16/11/2012
Pro-democracy Eritrean civil society
and political organizations worldwide
·
To condemn human rights violations in Eritrea
·
To bring to the attention of the international
community the plight of Eritrean refugees in Sudan, Sinai Desert in Egypt,
Djibouti and Israel
Friday, 16 November 2012, 13h – 18h at Palais des Nations - Geneva
Pro-democracy Eritrean civil society and political
organisations in Switzerland, Italy, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, Australia, Canada, the US and other countries stage a demonstration in
Geneva in front of the UN headquarters, Palais des Nations. They comprise Eritrean
human rights defenders, political parties, youth associations and movements,
refugees, asylum seekers, immigrants and friends of Eritrea in the above
countries.
The purpose of this
event is to denounce the ever-worsening violations of human rights in Eritrea
and to bring to the attention of the international community the plight of
Eritrean refugees in the Sudan, Sinai Desert in Egypt, Djibouti and Israel. Eritrean
victims of human trafficking in the Sinai Desert and the Sudan and the inhuman
treatment that they went through in the merciless hands of traffickers include,
among others, beating, electrocution, water-drowning, burning, hanging, hanging
by hair and organ robbery. They are tortured for ransoms 10000-50000 USD. Subjected
to cruel rape or gang rape, women are at the receiving end of the torture. The
graphic description of the suffering of the victims is available at Internet
sources at Assenna Foundation and New Generation Foundation.
Human Rights Concern
Eritrea witnesses, mostly deserters from the enforced
military conscription in Eritrea, some 300 indefinite drafting resisters at the
Nagad detention centre in Djibouti are treated as a military risk. Fifty-eight
of these detainees are extremely ill. A separate refugee camp houses another 67
non-military refugees, and 19 POWs. In Israel, the Army has since mid-2012
prevented dozens of asylum seekers, most of them Eritreans, from crossing the
country’s borders with Egypt. It has unlawfully deported dozens more back to
Egypt, according to Human Rights Watch, the Hotline for Migrant Workers and
Physicians for Human Rights.
The recent refusal of
the Eritrean regime to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea is
indicative of its inherent behaviour. The Eritrean regime is breaking new
records, not in its Human Development Index (HDI) but in suppressing the human
rights of its citizens. According
to the Worst of the Worst
2012 report of the Freedom House, Eritrea has once again proved to be
Africa's North Korea with respect to human rights abuse. In sum, the violations
include:
·
Arbitrary arrest and Detention without trial
·
Enforced disappearance of thousands of people
·
Arrest of 11 former ministers, an MP, journalists and
religious leaders
·
Indefinite military service (now over 18 years) and
forced labour
·
Muzzling of the press and severe
restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression
Meetings will be held
with officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and United
Nations Human Rights Council. Letters will be delivered to these two
institutions, the diplomatic community and the International Committee of the
Red Cross.
Demonstration
organizing Committee Tel. 079 777
34 23, 076 513 98 17, 079 440 03 49
