Shameful and Biased HRW Report to Promote Anti-Eritreanism for Fake Ethiopia’s Amhara Gangsters

I have always expressed great consideration for the work carried out by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), the leading humanitarian NGO that draws attention to unspeakable crimes perpetrated in various parts of the world. And I have extensively republished and commented on their excellent Reports that help mobilize the public opinion allover the world for the persecuted, the oppressed and the targeted.

It is high time that I disagree with them and I denounce a Report recently published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) with focus on Eritrea.

Eritrea is a relatively new country located in the wider Red Sea – Eastern Africa region. Last year, I claimed that the Afar inhabitants of Eritrea deserve and need an Afar Red Sea University at Assab. Several Eritreans disagreed with me, and many Afars (from Abyssinia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and the Diaspora) supported the idea for a Cultural – Historical – Academic Foundation of the Afar Nation.

Certainly, it would be comical for anyone to pretend that Eritrea is the world’s most exemplary state; but even the government of Eritrea does not claim something of the sort.

It is well known that Eritrea, in the span of its 18-year long existence, managed to enter in war with almost all neighboring countries, namely Abyssinia (fallaciously renamed Ethiopia), Sudan, Djibouti, and Yemen.

Is this an indicator of bellicosity and belligerence?

No, it is not.

Historically viewed, the aforementioned events merely testify to the impossibility of the existence of the other, criminal and tyrannical, states that do not reflect any local and indigenous nations’ need but they constitute calamitous colonial fabrications geared by England and France in order to plunge Eastern Africa into underdevelopment, tyranny, mass extermination, starvation and Genocides – as they indisputably did. New country, Eritrea certainly disturbed the evil order pre-imposed in all the aforementioned neighboring countries.

Sudan? We all heard about Darfur and South Sudan. We are hearing now about Kordofan, Jebel Marra, Jebel Nuba, the Bejas of the Eastern mountains and the coastland, and the Nubians of the Sudanese North. Fake Pan-Arabist Sudan is a Cemetery – of Nations.

Djibouti? Due to the French mass media, and their vicious misinformation that they have spread over many decades, Djibouti’s Darfur has been kept under silence, and few know about it. This does not mean that it does not exist; it is called Afar. The Afar minority of Djibouti have been particularly and repeatedly persecuted – in the same way Furis have been massacred in Sudan’s Darfur.

Yemen? The country is another Cemetery of Nations, ethno-religious groups and tribal communities. The Shia in the North, the Mahri speaking communities in Mahrah, the Suqutris, the South Yemenites, and many royalists reject the Pan-Arabist pestilence that has been imposed by the English, the Americans and the Saudis in order to prevent the rightful Yemenite annexation of Najran, Yemenite territory illegally occupied by the UK-US promoted Saudi pseudo-Islamic terrorists.

Abyssinia? The world’s most evil colonial fabrication whereby under Amhara – Tigray Monophysitic (Tewahedo) tyranny many African nations and ethno-religious groups have been exposed to physical, cultural, and spiritual genocide, unprecedented racism, inhuman odium, heinous persecution, indisputable terror, and appalling torture.

HRW has certainly focused on some of the aforementioned problematic cases. And it is only normal for a humanitarian NGO to castigate violations of Human Rights in any place. But there must be a measure, a rule and a logic.

What is the point of involving Eritrea’s foreign policy in a Report that purportedly focuses on …… repression in Eritrea?

None.

It simply shows that there has been a certain pretext for which the Report has been prepared. And a bias.

When nations face extinction in the neighboring tyranny of Abyssinia - that must be broken down to 12 different states - it is impermissible to forget them for the sake of some US institutions that might desire to pursue their Anti-Eritreanism further on, by using one HRW Report, this time on Eritrea.

Where is a HRW Report on the Shekacho?

Where is a HRW Report on the Sidama?

Where is a HRW Report on the Kaffa?

Where is a HRW Report on the Hadiyas?

Where is a HRW Report on Abyssinia’s Afars?

Where is a HRW Report on the Oromos?

Where is a HRW Report on the Kambaatas?

Where is a HRW Report on the Gideos?

Where is a HRW Report on the Nuer?

Where is a HRW Report on the Anuak?

Where is a HRW Report on the Bertas?

Where is a HRW Report on the Gumuz?

Where is a HRW Report on the Shinashas?

Where is a HRW Report on the Wolayitas?

Where is a HRW Report on the Hamtagnas?

Yet, all these nations are threatened with physical, spiritual and cultural genocide. They all deserve at least one, separate, HRW Report, and I am confident that the righteous HRW researchers will just reject the villainous guidance that the racist, criminal Amhara Pan-Ethiopianist gangsters will seek to shamelessly provide them with.

The excellent HRW Report on Ogaden, published last year, did help greatly the tyrannized Ogadenis, but it is not enough when it comes to the world’s most appalling and most racist tyranny, Abyssinia.

I will republish the HRW Report and criticize, comment and analyze parts of it. I will also voluntarily publish comments and analyses, denunciations and criticisms by Eritreans and others who find it incredible for the leading humanitarian NGO HRW to waste resources on Eritrea and disregard the aforementioned nations that have been invaded, subjugated and forced to remain within the Amhara Abyssinian (Pseudo-Ethiopian) Hell – until their extinction.

Service for Life - State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/04/16/service-life-0

April 16, 2009

This 95-page report documents serious human rights violations by the Eritrean government, including arbitrary arrest, torture, appalling detention conditions, forced labor, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and worship. It also analyzes the difficult situation faced by Eritreans who succeed in escaping to other countries such as Libya, Sudan, Egypt, and Italy.

Table of Contents
Service for Life
Map of Eritrea
Summary
Methodology
Recommendations
Part 1: Background
Part 2: Human Rights Violations
Part 3: The Experience of Eritrean Refugees
Part 4: Eritrea’s Legal Obligations
Part 5: Responding to Eritrea’s Crisis
Acknowledgements
Annex: A List of Known Detention Facilities in Eritrea

Service for Life
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/04/15/service-life-0

State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea

Map of Eritrea

Summary

Methodology

Recommendations

To the government of Eritrea

To the United States and the European Union

To donors: the European Commission, the World Bank, and UN agencies

To the African Union

To countries hosting Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers, in particular Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Malta, Israel, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, and the UK

To the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Part 1: Background

Historical Context

Eritrea’s Regional Role

The Humanitarian Situation

Part 2: Human Rights Violations

Overview

Arbitrary Arrest, Detentions, and "Disappearances"

Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment

Prison Conditions

Extra-Judicial Killings and Deaths in Custody

Indefinite Forced Conscription

Forced Labor

Restrictions on the Freedoms of Expression, Conscience, and Movement

Part 3: The Experience of Eritrean Refugees

Lack of Protection and Forced Return of Refugees

Coercion of Eritreans in Exile

Part 4: Eritrea’s Legal Obligations

Eritrean Laws and Constitution

Eritrea’s International Obligations

Forced Labor

Part 5: Responding to Eritrea’s Crisis

Eritrean Foreign Policy

Acknowledgements

Annex: A List of Known Detention Facilities in Eritrea

Map
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/82280/section/2

Summary
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/82280/section/3

There was jubilation among Eritreans when Eritrea formally gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a bloody 30-year war. Sixteen years later the dreams that the independent state would be democratic and rights-adhering lie in tatters. Eritrea has become one of the most closed and repressive states in the world. Thousands of political prisoners are detained in prisons and underground cells; there is no independent civil society; all independent media outlets have been shut down; the head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church is in incommunicado detention; and evangelical Christians are rounded up and tortured on a regular basis.

President Isayas Afewerki, who led Eritrea through much of its extraordinary struggle for independence, now uses an unresolved border dispute with Ethiopia to keep Eritrea on a permanent war footing. For much of the adult male and female population, the mandatory 18-month period of national service extends for years, with a large proportion involuntarily serving in the Eritrean army. People under the age of 50 can rarely obtain exit visas to leave the country. Those who try and flee without documentation run the risk of imprisonment and torture—or being shot at the border. The Eritrean government collectively punishes the families of those who desert from national service with exorbitant fines or imprisonment. Despite these risks, Eritrea is now among the highest refugee producing nations in the world.

This report documents the Eritrean government’s responsibility for patterns of serious human rights violations: arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, forced labor, and inhuman conditions in detention; rigid restrictions on freedom of movement and expression; and religious persecution. It also analyzes abuses related to the practice of indefinite conscription into national and military service, the lack of any provision for conscientious objection, and the risks facing refugees even after they flee.

During the first few years of independence the outlook was not so bleak. Independent media flourished, the army began demobilizing some of those who had fought during the long war of liberation from Ethiopia, and in 1997 the National Assembly ratified a new constitution that enshrined democratic principles and fundamental human rights.

Then in 1998 a border dispute with Ethiopia flared up into an extraordinarily bloody and costly two-year war. Elections were postponed, mass conscription was re-instated, and tens of thousands died before the internationally mediated Algiers Agreement brought hostilities to an end in 2000. This provided for the establishment of a neutral Eritrea-Ethiopia Border Commission to determine the border by binding arbitration.

After the war, many expected the stalled democratic transition to revive. Instead, in September 2001, leading members of the government who publicly called for substantial reforms including "free and fair elections" were rounded up and detained. Mass arrests of journalists and perceived opponents of the regime occurred simultaneously, along with the closure of all independent media organizations. As of March 2009, the whereabouts and condition of most of the individuals detained in 2001 remain unknown.

Since 2001 widespread systematic human rights violations have become routine, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of worship, and freedom of movement.

In 2002, with the announcement of the Warsai Yekalo Development Campaign (WDYC), a national social and economic development effort, the statutory national service of 18 months was indefinitely extended so that all male and female adults must be available to work at the direction of the state in various capacities until the age of 40—now often 50 or 55 in practice.

Indefinite national service starts with six months of military training followed by 12 months’ deployment either in military service or working for some other government ministry at the direction of the Ministry of Defense. Some are also drafted to work for the companies owned and operated by the military or ruling party elites that dominate the economy.

National service conscripts are paid a survival wage that is insufficient to meet the basic needs of those with families. Indefinite conscription is massively unpopular and the repressive apparatus required to enforce the policy is national in scope. Since 2003 all secondary school students must complete their final 12th grade year inside Sawa military camp, effectively starting their military training.

A national network of jails and detention facilities holds those who try and avoid national service alongside political prisoners and those imprisoned solely for their religious beliefs. Torture, cruel, and degrading treatment, and forced labor are routine. Detention conditions are inhumane with detainees often held in underground cells or in shipping containers in dangerously high temperatures.

Members of minority Christian churches have faced particular persecution under the Eritrean government. Conscripts found reading the bible or praying in the training camps are detained and often tortured. Police and military regularly round up suspected Christians and raid prayer meetings in private homes. Thousands are now behind bars.

Those who try and flee the country are imprisoned or risk being shot on sight at the border. Refugees who fled to Malta, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, and other countries and were forcibly repatriated have faced detention and torture upon return to Eritrea. Given the pervasive human rights violations in Eritrea and the risk of torture faced by those who are returned, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has advised against all deportations to Eritrea, including of rejected asylum seekers. All refoulement of Eritrean refugees should end.

Eritrea’s tense relations with Ethiopia continue to be the dominant factor in Eritrean foreign policy and an important element in domestic dynamics. Although both governments agreed in advance to accept the decision of the border commission, Ethiopia reneged and failed to cede control over the village of Badme—awarded to Eritrea in the commission’s final decision—or to allow physical demarcation of the border to proceed without further "dialogue." Eritrea uses this unresolved dispute to try to justify the mass militarization of society and the suspension of fundamental rights.

Since independence Eritrea has had hostile relations and/or border disputes with all of its neighbors—Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, as well as Yemen across the Red Sea. It has regularly supported armed opposition against governments with whom it has disputes, a common regional strategy also used by Ethiopia and Sudan. Eritrea and Ethiopia’s proxy war in neighboring Somalia has been particularly damaging. Eritrea’s support for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and Ethiopian rebel movements was one factor in Ethiopia’s intervention in Somalia in 2006 to oust the ICU and support the Somali Transitional Federal Government. That intervention provoked an increasingly brutal conflict in which thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million people displaced from Mogadishu. Since the conflict escalated, numerous countries, including Eritrea and Ethiopia, have violated the UN arms embargo on Somalia. Eritrea has helped to strengthen armed groups who have committed serious abuses against civilians, including the militant Islamist al-Shabaab.

With a new administration establishing itself in Washington, DC, and the European Union entering a new phase of development assistance, key governments have an important opportunity to try to resolve the downward spiral in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea plays a critical role in the region and. The United Nations, African Union members, the United States, and the EU should take urgent, coordinated action to defuse regional tensions including demanding meaningful steps towards the restoration of the rule of law in Eritrea and an end to the Eritrean government’s brutal treatment of its own citizens.