seem absurd for two such culturally close nations to maintain such costly enmity, when their peoples are among the world's poorest.

But for them you cannot erase history.

"It's too late," Isaias told Reuters this month, stiffening when asked about possible reconciliation with Meles' Ethiopia.

"You would have to be an angel or someone like Christ."

SOMALIA FACTOR

Given guaranteed world condemnation, stretched economies, and the past enormous cost -- 70,000 died in the border war -- diplomats in the region doubt Ethiopia and Eritrea will actually return to war, though they do seem perpetually close to it.

"They're both focused at the moment on Somalia, they couldn't deal with another conflict," one African diplomat said.

Ethiopia has thousands of troops in Somalia, supporting a western-backed government against Islamist-led fighters in an insurgency increasingly seen as "Africa's Iraq".

Geographically straddling the Christian and Muslim worlds, Eritrea hosts some Somali opposition leaders and, according to a U.N. arms committee, funnels weapons to the insurgents.

Eritrea says such accusations are a smokescreen to cover up Ethiopia's "invasion" of Somalia and another example of the double standards applied by the West in the Horn.

"Trying to associate the resistance of the Somali people with terrorism is a mere fabrication," Isaias added in one of several recent interviews that seemed an attempt to explain Eritrea's positions more forcefully to an often perplexed world.

Eritrea's positive role in brokering peace for east Sudan, its desire for self-reliance not foreign handouts, and its vindication in the border dispute by an independent commission, are all wilfully overlooked by the world, Asmara argues.

"While Eritrea is right in much of what it says, its recent behaviour is an object lesson in how not to do international diplomacy," one diplomat said, citing obstacles to foreign aid groups and U.N. peacekeepers who are pulling out of the border.

Domestically, Isaias is under little pressure to fulfil pledges made at the start of his rule for elections or to enact constitutional guarantees on hold due to the Ethiopia conflict.

And his people's economic hardship is unlikely to prove an Achilles' heel, experts say, as Eritreans have endured worse, particularly in the independence war they call "The Struggle".

"This is a people accustomed to suffering and sacrifice," said one expert who, like many people when it comes to discussing Eritrea with journalists, did not want to be named.

Meanwhile, rights groups say thousands are in jail unfairly. Young people leave, illegally, by the thousands each year. And the suppression of basic freedoms make Eritrea the continent's very own "North Korea", according to one press freedom group.

"I like a lot of what the president has done for us in terms of anti-poverty strategy and rescuing national dignity," said one young Eritrean professional in a cafe.

"But now it is time to be more flexible," he added, lowering his voice. "The old men from 'The Struggle' just want to stay in power. Ethiopia is their excuse. Our leader used to walk freely round Asmara. Now you don't see him. What does that show?"

2008-05-27T01:07:00.001-07:00

Eritrea: US encourages Ethiopian Somali invension
Nairobi (HAN) May 27th, 2008- Eritrean leader has accused the United States of encouraging the Ethiopian government to occupy Somali territory, adding that US policy in the region aiming to ensure its interests first and destroy Somali people.

Isayas Afewerki In an interview broadcasted by ERT, President Isaias Afewerki charged the US with encouraging Addis Ababa to not idthrow from the Somali territory.

"This Somali problem is basically created by the US and that the TPLF regime-Ethiopian government does not possess the power to occupy Somali territory without the support and encouragement of the current Bush Administration." The ERT reported.

Eritrea and Ethiopia routinely trade accusations over their border dispute and the conflict between Somalia and Ethiopian Invension, which led border wars between the Horn of Africa neighbours in which thousands of people killed and close to I million displaced around Southern Somalia.

Eritrea rejects this, saying Ethiopia must remove all its troops from the Red Sea state’s sovereign territory before talks can happen. Afwerki also denounced the US policy in Somalia saying "Washington is dictating its sole interest on the choice of people at global level."

Eritrea to counter rising commodity prices

2008-05-25T12:53:00.001-07:00

By AFP
Published: May 25, 2008
Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki used an independence day speech Saturday to warn that this government may impose price controls and import restrictions to counter rising world commodity prices.
In a speech marking Eritrea's 17th anniversary since independence, Issaias said he was duty-bound to cushion Eritrea's 4.2 million population from the affects of rising food prices which have hit poorest nations the hardest.
"Considering the direction to which the global economy is heading, not only is the price of food items soaring but speculation suggests that their very availability could be endangered. Hence, it is imperative for food security to become the priority of priorities for us and many other poor nations," he said in a speech posted in information ministry website.
"Due evaluation will be undertaken as regards our fiscal policies, import regulations, price control, supply and provision of consumer goods, and the like, in the wake of which the necessary practical measures will be taken," he added.
In 2005, the Asmara government halted the distribution of most food aid to its poor population, saying the country was working to promote self-reliance among the population. It also refused to renew permits for aid workers.
The UN and and aid workers have said that some two-thirds of Eritrea's 4.2 million people were in need of food, but the government said the fears were "unfounded and unsubstantiated."
Asmara said that a government cash-for-work programme initiated in September 2005 and aimed at stemming dependence on relief aid was "working well."
Sharply rising global food prices have led to fears of shortages and sparked riots in many countries. Developing countries, where households spend most of their income on food, have been the worst hit.
Eritrea, a small nation on the southern edges of the Gulf of Aden, got independence from Ethiopia in 1991. Its economy was badly hit after its 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia.
© 2008 Agence France-Presse

2008-05-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

Country And Iran Sign Four Documents On Strengthening Bilateral Relations

Shabait.com (Asmara)

NEWS

21 May 2008
Posted to the web 21 May 2008
Asmara

In accordance with the agreement reached between Eritrea and the Islamic Republic of Iran to strengthen bilateral relations, four documents were signed yesterday in the presence of Presidents Isaias Afwerki and Ahmedi Nejad.

The documents focusing on trade and investment were signed by Mr. Berhane Abrehe, Minister of Finance, on the Eritrean side, and Foreign Minister Manucher Mutaki, the Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr. Hussein Samsami, and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Mohammed Eskindari, on the side of Iran.

In addition, President Isaias conducted a meeting with investors in Tehran City on May 19. In the meeting at the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, the President gave briefings on the existing investment prospects and opportunities in Eritrea in the domains of agriculture, mining, fisheries, tourism and others. He also invited the investors to personally witness the reality in Eritrea. The investors on their part expressed goodwill to invest in Eritrea.

President Isaias also yesterday visited the Razi Veterinary Research Center in Karaj, 54 km. away from Tehran City, during which he observed its activities and received briefings by experts and researchers of the Center. The Center produces different medicines and vaccination drugs for treating animal diseases, as well as anti-polio vaccination for humans.

Meanwhile, President Isaias concluded his two-day official working visit to Iran at the invitation of President Ahmedi Nejad and later arrived in Qatar last night. The President held talks with the Amir of Qatar, Hamed Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, on enhancing Eritrean-Qatari relations, as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern to both countries.

2008-05-23T01:31:00.001-07:00

Eritrea the Government vs. the People

May 22, 2008 04:24 AM

By Woldu Mikael

It is time for the Eritrean leadership to stop blaming the US or Ethiopia or any other third party for the country´s political and economic hurdles. This stance is a sign of serious weakness in leadership. It only delays the social and democratic changes, which the Eritrean people desperately need in order to begin to enjoy the benefits of their hard-won liberation almost two decades ago.

Eritrea will never be able to get out of its current dilemma if it allows its real or

perceived enemies to determine its future. The best way for Eritrea to deal with its external enemies is by working hard to establish democratic institutions, by encouraging free market economy, introducing a constitutional system of government, ending the ban on press and academic freedoms, respecting the principles of human and democratic rights, and immediately releasing or bringing to trial the thousands of jailed religious and political opposition leaders.

This writer is old enough to remember another similar African situation during the Cold War, namely that of Somalia under President Siad Barre who also ruled on the basis of how well or how badly his country was treated by the US, the USSR or neighboring Ethiopia. Like Eritrea´s President Isaias Afewerki, the Somali leader also chose absolute dictatorship as a domestic policy. Expectedly, this method of administration led to the demise of Barre in 1991. It also caused the human and social catastrophe that continues to beset Somalia.

Eritrea is not unique in Africa with unique political wisdoms to deal with possible social upheavals. Unless it changes direction, the country may not survive the aftermath of what critics see as a possible, sudden collapse of Afewerki´s authoritarianism like that of Barre´s Somalia or Mobutu Sese Sekou´s Zaire (DR Congo) in which millions have died in Africa´s worst civil wars.

It is time for Eritrea to engage in a real social and political revolution instead of wasting precious time and energy blaming others for what is wrong. The solution to the country´s external problems is the introduction of fundamental change in domestic policy focused on uplifting the social and economic wellbeing of the people. Everything goes wrong when the government's methods are oppressive and ruthless.

Iran, Eritrea presidents: Bullying powers unable to solve global crises

2008-05-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

Iranian and Eritrean presidents said on Monday that the bullying powers are incapable of solving global crises.
"Solidarity and cooperation among independent, justice seeking and peace loving countries and nations are needed for settlement of global crises and problems," said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Eritrean counterpart Isaias Afwerki in the first round of talks.The two presidents stressed that Iran and Eritrea share very close stances on different regional and global issues.They said expansion of mutual relations and cooperation will serve interests of both Iranian and Eritrean nations as well as global peace, stability and security.They declared that Iran and Eritrea enjoy extensive grounds and potentials for promotion of cooperation on economy, energy, agriculture, industry and investment.Stressing that the big powers hurl impediments on the way of different nations' independence and freedom, Ahmadinejad said, "Today, a good chance is available for expansion of relations and cooperation among independent states because conditions have totally changed."He said there is no limit for expansion of ties between Iran and Eritrea. "Cooperation with all independent states, including Eritrea, is among absolute policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran." He added that Iran is ready to share experience with different nations."A definite and comprehensive program needs to be compiled so as to use existing potential for expansion of relations between Iran and Eritrea," he added.Afwerki said that Iran has today turned into a model for different countries and nations for its resistance to the world bullying powers."So, we want to expand relations and cooperation with Iran," said the Eritrean president.He said Eritrea wants cooperation with Iran in political and economic fields as well as in the investment, mine query, energy, industry and agriculture sectors. --IRNA

Eritrea's mangroves show way to fight hunger

2008-05-21T10:57:00.001-07:00

Andrew Cawthorne Hirgigo, Eritrea
21 May 2008 08:47

Fisherman Ali Osman grins as he hauls a large, yellow-and-silver emperor fish out of the shallow Red Sea waters off Eritrea.A minute later, his friend pulls out a baby shark, sweating in the heat as he chucks it on the rocks.Other fish flop on the sea's flat surface as four young fishermen wade through the high tide to take back an impressive haul to their village, Hirgigo."If it wasn't for the mangroves, there wouldn't be so many fish," Ali says, pointing at a thick tree-line marking the border of desert and sea.The forest of newly planted mangrove trees has given fish, crabs and oysters vital shelter to feed and breed in an area where there were previously only arid mud flats.Marine life, and their human hunters, are not the only beneficiaries of an eco-project in this Horn of Africa village that has won global awards as a model for reducing poverty and feeding the hungry.Led by United States scientist and humanitarian Gordon Sato, the project has transformed the landscape in an area where there is not enough fresh water to support conventional agriculture.Leaves from the trees -- there are around a million mangroves in a 6km swathe from Hirgigo -- provide fodder for livestock. That means villagers no longer have to trek into distant highlands to feed their sheep and goats.In a further benefit of the decade-old "Manzanar" project's low-tech, self-sustaining cycle, ground fishmeal and dried mangrove seeds are also fed to protein-hungry animals."I was given three sheep, now I have 15. I was a poor man, now I am rich," said Salih Mohamud, a 60-year-old father of four, contentedly watching his animals eat.Sato's schemeNow 80, Sato first came to Eritrea in the 1980s, when war and hunger were devastating its people.Wondering how agriculture could be stimulated on the barren coastline, Sato noted that mangroves would grow in thin bands along some sections of the shore.He and his team established that the mangroves were growing in areas where rain water was washing into the sea. The rain was providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron -- elements lacking in sea water.By burying the seeds with a piece of iron and a punctured bag of fertiliser rich in nitrogen and phosphorous, the mangroves flourished. Desertification was reversed, and the life of the community was transformed."With simple experiments we are able to produce food and money for poor people where it did not seem possible. We can convert barren mud flats into mangrove forests and use these to provide the bulk of food for livestock," Sato said."In a few short years, poverty should be eradicated in this village," he told a newspaper.The project was named Manzanar after the California desert internment camp where Sato and his family spent World War II with thousands of other Japanese Americans. Then a young teenager, Sato created his own garden in the dusty earth.'Rainforests' of the seaThe Eritrean project has attracted attention abroad, picking up several development awards. Its proponents believe it can be a model for other poor nations with similar coastal geography -- such as Mauritania, Somalia, Peru or Haiti."This is a low-tech solution to hunger and poverty. In these times of food price rises and global warming, it is just what the world needs," Manzanar project manager Ammanuel Yemane, of Eritrea's Fisheries Ministry, said at the site."Ours is a small and little-known country, but we have a unique project here that can serve as a model to the world."The majority of workers on the project, planting trees and collecting the leaves, are women, who draw a monthly salary of 600 nakfa ($40), for the first time in their lives.Hirgigo was chosen due to its extreme poverty, exacerbated by two devastating attacks by the Ethiopian army. In one of the world's hottest areas, rain seldom falls, temperatures pass 40° Celsius, and the humidity drains visitors.Its coastline, once stripped bare to provide leaves for camels and firewood, now has a profusion of vegetation and is teeming with sea-life: no wonder mangrove plantations are known as the "rainforests" of the sea.Back in the water, fisherman Ali prepares to go out again in a makeshift raft. "In my father's day, the fishing here was so poor, but now look! I have enough to take home for my family to eat, and to sell to my neighbours." - Reuters

2008-05-20T00:02:00.001-07:00

Ahmadinejad: No limits to Iran-Eritrea ties
Tue, 20 May 2008 09:01:02

Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki (l) meets with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's president has assessed his Eritrean counterpart's visit to Iran as a step toward bolstering cooperation with the African state.

Speaking to reporters following his private meeting with Isaias Afwerki in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad noted that various issues of mutual interest, including joint investment in agriculture, industry and energy, and regional and international cooperation were among the topics discussed between the two presidents.

Ahmadinejad stated that Iran saw no limits to the expansion of cooperation and relations with Eritrea.

The Iranian president stressed that Iran and Eritrea share common views on regional and global issues and have similar stances towards the hegemonic powers.

Referring to his first-ever visit to Iran, the Eritrean president highlighted Iran-Eritrea relations, saying both states share common views.

Discussions over economic, regional and international cooperation can contribute to peace and stability in the region, Afwerki added.

The Eritrean president also thanked President Ahmadinejad for preparing the ground for his visit to Tehran and hailed the Iranian nation's support for Eritrean people.

AO/GM/BGH

2008-05-20T00:00:00.001-07:00

Eritrean President Arrives in Tehran

TEHRAN, May 19--Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki heading a high ranking political and economic delegation arrived in Tehran on Monday.

President Ahmadinejad officially welcomed his Eritrean counterpart at the Presidential Office.

The Eritrean president and his entourage are to confer with Iranian officials during their two-day stay in Tehran on mutual, regional and global developments.

Eritrea has a population of 4.9 million people and Islam and Christianity are two major religions in the country. Eritrea is located in northeast of African continent near Red Sea.

Eritrea which was once a colony of Italy attained its independence in 1993 from Ethiopia.

Iran's Minister of Agriculture Jihad Mohammad-Reza Eskandari welcomed Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki at Mehrabad international Airport.

Eritrea and its adjacent neighbor Djibouti have clashed twice over the border area at the southern end of the Red Sea. In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Eritrea of shelling the town of Ras Doumeira.

In 1999, Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara's arch-foe Ethiopia while Djibouti accused its neighbor of supporting Djiboutian rebels and having designs on the Ras Doumeira region. Eritrea has denied this.

Nevsun expects first production in 2010 from Eritrea gold mine

2008-05-18T05:48:00.000-07:00

By: Liezel Hill

Published on 15th May 2008

Vancouver-based Nevsun Resources is making progress at its Bisha project, in Eritrea, with first output expected in 2010, the company reported on Thursday.

The project is now expected to cost $246-million, and produce an average of 431 000 oz/y of gold and 702 000 oz/y of silver in the first two years of production.

Copper and zinc production would begin in years three and six respectively.

The firm had updated the capital cost - estimated at $196-million in a 2006 feasibility study – as a step towards arranging financing for the mine, which received the go-ahead from the company's board during the first quarter of the year.

The company was optimistic that it would not face difficulties in financing the project, after its project finance adviser received “numerous responses from both traditional sources of debt and commodity offtakers indicating strong interest to provide finance for the project”.

The engineering, procurement and construction management contractor on the project, Senet, had been working on preliminary and detailed engineering design work for the project since mid-2007, and had included a number of design improvements on the plan envisaged by the feasibility study, Nevsun reported.

The tailings storage area had been relocated to a "more favourable terrain", with an additional plastic lining added to the design, and the gold processing plant has been redesigned from a carousel carbon-in-pulp to a standard carbon-in-leach circuit.

The company had also ordered key long-lead items – the SAG and ball mills – from ThyssenKrupp Engineering. The equipment was expected to be installed at the Bisha site by the end of December 2009.

"Assuming a normal progression with finance, the company anticipates commencement of production in 2010 and looks forward to the continued full support of the Eritrean government," the firm said.

Nevsun was ordered by the Eritrean government to halt exploration at Bisha in 2004 and then allowed to resume operations in the country in early 2005, after agreeing to allow the government to buy a 30% interest in the project, on top of the free 10% interest it receives according to the country's law.

Shares in Nevsun rose 2,63% on Thursday, to C$1,56 a share by 15:57 in Toronto.

Eritrea considers 5 more foreign mining licences

2008-05-18T05:46:00.001-07:00

By Andrew Cawthorne and Jack Kimball
Posted 16 May 2008 @ 06:01 am EST

Eritrea will decide thisyear on five more applications for mining exploration licences from companiesin South Africa, Canada and China, the energy and mines minister said onFriday.

"The interest is verygood, from many quarters," Tesfai Ghebreselassie told Reuters of thegold-rich Horn of African nation's fledgling minerals' industry.

"Decisions will betaken soon, during this year."

He did not name the fivenew companies. But if their licences are approved, they will join six othercompanies from Canada, China and Australia already exploring for gold andindustrial metals in Eritrea.

Tesfai also reassuredinvestors there would be no repeat of a temporary freeze on mining work in 2004that hurt some firms' stock prices.

"That was a one-off,exceptional situation," he said, explaining the halt was to allow Eritrea develop regulations to buy an extra10 percent government stake in all projects.

Current mining laws give Eritrea the right to a 10 percent freestake, and a further 30 percent purchased at market prices, in mining ventures.

"It was damaging to anextent," Tesfai said of the 2004 freeze, which was lifted in early 2005."But it's a problem behind us, and nothing of that sort will happenagain."

In charge of the ministrysince its start in 1993, Tesfai previously studied physical sciences in Poland and was a member of thepro-independence rebel movement that brought the government to power in 1991after a 30-year war.

That conflict, followed bya 1998-2000 border war with Ethiopia, has kept big mining companies waryover Eritrea.

The country's most advancedproject, run by Canada's Nevsun Resources Ltd, shouldstart producing by the end of 2009, the minister said. Nevsun expects its Bishaproject to produce around 1 million ounces of gold, 750 million pounds ofcopper, and 1.1 billion pounds of zinc over a 10-year life.

Tesfai said Eritrea had made a $20 million advancepayment for a 40 percent stake in Bisha, and was working out what participationit would have in other projects.

"We want the firstcontract with Nevsun to be a model. Both parties have to be comfortable,"he said.

"LAW-ABIDING"

Production at the Zaraproject, run by Australia's Sub-Sahara Resources, and the Asmara belt, headed by Canada's Sunridge, should start soon afterBisha, he added.

Zara is mainly a golddeposit, while the Asmara area has metals like zinc andcopper, as well as some gold.

"There are veryexciting discoveries made so far," Tesfai said.

Apart from somesmall-scale, artisan gold-mining -- which the minister estimated at about halfa tonne a year -- and minor extraction by Italians during the colonial era, Eritrea's mineral potential is virtuallyunexploited.

Tesfai did not give overallreserve estimates, but said the sector, if managed carefully, could play a bigrole in alleviating poverty and helping development in the nation of 4.5million people that is one of the world's poorest.

"We have to wisely usewhat we have," he said, adding that as well as direct revenues, Eritrea would benefit from employmentpossibilities on projects and in the service sector as the industry developed.

Investors should not worryabout political risk in Eritrea given the legal resolution -- or"virtual demarcation" -- of its border dispute with Ethiopia, and the government's commitment toequitable partnership with foreign firms, he said.

"Eritrea is a law-abiding country. There isnothing bad or illegal we have done," he said. "The important thingis making the rules of the game fair and transparent, which is just what we aredoing."

Tesfai also noted Eritrea's offshore hydrocarbon potentialunder its Red Seawaters. "There is justification to anticipate potential," he said,even though past drilling had come up dry. "This is one of the leastexploited regions."

(For full Reuters Africacoverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit:http://africa.reuters.com/ )

(Editing by PeterBlackburn)

Corporate prospectors look for gold in Eritrea

2008-05-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

Andrew Cawthorne and Jack Kimba

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Eritrea will decide this year on five more applications for mining exploration licences from companies in South Africa, Canada and China, the energy and mines minister said on Friday.

"The interest is very good, from many quarters," Tesfai Ghebreselassie said of the nation's fledgling minerals' industry.

"Decisions will be taken soon, during this year."

He did not name the five new companies. But if their licences are approved, they will join six other companies from Canada, China and Australia already exploring for gold and industrial metals in Eritrea.

Tesfai also reassured investors there would be no repeat of a temporary freeze on mining work in 2004 that hurt some firms' stock prices.

"That was a one-off, exceptional situation," he said, explaining the halt was to allow Eritrea to develop regulations to buy an extra 10 per cent government stake in all projects.

Current mining laws give Eritrea the right to a 10 per cent free stake, and a further 30 per cent purchased at market prices, in mining ventures.

"It was damaging to an extent," Tesfai said of the 2004 freeze, which was lifted in early 2005. "But it's a problem behind us, and nothing of that sort will happen again."

The country's most advanced project, run by Canada's Nevsun Resources Ltd, should start producing by the end of 2009, the minister said.

2008-05-13T05:48:00.001-07:00

Eritrean opposition elect new leader, vow to oust Asmara regime

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — A coalition of Eritrean opposition groups elected a chairman over the weekend, ending a long-running leadership dispute that had crippled efforts to topple the Asmara regime, officials said Sunday.

The Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), made up of 13 opposition groups, elected Tewolde Gebreselassie as its new leader on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"Following agreements reached among members, we will now be able to step up our efforts against the government in Eritrea," Tewolde told a press conference Sunday.

"We will enhance our activities on the diplomatic front as well as holding demonstrations and propaganda (campaigns)."

The EDA had failed to elect a new leader during last year's conference in Addis Ababa because of tribal rivalry.

The coalition is also hoping to strengthen ties with Eritrea's large diaspora, which is nearly the same size as the entire population at home.

The Eritrean government relies heavily on the hundreds of millions of dollars in remittances it receives each year as budgetary support from its citizens abroad.

"The diaspora has urged us for a different outcome. They are against (President) Issaias (Afeworki) but they aren't with us because of our differences," Noor Idris, head of an opposition party, told AFP.

"They are seeking our unity because the tyranny there is committing abuses," he added.

Mohammed Noor Ahmed, another opposition official, added: "If we can mobilise our people, there will surely be uprisings. The Eritrean people definitely want to overthrow the government because of its violations."

Only a few of the group's members have armed wings to face Issaias' 300,000-strong army, but they claim to have carried out sporadic hit-and-run attacks inside Eritrea.

Their leaders admit to receiving support from Ethiopia, Eritrea's arch-rival.

Authorities in Asmara generally charge that opposition movements meeting in Ethiopia have no legitimacy and are nothing more than stooges of the regime in Addis Ababa.

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia and won its independence after a protracted 30-year struggle in 1993.

The two Horn of Africa neighbours fought a devastating 1998-2000 war over the precise path of their frontier, claiming at least 70,000 lives. The row remains unresolved.

Djibouti president says in 'tricky' standoff with Eritrea

2008-05-09T12:32:00.000-07:00



Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh

AddIS ABABA (AFP) — Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh said his army is in a dangerous border stand-off with neighbouring Eritrea's military, according to a release issued Friday.

"There is a hostile action which poses real problems because it is a blatant violation of our territorial integrity, of our borders," the president said in the statement.

"We are now in a rather tricky situation because both armies are facing each other. However we have noted that there, so far, has not been any intention on the part of our neighbours to wage war against us," he said.

Djibouti has accused Eritrean forces of digging trenches on both sides of the border, infringing several hundred metres (yards) on to Djiboutian territory.

Asmara denied the accusation, following which the Arab League's Peace and Security Council held an emergency session, at Djibouti's request, and demanded that a fact-finding mission be despatched to the border.

But Guelleh warned that should international arbitration fail to settle the issue and allow the Eritrean presence to remain, Djibouti would take firm action.

"We will be compelled to defend our country and our national sovereignty, that is my duty," he said.

Djibouti and Eritrea have clashed twice over the border area situated at the southern end of the Red Sea.

In April 1996 they almost went to war after a Djibouti official accused Asmara of shelling the town of Ras Doumeira.

And in 1999, Eritrea accused Djibouti of siding with Asmara's arch-foe Ethiopia while Djibouti accused its neighbour of supporting Djiboutian rebels and having designs on the Ras Doumeira region, which Eritrea denied.

Eritrea denies Djibouti war claim

2008-05-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

Eritrea has denied that it has any problems with Djibouti, which accuses it of amassing troops on their border.

Earlier this week, Djibouti appealed to the UN Security Council to intervene in order to prevent a conflict over the border village of Doumeira.

In a letter to the UN, Djibouti alleged Eritrea had published new maps showing Doumeira as Eritrean territory.

Grirma Asmerom, Eritrea's ambassador to the European Union, told the BBC he knew nothing about the letter.

Since Eritrea gained independence in 1993, the country has been involved in two serious conflicts over territory with its neighbours.

'Real threat'

BBC Somali Service editor Yusuf Garaad Omar says Djibouti's interpretation of events is alarming.

He said Doumeira is a small border village of little strategic importance home to ethnic Afar people.

"The sudden growth of troops calls for real intervention by the international community because we see it as a real threat," Djibouti's ambassador to the UN Roble Olhaye told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

"We wanted to urge the Security Council to take all necessary measures to prevent any kind of conflagration because the prospect of a real war is there."

But Mr Asmerom said he was bemused by such accusations.

"There is no such problem with Djibouti; we have never had a problem with Djibouti," he said.

In 1995, Eritrea clashed with Yemen over the Hanish islands in the Red Sea - one of the world's major shipping lanes.

Three years later, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-year war over the border town of Badme, in which tens of thousands of people died.

Djibouti and Eritrea clashed twice over their mutual border in the 1990s and nearly went to war.

Both US and France have military bases in Djibouti.

2008-05-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

Djibouti: Eritrea military buildup on border a provocation

By EDITH M. LEDERER –

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The tiny port nation of Djibouti, a key U.S. ally in the Horn of Africa, has urged the U.N. Security Council to take immediate action to prevent a conflict with its northern neighbor Eritrea.

In a letter to the council president circulated Tuesday, Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said Eritrea has launched a major military buildup on their border overlooking critical Red Sea shipping lanes.

He accused Eritrea of carrying out "an undisguised and naked provocation against my country's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"We call on the council to deploy urgently all necessary measures toward preventing yet another conflict, under any guise, in a region long ravaged by mayhem, bloodshed and destruction," Youssouf said.

More than 1,200 U.S troops are stationed in Djibouti, which hosts the base for an anti-terrorism task force in the Horn of Africa. France also has a base in Djibouti, its former colony.

Youssouf said he was bringing the Eritrean buildup to the council's attention because there has been a progressive growth of Eritrean troops at our common border since February 2008."

Djibouti has responded by sending troops to the border as well, Youssouf said.

He said contacts with Eritrea at the highest level "have failed to elicit any credible response."

Eritrea's U.N. Mission said no one was immediately available to respond to the foreign minister.

Youssouf recalled that in 1996 Eritrea floated "a false map ... that incorporated the same northern border area into its territory, thus unilaterally redrawing the established border."

Youssouf said Djibouti suspects the motivation behind Eritrea's deployment is the strategic location and panoramic view of the critical Red Sea shipping lanes from the border.