Monday, December 31, 2012

Hundreds protest in Tel Aviv, demand Eritrean migrants deportations


Calling for the deportation of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants from Israel after an Eritrean man allegedly raped an 83-year-old Tel Aviv woman last weekend, hundreds of demonstrators marched from the city’s Hatikvah neighborhood to its central bus station Monday night.
South Tel Aviv residents protest the presence of African immigrants in May
The event, called “Blowing up the Silence,” was organized by MK Michael Ben Ari, of the newly formed Otzma Leyisrael party.
A heavy police presence watched over the demonstrators, who operated under the slogan “Getting Sodom (and Gomorrah) out of Tel Aviv and returning it to Africa,” called on the prime minister to “go home,” chanted “Sudanese to Sudan and leftists with them,” and said “Eli Yishai has failed,” according to Walla News.
Ben Ari told the crowd that southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods had been taken over by “infiltrators” saying, “When there are no police and there is no government, only we can stop the next rape.”
Interior Minister Eli Yishai earlier called on the justice and foreign ministries to give him the authority to deport all remaining African migrants, whom he and other right-wing politicians consistently refer to as “infiltrators.”
“This shocking rape illustrates the lost sense of security Israeli citizens feel in areas with a high concentration of infiltrators,” Yishai said. On Monday it was reported that Yishai’s Shas party had created a campaign video that focused on the ostensible danger posed to Israeli society by migrants.The rape apparently took place over several hours in the 83-year-old woman’s apartment. The suspect allegedly bolted after a member of the woman’s family came for a visit and caught him in the act.

Police search for husband of murdered Eritrean


An Eritrean woman was found murdered in an apartment near Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station on Sunday, and police have designated her husband as the main suspect in the killing and are currently searching for him.
The murder took place at a building at 20 Solomon Street, on a strip thick with brothels, drug dens and African migrant bars. Inside the building, light blue hallways lead to small, divided apartments housing African migrants, typically in cramped conditions.It was in one of these apartments on the third floor that police found the woman on Sunday afternoon, in critical condition shortly before she passed away. A paramedic from the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization, who was helping collect the woman’s body, said she was found with a single fatal stab wound, the knife still embedded in her neck. He added that there were no children or any other people living in the apartment with the young couple, who Tel Aviv police said were in their 20s.
In the early evening Sunday, a lone Sudanese man who had just returned from work sat on a six-pack of water in one of the building’s stairwells, waiting to be allowed up to his apartment on the floor where the murder took place.
Groups of African migrants huddled outside the murder scene, watching the forensic officers in their white sterile gowns walk in and out of the building, speaking in Tigrinya and Arabic. When asked if he was at the building when the murder took place, an African man standing outside the building began pointing at a streetwalker, saying she had short-changed him earlier in the day, before eventually adding that he knew nothing of the killing.
The incident was one in an almost daily series of such violent acts between African migrants on the strip, according to Yossi Natani, a 60-yearold Israeli who owns a kiosk in the building next door.
Natani, who said he has run the store for 20 years, said that “every night something happens, they get drunk and fight with each other every night, throw bottles everywhere – its always like this.”
Natani said he was not at work at the time of the murder, and that he only came in at 3 p.m. to work until 11.
He added that investigators had been in and out of the building all day, and that in the late afternoon they took surveillance video from his store, which has seven cameras set up in and around its perimeter.
A source at the Foreign Ministry said that in cases like the one Sunday, after police are finished with their pathological investigation of the body, the ministry will contact the Eritrean mission in Tel Aviv to arrange for the return of the remains.

Eritrean migrant arrested for rape of 83-year-old woman

on Monday 30th Dec.. Israel police  released information about a brutal rape that took place in the area of Tel Aviv's Old Central Bus Station over a week ago. An Eritrean national in his twenties was arrested on Monday a week ago on suspicion that he raped an 83-year-old woman in the yard of her home on Erlinger Street. The two-hour ordeal ended when her nephew came to visit her. The old woman is currently in stable condition. The suspect will be served with an indictment in the coming days.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Detained Eritrean refugees appeal to Israelis, rights groups for aid

The letter below was written by Eritrean refugees, held in administrative detention in Saharonim prison. Under the Prevention of Infiltration Law, they can be imprisoned for three years or more. 
Saharonim and Ketsiot prisons (photo: Noam Sheizaf)

(To whom it may concern):
Subject: The judgement against Eritrean refugees in Israel
As we all know, it has been years since we were compelled to leave our country as a result of a deteriorating economic and political crisis. We came to Israel to escape intolerable levels of repression and human rights violations in our country. However, we are now concerned to learn that the government of Israel is preparing to implement a policy which forces asylum seekers to remain in prison camps for three years, or forcibly return them to their country of origin. We are also psychologically depressed by the prolonged stay in prisons. The reasons for our depression are as follows:
1. Most of us were serving in the army for many years without pay. Many have went through untold suffering in prison centers, have sustained some injuries during the war, and cannot tolerate hardships any longer.
2. Some of us are underage children who fled compulsory military conscription at schools and are displaced accordingly.
3. Some of us are over the military conscription age and were civil servants who refused to be conscripted on account of our age and were accordingly imprisoned or dismissed from jobs. We were forced to leave our country in search of safe have where we would be to take care of our families.
4. We also have women some of whom are mothers. Others have left their children in Eritrea and many of them are wasting their reproductive and marriageable age in the prison camps.
We came to Israel after crossing the borders of three countries and overcoming incredible levels of hardship. The imminent decision of a three-year forced stay in prison camps or forcible return to Eritrea comes as distressful news to us. We have endured in the past tremendous levels of hardship, which includes dreadful torture and ransom of tens of thousands of U.S. dollars by smugglers and human traffickers. Some of us have left their children in Eritrea and are being forced here to live in detached prison camps cordoned by walls and gates.
We are all refugees like all other refugees in other countries and those who have entered Israel previously. We haven’t done anything to be condemned for such kind of treatment and segregation. What did we do to be detained in cordoned sections? The situation is unbearable and is causing upon us a great deal of psychological depression. We beg concerned government bodies in Israel to find a solution to our predicament. If the government of Israel cannot find a solution to our problem, we kindly appeal for our request to be communicated to the relevant organs of the United Nations, and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others.
Signed,
Eritrean refugees in Israeli refugee prison camps

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Sudan detains two Eritrean journalists

Two Eritrean opposition journalists in Sudan have been detained by Khartoum's intelligence service, an Eritrean opposition source said on Tuesday. Abdalal Mahmoud of the Eritrean Centre for Media Services (www.adoulis.com) and Haroun Adam, who has also written for the foreign-based opposition website, have been held since Monday, according to the Khartoum-based opposition source.
Snapshot of  Eritrean Center for media  homepage
"We are very concerned about the well-being of Abdalal Mahmoud Hiabu and Haroun Adam," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "We call on authorities to immediately disclose their whereabouts, legal status, and condition."
The journalists' colleagues and family members told CPJ that the two journalists have not been seen since being summoned Monday to Sudan's National Intelligence Security Services for an investigation. Nassir Mahmoud Hiabu said he received a call from his brother, Abdalal, who told him that he was inside a police car and that his phone was about to be confiscated. Abdalal's phone has been turned off since. Nassir has tried to inquire about his brother's situation, but his whereabouts are unknown.
Jamal Osman Hamad, editor-in-chief of Eritrean Centre for Media Services' website, told CPJ that both journalists, who contribute news and opinion pieces to the site, are in Sudan seeking asylum. The Centre analyzes Eritrean news coverage, especially news that relates to the Eritrean opposition; translates it into Arabic; and publishes a biweekly online bulletin and a monthly publication targeting the Eritrean diaspora in Sudan.
Eritrea is the most censored country in the world, according to CPJ research, and dozens of Eritrean journalists have fled into exile over the past decade, many of them to Sudan, where they struggle to fulfill basic needs and risk harassment, detention, and deportation.
Hamad was himself arrested by the Sudanese government for three months last year because of his writing on Eritrea. He was held incommunicado for eight weeks, and no charges were ever filed. Hamad's detention took place less than a week after an official visit to Sudan by Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki in October 2011.
On October 17, 2011, over 300 Eritreans were expelled from Sudan to their home country without their cases being referred to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information based in Cairo, Egypt. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' 2012 country profile on Sudan confirmed that asylum seekers there are at risk of forced return.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

UN : Eritrea must cooperate in human rights dialogue,

The Government of Eritrea must cooperate with an international mandate to provide “an objective, fair and impartial picture” of the human rights situation in the Horn of Africa country, a United Nations independent expert urged today.
High Commissioner António Guterres with Eritrean refugees in Shagarab I camp
“I hope that the Eritrean Government would consider the mandate of the Special Rapporteur as an opportunity to start a fresh and constructive dialogue on human rights issues that have been raised by the international community and other stakeholders,” Beedwantee Keetharuth, the newly-appointed Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea, stated in a news release.
According to multiple reports, the human rights situation in Eritrea is generally viewed as being poor, with allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as widespread constraints on freedom of speech. In one example dating to early September of this year, the UN condemned the deaths of three Eritrean media workers who had been kept in a prison camp for over a decade.
In July this year, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in which it strongly condemned the continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights committed by the Eritrean authorities, the severe restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression, and the forced conscription of citizens for indefinite periods. At the same time, it decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the matter.
In keeping with her mandate, Ms. Keetharuth, a lawyer from Mauritius with extensive experience in monitoring and documenting human rights violations across Africa, is expected to present her report on Eritrea’s human rights situation to the Council in June 2013.
Ahead of that, she had requested meetings with the country’s diplomats in Geneva and London at the start of her mandate this past November. She noted, however, that the meetings had yet to take place.
“The aim was to introduce myself and present my vision of the mandate in a spirit of openness, as well as to explore avenues for cooperation,” she continued. “I have now requested to travel to Eritrea in early 2013.”
In the news release, Ms. Keetharuth expressed faith that the Eritrean Government would ultimately view her mandate as an opportunity to carefully address the country’s “compliance with its human rights obligations as contained in international treaties to which the country is a party.”
In the meantime, the UN expert added that she would engage with other parties affected by human rights issues in the Eritrea, including those who consider themselves to be the victims of alleged human rights violations, human rights defenders and other civil society actors.
Independent experts, or special rapporteurs such as Ms. Keetharuth, are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Israel operating spy bases in Eritrea

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Eritrea Become 4th Leading Jailer of Journalists

CPJ executive director Joel Simon
“We are living in an age when anti-state charges and ‘terrorist’ labels have become the preferred means that governments use to intimidate, detain, and imprison journalists,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Criminalizing probing coverage of inconvenient topics violates not only international law, but impedes the right of people around the world to gather, disseminate, and receive independent information.”

The three leading jailers of journalists were Turkey (49), Iran (45), and China (32), where imprisonments followed sweeping crackdowns on criticism and dissent, making use of anti-state charges in retaliation for critical coverage. This pattern is present in most of the countries in the census. In Turkey, the world’s worst jailer, authorities held dozens of Kurdish reporters and editors on terror-related charges and other journalists for allegedly plotting against the government. Following an extensive case-by-case review in 2012, CPJ confirmed journalism-related reasons in numerous cases previously unlisted by the organization, thus significantly raising the country’s total.

CPJ’s 2012 census of imprisoned journalists identified 232 writers, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of 53 from 2011 and the highest since the organization began the survey in 1990. The 2012 figure surpasses the previous record of 185 journalists imprisoned in 1996, underlining a disturbing trend of conflating coverage of opposition groups or sensitive topics with terrorism, evident since 2001.

Rounding out the top five jailers were Eritrea, with 28 journalists in prison, and Syria with 15, the worst abusers of the rule of law. None of the journalists in jail in either country have been publicly charged with a crime or brought before a court or trial. In line with findings over the past five years, a little more than half (118) of those held globally were online journalists and more than a third were freelancers.

“With a record number of journalists imprisoned around the world, the time has come to speak out,” said Simon. “We must fight back against governments seeking to cloak their repressive tactics under the banner of fighting terrorism; we must push for broad legislative changes in countries where critical journalism is being criminalized; we must stand up for all those journalists in prison and do all in our power to secure their release; and we must ensure the Internet itself remains an open global platform for critical expression.”

All of the governments included in CPJ’s 2012 census have received letters expressing serious concern. CPJ continues to advocate for the release of four recipients of its International Press Freedom Award who remain imprisoned: Dhondup Wangchen, a Tibetan held in China, Azimjon Askarov in Kyrgyzstan, Shi Tao in China, and Mohammad Davari in Iran. In 2012, CPJ helped 58 imprisoned journalists from around the world win early release.

CPJ also registered some improvement this year: For the first time since 1996, Burma did not rank among the nations jailing journalists. As part of the country’s historic transition to civilian rule, authorities released at least 12 imprisoned journalists in a series of pardons in 2012.

Of the 27 countries imprisoning journalists, the top 5 jailers were:
  1. Turkey: 49
  2.  Iran: 45
  3. China: 32
  4. Eritrea: 28
  5. Syria: 15
     CPJ's annual census is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2012. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year, which are otherwise documented on www.cpj.org. Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by nonstate entities such as criminal gangs or militant groups are not included in the prison census. Their cases are classified as “missing” or “abducted.”

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Norway to close its embassy in Eritrea


Norwegian Embassy - Asmara Eritrea
Norway’s government has said that it is soon to close its embassy in Eritrea and some other countries as part of foreign policy re-planning.
“As announced earlier in 2012, changes are also being made to Norway’s diplomatic presence in Africa. The embassy in Asmara (Eritrea) is to be closed. Another mission in the region will then be given responsibility for Eritrea,” Norway’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The embassies in Abuja (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya) will be given extra resources in order to strengthen their efforts vis-à-vis Niger and Somalia respectively. In addition, staff levels at some missions in Africa will be reduced in order to free up resources,” officials added.
There are many Eritrean refugees in east African countries. They allege that Norway closing its embassy will leave a big gap.
One refugee in Kenya said, “I’m not happy about Norway closing her embassy in Eritrea because officials working there can get impressions about what the poor people of Eritrea need first-hand and aid can be sent there.”
“Foreign embassies are very vital in Eritrea because the wrong elements in government fear to mistreat people in presence of embassy officials,” claimed another in Uganda. “They try to show the embassies that they observe human rights.”

EU updates 'air safety list:' Eritrea banned


The European Commission has updated its list of airlines subject to bans within the EU to include airlines certified in Eritrea. Previously banned airlines from Mauritania have been removed from the ban list.
In a statement released Tuesday on the European Commission's website, the bloc's vice president for transport said Eritrean air carriers were no longer certified to fly in the EU.
"Safety must always come first," Siim Kallas said in the statement, "and we cannot accept any compromise in this area, hence the decision on Eritrea."
Eritrean Airlines Boeing 767
The airlines that had received their certification in Eritrea were subject to an operating ban because of "an outstanding safety concern notified by [International Civil Aviation Organization] and to the absence of adequate mitigating measures taken by the competent authorities of Eritrea."
Air carriers certified in Mauritania were removed from the EU's banned list because of safety advancements in the country. Jordan Aviation, which was certified in Jordan, has also been taken off the list after an on-site assessment done by the European Commission.
The statement noted that restrictions on Libyan airlines would remain in place as aviation authorities there worked toward meeting international standards. The decision to keep Libyan airlines on the list was backed by the Libyan authorities.

Eritrea withdraws from qualifiers against rival Ethiopia


Eritrea have withdrawn from their African Nations Championship qualifiers against bitter foes Ethiopia, a letter from the Confederation of African football (CAF) showed.
It was not immediately clear if Ethiopia's request for the match to be played on neutral ground after ruling out travelling to Asmara was behind Eritrea's move.
Over the weekend, 18 members of the Red Sea state's national team, including Eritrea's team doctor, disappeared in Uganda while playing in a regional tournament.
The two east African rivals were set to clash in the Eritrean capital around Jan. 14-16 with the return fixture booked for a fortnight later in Addis Ababa.
Red sea boys in Uganda
"We have just been informed by the Eritrean Football Federation that its national team is withdrawing from the ... matches," said a letter from CAF's Competitions Deputy Director Shereen Arafa seen by Reuters.
The letter did not mention Eritrea's reasons for its withdrawal. An Ethiopian FA official confirmed the letter and added that his country was now set to face Rwanda in Addis Ababa on June 21-23 in the next qualification round.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are entangled in a bitter border dispute that saw the countries go to war between 1998-2000, a conflict which cost tens of thousands of lives.
The African Nations Championship, played every two years, is the continent's second biggest tournament in which only domestic-based players can take part.
Ethiopia and Eritrea were last drawn against each other in 1998 in a qualifying round for the 2000 African Nations Cup, just months after fighting broke out along their sun-blasted border.

Missing Eritrean soccer players seek asylum in Uganda


Members of the team
Eritrean soccer players who disappeared from their hotel in Uganda over the weekend have sought asylum in the east African country, a senior Ugandan government official said on Thursday.
Mass defections by Eritrean soccer players are becoming common as the country is one of the world's most secretive states ruled by a reclusive president.
This year United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay accused the Asmara government of meting out summary executions, torture and detaining thousands of political prisoners.
"It's true 17 players and a doctor from Eritrea have come to us claiming that they feel unsafe at home and that they want asylum in Uganda," Musa Ecweru, junior minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, told Reuters.
"So we have told police to stop hunting for them and we have also given them asylum seekers' forms."
The Eritreans had disappeared from their hotel over the weekend after losing 2-0 to Rwanda on Friday during the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) competition.
In July last year 13 members of an Eritrean soccer club sought asylum in Tanzania while 12 members of the national squad disappeared in Kenya in 2009 after competing in a regional tournament.
Ecweru said the Eritreans would have to undergo the normal verification process that all asylum seekers are subjected to before their asylum bid is processed.
"They will be interviewed by a committee and they will be subjected to rigorous questioning to determine whether their reasons for fleeing their country are genuine."

U.S. Renews Eritrean Travel Warning


The US government has issued new Eritrean travel advice, cautioning its citizens to be aware of the risks.
In a renewed alert issued on 29 November, the US state department recommended US citizens avoid all types of travel to Eritrea due to security incidents, including attacks near the border with Ethiopia.
The travel advice cautioned all US nationals to avoid visiting the Ethiopia-Eritrean border due to security threats.
The document recalled an incident in January 2012 in which five foreign tourists were killed and others abducted by allegedly Eritrea-backed Ethiopian rebels in the Erta-Ale volcano in the remote Afar region of Ethiopia, a few kilometres from the Eritrean border.
Eritrea and Ethiopia two of the world's poorest countries spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war.
"The US Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to Eritrea and strongly recommends U.S. citizens defer all travel to the country," states the release.
It also recommends against any travel in Eritrean waters due to the regime's repeated "illegal detention of vessels."
Eritrea generally requires ten days notice before awarding permission for foreign visitors to travel outside the capital, Asmara and "as a result, the U.S. Embassy is extremely limited in its ability to provide emergency consular assistance outside of Asmara".
The US state department added crimes in Asmara are on rise due to worsening economic conditions.
It further alleged that the Eritrean government has arrested a number of Eritrean-US dual citizens and many of them are "currently being held without apparent cause".
The latest Eritrean travel warning replaces the one issued on 18 April, when the US then urged visitors to avoid unnecessary travel to the nation.
It also warned citizens against travel to the Eritrea-Ethiopia border areas as well as the border with Djibouti.
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-year bloody war over their disputed border during 1998-2000, costing the lives of over 70,000 people.
With their border dispute yet unsettled, tensions between the two neighbours remain tense particularly after the Ethiopian Army recently carried out cross-border attack on military camps inside Eritrea; Addis Ababa's first military incursion since the war ended.
South Sudan hopes to mediate in talks between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
"We will embark on rounds of shuttle diplomacy between the two countries. We are hoping to start in November," South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, said in October.

Ethiopia PM willing to talk to Eritrea


PM Hailemariam Desalegn
Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia's prime minister, has said that he is willing to hold talks with neighbouring Eritrea, with whom Addis Ababa fought a border war that ended in 2000.
If Desalgen follows through with Wednesday's statement, it will be the first time a leader in Addis Ababa has held talks with Issaias Afeworki, the Eritrean president, since the end of the conflict which left at least 70,000 people dead.
"If you ask me, 'Do you want to go to Asmara and sit down and negotiate with Isaias Afwerki?' Then, I will say yes'," Hailemariam said in an interview with Al Jazeera to be broadcast on Saturday.
The two countries remain at odds over the flashpoint town of Badme, awarded to Eritrea by a UN-backed boundary commission, but still controlled by Ethiopia.
"The most important thing for us is to fight poverty ... to have regional integration. If we two do that, it will be much more productive," Hailemariam added.
Eritrea won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year struggle, that is considered among the continent's longest and most bitter.
Hailemariam, who took office after longtime ruler Meles Zenawi died in August, said that reaching out to Asmara was following the policy of his predecessor.
"My predecessor Meles Zenawi had asked for more than 50 times even to go to Asmara and negotiate with Mister Isaias Afwerki," he said.
Ethiopia and Eritrea routinely accuse each other of backing armed groups to destabilise the other.
In March, Ethiopia attacked an Eritrean military base after the killing of five European tourists it blamed on Asmara.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Ethopia wants Eritrea matches moved to neutral venue

The Ethiopia Football Association has asked the Confederation of African Football to move its African Nations Championship qualifiers with Eritrea to a neutral venue

The request comes as the neighbouring countries continue to dispute borders.
The teams are set to play in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, between 14-16 January, with the return tie in Addis Ababa set for two weeks later.
But Ethiopia said they would not travel to the Red Sea state.
Ethiopian national foot ball team (waliya)
"We want the matches to take place, but we're not willing to travel there and it is obvious their government won't allow their team to visit Addis Ababa," said Ethiopian Football Federation spokesman Melaku Ayele.
"So we've proposed an alternative venue, neighbouring Sudan, for both matches to be held in."
Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a border war between 1998-2000 that killed tens of thousands of troops. A Hague-based independent border commission ruled that the flashpoint town of Badme belonged to Eritrea but the village remains in the hands of Ethiopia and the spat remains unresolved.
Asmara is yet to respond to Ethiopia's request, Melaku said.
The African Nations Championship, played every two years, is the continent's second biggest tournament in which only domestic-based players can take part.
Ethiopia, nicknamed the Walyas, recently sealed a spot at the more glamorous Africa Cup of Nations finals set for January after a three-decade absence.
Ethiopia and Eritrea were last pitched against each other in 1998 in a qualifying round for the 2000 African Nations Cup, just months after fighting broke out along their sun-blasted border.

Eritrean Football Team Vanishes in Uganda

Most of Eritrea's national football team has disappeared in Uganda, raising suspicion the players are seeking to defect.
members of eritrean national football team
Seventeen players and a team physician vanished Sunday in the capital, Kampala, where the team had gone to play in a regional tournament.

Nicola Musonye, secretary-general of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations, confirmed the disappearance to VOA's Horn of Africa Service on Monday.

The head of the Eritrean delegation says the 18 went missing from their hotel and that he has reported this to local police.

Radio France International quotes an unidentified player as saying the players and doctor are in hiding while the Eritrean embassy tries to find them.

Human rights groups frequently criticize Eritrea as one of the world's most secretive and repressive societies, and the country's athletes have used international competitions to flee their homeland in the past.

In one example, four Eritreans asked for political asylum in Britain after the summer Olympics this year.

Thirteen Eritrean football players requested asylum in Tanzania after a 2011 tournament, while 12 members of the national team sought asylum in Kenya in 2009.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

ERITREANS MAKING A MARK IN TOUR OF RWANDA

MERON Amanuel of Team UCI CONTINENTAL CENTER has won the second phase of the Tour of Rwanda clocking 1hr 16’ 07 in a 44 kilometer race to MUHANGA from KIGALI.
It was a rainy morning in the country, very cold but could not hinder anything in as far as the preparation of the Tour is concerned. Sixty six riders have competed in the second phase as the tour gains momentum time after time, thousands of people on road signs cheered for their favorite riders as they passed by especially the Rwandans.
The second phase of the competition was concluded and they followed in this way;
- 1.MERON Amanuel of team UCI CONTINENTAL CENTER won the second phase of the tour and was awarded the EWSA red jersey.
- 2.ROY Remi of TEAM CUEBECOR GARNEAU is the overall leader of the tour has been awarded with the YELLOW JERSEY by MINISPOC.
- 3.MARRE David of TEAM SA has been awarded with a WHITE COGEAR JERSEY for the best CLIMBER of the second phase of Tour of Rwanda
- 4.ROY Remi from team CUEBECOR GARNEAU of CANADA has been awarded with the BEST YOUTH with A WHITE RWANDA NATIONAL LOTTERY jersey
- 5.The best AFRICAN Rider has been awarded to SHAUN WARD of team SA with a western union jersey.
- 6.The best RWANDAN RIDER so far in the second phase is ADRIEN NIYONSHUTI and was given a western union white jersey.
- 7.NATIONAL TEAM SA was the BEST team after the second ohase of the tour, were awarded with the COGEAR jersey.
The best Rwandan rider in the second phase of the Tour was HABIYAMBERE Nicodem who was 15th and clocked 1hr 16’ 47.
The riders camped in KABGAYI waiting for the race towards HUYE which is estimated to be 77km. All teams are ok and so far, the Eritreans are showing a little difference from the others, the SOUTH AFRICANS are showing maturity in this tour not forgetting Canadians who are near there and could surprise us as the tour continues to go on.
The race to HUYE is setting off at 14h30 local time.
Temporary general standing of the race after the second phase.
- 1.PELLETIER ROY Remi 05h05’37’’
- 2.WARD Shaun 05h05’57’’
- 3.LILL DAREN 05h06’00’’ 23’’
- 4.MERON Amanuel 05h06’03’’
- 5.GIRDLESTONE Dylan 05h06’04’’
- 6.MERHAWI Kudus 05h06’08’’
- 7.ABEBE Alem 05h06’10’’ 33’’
- 8.NJOROGE MUYA John 05h06’12’’
- 9.HABTE Solomon 05h06’12’’
- 10.KAHSAY Afewerki 05h06’13’’
- 11.NIYONSHUTI Adrien 05h06’28’’

Kudus Merhawi: Eritrea's newest star wins in Tour of Rwanda

Africa's newest star made his debut today with a win in the Tour of Rwanda. Eritrean Kudus Merhawi, only 18 years old and in his first UCI-registered race, took the first stage to Nayagatare.
Kudus Merhawi, Tour of Rwanda 2012
 "Look at this guy, he's 18 years old. I'm quietly confident in him," JP Van Zyl told Cycling Weekly as we waited for the race to kick off this morning in the capital city, Kigali. He heads the World Cycling Centre in South Africa, which also operates as a feeder team for a new second division team, MTN Qhubeka.
Merhawi smiled back at us. Van Zyl told him to switch into the young rider jersey he earned in the prologue time trial the day before in Kigali. He obliged and later in the day, the stage running east through the banana and tea fields, he obliged again. Van Zyl, a former track cyclist from South Africa, told Merhawi to make the race.
Merhawi shot off on the final climb to break down his escape companions and helped maintain their precious one-minute gap into Nayagatare.
"We do power tests on the CompuTrainers [at the centre]. You can also look at the riders, the way they ride. He's tactically smart, and I didn't worry about him [today]," Van Zyl continued as Merhawi cooled down. "He's a born cyclist; he was born with a brain for cycling."
The UCI funds Van Zyl's centre with £63,000 a year, the money and work has helped African cycling develop from nearly nothing in 2005 to seeing its first black African in the WorldTour. Daniel Teklehaymanot, also from Eritrea, made his debut this year with Australian first division team, Orica-GreenEdge, thanks to the centre.
Teklehaymanot won the Tour of Rwanda in 2010 and graduated to spend time in the main centre in Aigle, Switzerland, at the UCI's headquarters.
"JP has really helped in my life; he's provided some good training for the last three months and helped me prepare for this Tour. I'm lucky," Merhawi told Cycling Weekly.
"My country is coming up, it has some big riders, three years we've been African Champion and first in Rwanda in 2010 [with Daniel Teklehaymanot], and the Tour of Eritrea and the Tour of Faso. My country's very, very strong."
Van Zyl travelled Eritrea's capital city Asmara to screen Merhawi and other cyclists for the World Cycling Centre.
"They are very poor people, but very proud," Van Zyl said. "I understand why they are such good riders, they are very disciplined people, they don't have a lot of money, but they respect each other and the older people. I think that this is what's necessary to succeed in cycling."
The race travels through the mountainous, western part of the country over the next six days. Van Zyl will continue to work with Merhawi in the tour and throughout next season. A trip is planned to MTN's base in Lucca, Italy, so his feeder team can ride some the Under 23 Nations Cups. Merhawi will be able to show himself directly in front of the Europeans, who are already starting to call.
"GreenEdge is doing a good job by taking on Africans with Teklehaymanot, but one rider is one rider, we want some more people," Van Zyl said. Today, he showed that with Merhawi he is ready with more riders.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Eritrean Opposition Renews Calls for Mass Revolt Against Regime

An exiled Eritrean opposition force on Tuesday made fresh calls for public uprising against president Isaias Afeworki's regime in Asmara.
Ibrahim Haron
Chairman of The Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO), Ibrahim Haron, told Sudan Tribune that Eritrea is currently facing an unprecedented political, economic, social and human rights crisis.
The group alleged that Eritrean leaders have become more than ever corrupted and are lately confiscating military budgets to their own coffers.
The opposition leader further said the Red Sea nation is witnessing a growing division among political and military leaders of the country.
As a result "the Eritrean Army has intensified its opposition against the ill military policies" he said adding "Eritrean defence forces doesn't any more have the trust on its leaders and has lost the spirit to militarily defend [their] own nation".
Haron said, now was the right time to act against Eritrean government, calling on the Eritrean Army, opposition forces, as well as the Eritrean people at home and aboard to jointly unite to oust the regime.
According to the opposition group the mass revolution could be ignited in the coming few weeks.
Eritrea is a one party state, and does not have any legally functioning political opposition to the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ).
MILLITARY STIKE
The Ethiopian-based, Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) vowed to carry out military strikes to topple the Eritrean regime.
Military officials of the group on Tuesday told Sudan Tribune that its fighters are making necessary preparations to carry out strong military offences. RSADO leader called on all Eritrean opposition forces to unify.
The Eritrean Afar forces have in the past carried out a number of cross border military attacks against targets inside Eritrea.
Rival Ethiopia which fought a border war with Eritrea during the 1998-2000 has in the past said it was ready to help the opposition forces and the people of Eritrea in their struggle to topple the regime of Isaias Afeworki.
Ethiopia and Eritrea frequently trade accusations of backing rebel groups to destabilize one the other.
 Addis Ababa accuses Asmara of supporting outlawed rebel groups such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) as well as the Somali al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab.
Eritrea similarly accuses Ethiopia of harboring rebel groups including RSADO.
INTERNATIONAL HELP
RSADO chairman, Ibrahim Haron finally called on the international community to put pressure against the Eritrean regime and extend its support to the ongoing struggle to bring a democratic change in Eritrea
Haron noted an urgent need of international support to avoid the slide of Eritrea into a failed state like was seen in neighboring Somalia
Eritrea is among the world's top human right violators, according to human rights groups, who say that, thousands of political prisoners remain detained in secret underground jails without any charge.
Political repression, intimidation, and forced conscription have also driven tens and thousands of Eritreans into exile.

Judicial Enquiry Launched in Paris Over Jamming of Eritrean Radio Station

Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Paris on 6 November 2012 accusing persons unknown of acts of piracy against Radio Erena, an Eritrean exile radio station based in Paris which broadcasts by satellite to the Horn of Africa and which is backed by Reporters Without Borders.
A pirate transmission jammed the station's signal on 14 August. Arabsat, the satellite operator that carried Radio Erena on its BADR-6 satellite, reacted by suspending the station because the jamming was disrupting other signals. It restored Radio Erena on 2 September only to suspend it again two days later, this time indefinitely, because the jamming had resumed. The station's website was meanwhile the target of a cyber-attack on 28 August.
"Radio Erena's programmes can no longer be heard by Eritreans living in Eritrea because its satellite broadcasting has been paralysed for more than three months," Reporters Without Borders said.
"A judicial investigation has to be launched in France with the aim of establishing the precise origin of these acts of sabotage and prosecuting all those responsible, both the perpetrators and the instigators. We have done this because we want to shed light on all the circumstances surrounding this piracy, including where the jamming is coming from and who ordered it.
"Geolocation indicates that the pirate transmission jamming the signal originates from within Eritrea. The government must be doing this in order to gag an independent broadcaster it clearly finds very irritating. This should come as no surprise from the rulers of a country ranked last in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index for the past five years.
"But President Issaias Afeworki's government will not get away with it. The complaint that we have filed points out that this piracy is completely illegal. Neither Radio Erena nor Reporters Without Borders have said their final word."
The Radio Erena staff and its supporters have been able to repair the damage to the website while mirror sites have been created. But satellite broadcasting has not resumed so the station is not being received in Eritrea or anywhere else in the Horn of Africa.
For the time being Radio Erena is only broadcasting on the Internet, but only the Eritrean diaspora can access the web broadcasts because the Internet is not sufficiently developed in Eritrea.
As a Paris-based radio station, Radio Erena operates under a convention ratified by France's Higher Council for Broadcasting (CSA). The complaint alleged "disruption of over-the-air broadcasting by an authorized service" and "disruption of an automated data processing system" under article L. 39-1 of the Post and Electronic Communications Code and articles 323-2 and 323-5 of the Criminal Code.

Inside Sinai's Torture Camps

How Bedouins are kidnapping and ransoming African refugees in Egypt's lawless hinterland
Migrants from Eritrea rest outside a building used to house people waiting to be smuggled into Israel
 Memories of torture still haunt 17 year-old Ksamet five weeks after she was released from a small, underground room where Bedouins held her captive for two months in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. She was repeatedly raped, beaten, and burned as family and friends abroad raised money for her $25,000 ransom. "They tortured us almost every day," Ksamet, from Eritrea, said through an interpreter. "And every week, if we didn't pay, they'd torture us even more."
The young woman is one of hundreds of Africans who have been held against their will in the lawless region that borders Israel, often severely abused and largely ignored by the international community. Bedouin are holding over 1,000 people, and Egyptian police are detaining 500 more, according to Meron Estefanos, a Sweden-based Eritrean activist and radio presenter who has spoken to hundreds of Eritreans held hostage in the Sinai.
The steady flow of people north through the Sinai has taken place since 2006 and initially consisted mainly of Sudanese migrants paying to be smuggled to economic opportunities in Israel. In 2008, many Eritreans seeking asylum in Israel started to come, too. The vast majority were trying to escape poverty and conscription under an oppressive dictatorship where indefinite national service is mandatory for most -- frequently into their 40s and 50s. Legally leaving the country is nearly impossible. 
  While many Eritreans taken hostage in the Sinai had paid smugglers to take them to Israel, more and more of those held hostage over the past three years never even had a desire to go there. Many have been kidnapped in or around refugee camps in Sudan and Ethiopia or on Sudan's borders -- or sold by rogue smugglers or corrupt Sudanese border guards -- and brought to Sinai where Bedouin extort them for cash. "I had no intention of going to Israel," said Ksamet, who left behind two sick parents after the military drafted her. "I wanted to go to Khartoum."
Instead, her and her fiancé, who was also fleeing military service, made it just across the border to Kassala, a city in eastern Sudan only a dozen miles from Eritrea. But after four days there, her smugglers -- whom she had paid about $3,300 -- sold her to members of the Rashaida tribe of Eritrea and Sudan, notorious for trafficking people and weapons up the Red Sea coast. Ksamet's fiancé ran free before they could get ahold of him. "I still don't know where he is," she said.
Hostages report being subjected to electrocution, burned with molten plastic, beaten with chains and rods, hung by their hair, and threatened with organ harvesting, among other torture methods, according to refugee-aid groups and activists. Sexual abuse ranges from rape and the burning of genitalia to sodomy with heated objects -- even to children.
Eritrean villages sometimes sell off homes, livestock, and jewelry to free relatives from the kidnappers; ransoms can reach $50,000. The Bedouin put their captives on the phone with family in the diaspora, beating them so their relatives hear them scream as they plead for help.
The Bedouin hold them for months on average, and many people do not survive. Dumped corpses litter the desert, with 4,000 dead over past five years, according to a September report Estefanos co-authored through Tilburg University, in the Netherlands, and Europe External Policy Advisors, a research center in Brussels. "The treatment has gotten to a level where they would rather die than live," said an employee at a refugee-aid organization in Cairo.
Those raising money often pool funds to free women and children first. Ksamet was one of three women in a group of 14 that also included children. "I was the only woman left" after the other two paid their ransom, Ksamet said. "So they prioritized me." Often even when the ransom is met, activists say, the Bedouin merely collect the money and sell their human haul on to the next group of kidnappers, ensuring more rounds of beatings and begging.
Though over 84 percent of Eritreans seeking refugee status around the world in 2011 received it (or humanitarian protection), Egypt and Israel have denied many of them the opportunity to even apply. Egypt generally views the sub-Saharan Africans as economic migrants, and the Israeli government labels them "infiltrators."
Over 57,000 people have made it across the Sinai to Israel and currently reside there as of June 2012, the vast majority from Eritrea and Sudan, according to Israeli government figures. Most arrived in Israel in the last four years. To stem the influx of Africans, Israel has been building a fence along its border this year and enacted legislation allowing authorities to detain border-crossers for up to three years without a trial. The numbers have dropped significantly since.
Twenty to 30 percent of Eritrean asylum seekers who entered Israel before June were tortured in Sinai, according to Shahar Shoham, the director of the migrants and status-less persons department at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, citing data from her organization (which provides medical services to the asylum seekers) and another Israeli non-governmental group, the Hotline for Migrant Workers. Since June, the Israeli military has only let through those who exhibit signs of torture, she said.
According to human-rights groups, Israel has broken international law by not letting many asylum seekers petition for refugee status. In recent months, activists say, Israel has turned back Africans at the border, sending them to Egyptian troops who shoot those approaching the border and inhumanely imprison others for months. This risk, coupled with Israel's recent crackdown, has caused more and more hostages to insist that the Bedouin bring them to Cairo, not the Israeli border, upon their release.
One refugee-aid organization in Cairo reports an uptick in former African hostages seeking its services since March -- more than 75, with all Eritrean but one. They sometimes arrive in large groups rather than the one or two who would come together previously. In the same time period, 113 people -- including 40 unaccompanied children -- have approached the Egypt offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) after escaping the traffickers.

* * *
The Egyptian government has struggled to control the Sinai region, where militants killed 16 soldiers in August, and traffickers ferry not just humans, but guns, ammunition, and other goods destined for the Gaza Strip. The military launched a massive security operation in the peninsula after the August attack, but central authority remains weak there. Stopping the traffickers and freeing the Eritreans continues to be a low priority for authorities, one part of the complex Sinai puzzle.
Without some degree of complicity from local authorities in the Sinai and high-level officials at the source, the trade could not persist, activists said. "The Egyptian security forces' track record on conducting law enforcement is pretty horrific from a human-rights perspective," Heba Morayef, a Cairo-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said. A lack of domestic attention in Egypt, the government's reluctance to recognize the hostages as asylum seekers rather than economic migrants, and racism toward black Africans -- plus a host of other pressing issues -- have kept the Sinai torture camps open, even though activists said police could probably shut them down in just a few days.
UNHCR has sought access to sub-Saharan Africans arrested by Egyptian police on their way into the Sinai, but the government limits the agency's access, according to Mohamed Dayri, the UNHCR's regional representative for Egypt and the Arab League. Dayri insists that no Eritreans have been repatriated, but activists cite numerous cases where Eritreans were sent home despite risk of punishment for unlawfully leaving their country.
Many who make it to Cairo escaped from their Bedouin captors and completed their journey to the Egyptian capital with the help of a man in northern Sinai, known as Sheikh Mohamed, who has opposed human trafficking and provides support to Africans who escape, according to groups that work with refugees in Cairo. But while more torture survivors are reaching Cairo with Sheikh Mohamed's support, human-rights activists said there is no evidence the level of trafficking has decreased. "One of the problems of researching this issue is the lack of information," Nicholas Piachaud, a North Africa campaigner for Amnesty International, said. "Gaining access to smugglers camps is impossible."
Ksamet is now staying with an Eritrean man in Cairo helping her recover. She has received some medical treatment from a non-governmental organization, and has an appointment with UNHCR. She would be happy to move anywhere but Eritrea -- and cannot picture staying in Egypt, where she views passersby with suspicion. "I'm always afraid because I think everyone is like them -- like the people who tortured us," Ksamet said. "Every Egyptian in the street -- regular people and the police. I imagine them taking me and torturing me."

Monday, November 12, 2012

2012 African Continental Cycling Championships: A very high level

The 2012 African Continental Cycling Championships drew to a close on Sunday with the victory of Natnael Berhane in the men’s road race through Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. At the end of the 170 kilometres, the Eritrean rider out-sprinted his breakaway partner, South Africa’s Jay Thompson, while his compatriot Frekalsi Debesay took third place. At the same time, he took the title in the Under-23 category.
Eritrea had already taken honours in the leading race last year with Berhane, and the year before with Daniel Teklehaimanot who, in 2012, won the individual time trial. Also victorious in the team time trial, the East-African country is the clear winner of the 2012 Continental Championships.
"This year, the level was particularly high among the 18 nations which took part to the races", observes Jean-Pierre Van Zyl, UCI AfricaTour Adviser and technical delegate for the championships.
"In several events the speed average was impressive and in the men's road race we saw a compact peloton of thirty riders together once the selection was made. It means there were not only two or three nations fighting together but a wide range of countries which have reached a very interesting level."
This fact was reflected in the host country Burkina Faso’s bronze medal in the men’s junior road race with Karim Bonkoungou, and its fourth in the team time trial behind Eritrea, Tunisia and Algeria.
The competitions were particularly difficult due to the high temperatures and the participation of professional riders such as Teklehaimanot (Orica-GreenEdge) and the Tunisian Rafaâ Chtioui (Team Europcar).
Member of Team MTN-Qhubeka, the Ethiopian Tsgabu Grmay, 21, was “the revelation of the 2012 championships,” according to Van Zyl. He missed out on victory in the individual time trial by only three seconds after leading all the intermediate times, clocking the same speed as the Eritreans in the team time trial.
Algeria’s Abderrahmane Bechlagheme, winning both the junior’s  road race and the individual time trial, is the other revelation of the week.
Other young talents also emerged during the racing, which was closely monitored by Alejandro Gonzalez-Tablas, World Cycling Centre coach and in charge of detection for road teams in 2013.
In the women’s competitions South African Asleigh Moolman captured the road race and the time trial ahead of her compatriot An-Lin Pretorius.
The African Cycling Confederation, which met during the championships, has announced that the 2013 African Continental Championships will take place in Namibia

2012 African cycling championships: Eritrea’s Natnael Berhane claims two titles at once

The 2012 African cycling championships ended yesterday with the amazing exploit of Eritrea’s upcoming champion, Natnael Berhane.

Natnael Berhane of Eritrea, left,  

The 2012 African cycling championships ended yesterday with the amazing exploit of Eritrea’s upcoming champion, Natnael Berhane. He competed for the men’s under-23 and men’s elite in the road racing and gleaned both titles when he conquered the event that brought together both categories in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 

Berhane overcame South Africa’s Jay Thomson at just 200m to the finish line after both men had broken away from a ten-man group that led the race. Thomson took silver in the elite category while bronze went to another Eritrean Frekalsi Debesay.
For the under-23 categories, the silver medal went to Algeria’s Hamza Merdj meanwhile South Africa’s Songezo Jim claimed bronze.

 The next African championship shall take place next year in Namibia.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

RSF launches probe over jamming of exiled Eritrean Radio Station


An international press freedom advocacy group, said on Thursday that it has launched investigation over the acts of piracy perpetrated against an independent Eritrean satellite Radio broadcaster, ERINA.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders in a statement said that it has filed a complaint with the public prosecutor in Paris on 6 November to probe the repeated sabotage that put the station off air for months.
“Radio Erena’s programmes can no longer be heard by Eritreans living in Eritrea because its satellite broadcasting has been paralyzed for more than three months,” Reporters Without Borders said.
The group’s complaint alleged “disruption of over-the-air broadcasting by an authorized service” and “disruption of an automated data processing system”.
Being based in Paris, RSF argued that Radio Erena operates under a convention ratified by France’s Higher Council for Broadcasting (CSA) and accordingly a judicial investigation has to be launched in France to hunt down those behind the conspiracy.
“We have done this because we want to shed light on all the circumstances surrounding this piracy, including where the jamming is coming from and who ordered it” it further said.
The first jamming against ERINA radio followed the station broadcasting an interview last August with an Ethiopian communication minister, Bereket Simon that covered a number of sensitive political and economic issues including development of the Ethiopian economy and on relations between rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea who fought a border war between 1998-2000 and who since remain at loggerheads over their unresolved border dispute.
After the interview went on air, the Eritrean government in Asmara immediately accused the Paris-based radio station of “inciting its listeners to acts of violence hostile to Eritrean government representatives”.
The radio station however dismissed the allegations and argued the program did not intend to make calls for violence or disorder.
According to RSF, preliminary investigations against the piracy directly targeting the Radio Erena signal has both times come from inside Eritrea.
“Geolocation indicates that the pirate transmission jamming the signal originates from within Eritrea. The government must be doing this in order to gag an independent broadcaster it clearly finds very irritating” the group said adding “But President Issaias Afeworki’s government will not get away with it. The complaint that we have filed points out that this piracy is completely illegal”.
Currently Radio Erena is forced to broadcasting on the Internet, but only the Eritrean Diaspora can access the web broadcasts because there is limited access and less developed service of Internet in Eritrean.
ERINA which was launched by Reporters Without Borders in 2009, is the only source of independent news in the common language of citizens inside Eritrea and overseas.
With at least 30 Eritrean journalists held locked up behind bars without charge, international press and human right groups have long labeled the secretive Red Sea nation as one of the world’s top press freedom violators and Africa’s leading jailer for journalists.
The country is ranked even lower than North Korea in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.