Mereja Forum

[Awash]

https://www.euronews.com/2019/08/09/you ... 3IyxNEu-sg

[Awash]

By Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Watch 
09/08/2019 - 08:41.
Opinions expressed in View articles are solely those of the authors.

I met 19-year-old Dawit (not his real name) in Italy. He was among the few Eritreans who escaped unscrupulous smugglers in Libya and reached Italy in 2018 in spite of its efforts to prevent new arrivals. He explained why he took the dangerous journey to Europe rather than finishing high school in Eritrea: “They were making us into slaves, not educating us.”

Since early last year, we have spoken with 73 Eritrean former secondary school students and their teachers to understand why thousands of young Eritreans go into exile. Their answers are clear: back home, they have no freedom or control over their future. “It’s a life in prison, in our own country,” another 19-year-old Eritrean told me.

Since Eritrea’s border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000, President Isaias Afewerki has used the “no war, no peace” stalemate that ensued to justify holding much of the country’s population hostage.

Secondary schools are central to this repressive system. Since 2003, the government has forced final year secondary school students - boys and girls - into compulsory military training at the Sawa military camp. They are then channelled into indefinite national service, either in military or civilian roles. During their prolonged conscription, they risk systematic abuse, including torture, harsh working conditions and pay insufficient to support a family.

This summer, while European students are enjoying their summer holidays, thousands of Eritreans will be bused off to the remote, hostile Sawa camp. Former students said that the military personnel controlled them with physical punishment, military-style discipline, and forced labour.

The EU and other bilateral donors should press the Eritrea government to offer its youth freedom and what’s more respect their basic rights. Students like Dawit could then look forward to their future and not feel forced to endure an incredibly dangerous journey to Europe.

Laetitia Bader 

Senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch

“Sawa is hell,” Dawit said. “The alarm rings at 5 am, they make you run to the toilet, five minutes to put your uniform on, and you get punished if you don’t manage.”

Punishments are harsh: “The military official made me lie on the ground and roll on the ground very fast while he beat me. After, I had a terrible headache and fell over and vomited,” said a former student who was late for class.

Final exams determine the future. Those with poor grades go into vocational training and most likely military service; those with better grades go to college, then into a civilian government job.

A teacher said that students in lower grades are not motivated to learn: “They feel discouraged. The good students will become teachers, the bad ones, soldiers. The students would ask us, ‘Whether we learn or not, what difference does it make?’”

Most teachers are themselves national conscripts, forced to teach with no choice of where or what, and with no end in sight. Their salary – despite an increase in recent years - doesn’t even cover their expenses.

Some students try to evade forced conscription by failing to stay in lower grades or by dropping out. For girls and young women, this means opting for motherhood and early marriage. For boys, this means trying to escape the government’s notorious roundups to be sent directly into military service.

The government’s policies are taking a massive toll on the quality of education. The only alternative is to flee. Flight comes with significant risks, both inside Eritrea - including imprisonment in dire conditions and mistreatment if caught - and along migration routes. Many of those on board the boat that capsized off the coast of Libya on 25 July - which left over 100 people dead- were reportedly Eritreans.

Last July, Ethiopia and Eritrea finally signed a peace agreement. But national service remains indefinite - and so the exodus persists.

The government should end compulsory military training during secondary school, as well as ensuring that no one underage is conscripted and making teacher recruitment voluntary.

Recognising this stark reality, member states of the European Union by and large grant Eritreans refugee status. Yet increasingly the EU, especially its international development arm, sees job creation in Eritrea as the key to stemming the exodus. It recently supported a roadbuilding project, accepting the risk that it may include national service conscripts. Job creation is important– but EU funding or activities shouldn’t contribute to forced labour.

The EU and other bilateral donors should press the Eritrea government to offer its youth freedom and what’s more respect their basic rights. Students like Dawit could then look forward to their future and not feel forced to endure an incredibly dangerous journey to Europe.

Laetitia Bader is a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of a new Human Rights Watch report on Eritrea that was published on 9 August

[Follower]

ኣይተ ዓዋሽ
፡last week 18 of ur agames bothers lost thier life in the sea,wondering what make agames flee tigray dingay if the only/main reason for leaving the country is
national services,and you dont do national services?
Ask ur researcher to tell us why agames are fleeing tigray?

[Awash]

Follower,
Focus on following your Agame junta, your Agame brothers, and forget about what has been happening to the Eritrean people.
Mushmush Agame.

ኣይተ ዓዋሽ
፡last week 18 of ur agames bothers lost thier life in the sea,wondering what make agames flee tigray dingay if the only/main reason for leaving the country is
national services,and you dont do national services?
Ask ur researcher to tell us why agames are fleeing tigray?

[Weyane.is.dead]

Ata wedis.hermuta aregit kelbi kodar agame. Akiluka abey ala himak zena nay Eritrea ketdeli teray. Kofkaf arayi kuunti. Resah kelbi adwa. Bicha helicopter ab lieleka tensafef ala tehabae. Gejif harie mekele

Follower,
Focus on following your Agame junta and forget about what has been happening to the Eritrean people.
Mushmush Agame.

ኣይተ ዓዋሽ
፡last week 18 of ur agames bothers lost thier life in the sea,wondering what make agames flee tigray dingay if the only/main reason for leaving the country is
national services,and you dont do national services?
Ask ur researcher to tell us why agames are fleeing tigray?

[Awash]

Dead weyane,
Read and learn, wedi komarit.

By Laetitia Bader, Human Rights Watch 
09/08/2019 - 08:41.
Opinions expressed in View articles are solely those of the authors.

I met 19-year-old Dawit (not his real name) in Italy. He was among the few Eritreans who escaped unscrupulous smugglers in Libya and reached Italy in 2018 in spite of its efforts to prevent new arrivals. He explained why he took the dangerous journey to Europe rather than finishing high school in Eritrea: “They were making us into slaves, not educating us.”

Since early last year, we have spoken with 73 Eritrean former secondary school students and their teachers to understand why thousands of young Eritreans go into exile. Their answers are clear: back home, they have no freedom or control over their future. “It’s a life in prison, in our own country,” another 19-year-old Eritrean told me.

Since Eritrea’s border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000, President Isaias Afewerki has used the “no war, no peace” stalemate that ensued to justify holding much of the country’s population hostage.

Secondary schools are central to this repressive system. Since 2003, the government has forced final year secondary school students - boys and girls - into compulsory military training at the Sawa military camp. They are then channelled into indefinite national service, either in military or civilian roles. During their prolonged conscription, they risk systematic abuse, including torture, harsh working conditions and pay insufficient to support a family.

This summer, while European students are enjoying their summer holidays, thousands of Eritreans will be bused off to the remote, hostile Sawa camp. Former students said that the military personnel controlled them with physical punishment, military-style discipline, and forced labour.

The EU and other bilateral donors should press the Eritrea government to offer its youth freedom and what’s more respect their basic rights. Students like Dawit could then look forward to their future and not feel forced to endure an incredibly dangerous journey to Europe.

Laetitia Bader 

Senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch

“Sawa is hell,” Dawit said. “The alarm rings at 5 am, they make you run to the toilet, five minutes to put your uniform on, and you get punished if you don’t manage.”

Punishments are harsh: “The military official made me lie on the ground and roll on the ground very fast while he beat me. After, I had a terrible headache and fell over and vomited,” said a former student who was late for class.

Final exams determine the future. Those with poor grades go into vocational training and most likely military service; those with better grades go to college, then into a civilian government job.

A teacher said that students in lower grades are not motivated to learn: “They feel discouraged. The good students will become teachers, the bad ones, soldiers. The students would ask us, ‘Whether we learn or not, what difference does it make?’”

Most teachers are themselves national conscripts, forced to teach with no choice of where or what, and with no end in sight. Their salary – despite an increase in recent years - doesn’t even cover their expenses.

Some students try to evade forced conscription by failing to stay in lower grades or by dropping out. For girls and young women, this means opting for motherhood and early marriage. For boys, this means trying to escape the government’s notorious roundups to be sent directly into military service.

The government’s policies are taking a massive toll on the quality of education. The only alternative is to flee. Flight comes with significant risks, both inside Eritrea - including imprisonment in dire conditions and mistreatment if caught - and along migration routes. Many of those on board the boat that capsized off the coast of Libya on 25 July - which left over 100 people dead- were reportedly Eritreans.

Last July, Ethiopia and Eritrea finally signed a peace agreement. But national service remains indefinite - and so the exodus persists.

The government should end compulsory military training during secondary school, as well as ensuring that no one underage is conscripted and making teacher recruitment voluntary.

Recognising this stark reality, member states of the European Union by and large grant Eritreans refugee status. Yet increasingly the EU, especially its international development arm, sees job creation in Eritrea as the key to stemming the exodus. It recently supported a roadbuilding project, accepting the risk that it may include national service conscripts. Job creation is important– but EU funding or activities shouldn’t contribute to forced labour.

The EU and other bilateral donors should press the Eritrea government to offer its youth freedom and what’s more respect their basic rights. Students like Dawit could then look forward to their future and not feel forced to endure an incredibly dangerous journey to Europe.

Laetitia Bader is a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of a new Human Rights Watch report on Eritrea that was published on 9 August

I'm a dcksucker.

[Weyane.is.dead]

Wedis.hermuta kelbi adwa there's nothing to learn from you korbae sahsah tegwar weigin. You must have one sad life. You spend all your time googling bad news about Eritrea. We control your head. Youre nothing but a komal bekae kofkaf gaegae agame

[Awash]

Wedi komarit,
Yeah, one sad life because of your Agame junta destroying the lives of generations of my people. Wedi sebeyti.

[simbe11]

So do young Tigrayans. It’s not that long since we have heard the news about the innocent youth from Irob that perished in the high sea. Unless you consider Irob part of Eritrea.

[Awash]

I'm concerned about my people who are under the yoke of an Agame junta. Are you?


https://www.bbc.com/tigrinya/news-49289 ... UuStZyT77A

[Weyane.is.dead]

Aregit kelbi sahsah kodar weigin. You think I forgot when you used to call Eritreans ascaris and Eritrea Ascaria. Shitaraka dewer wedizaputana.

Wedi komarit,
Yeah, one sad life because of your Agame junta destroying the lives of generations of my people. Wedi sebeyti.

[Awash]

You're an Agame ascari clapping for an Agame fascist junta, fessfass. HarraE

Aregit kelbi sahsah kodar weigin. You think I forgot when you used to call Eritreans ascaris and Eritrea Ascaria. Shitaraka dewer wedizaputana.

Wedi komarit,
Yeah, one sad life because of your Agame junta destroying the lives of generations of my people. Wedi sebeyti.

[tekeba]

Asswash, You mother fucxxer you are not Eritrean. I never seen a humanbeing like you who gets happy with tragedy. please cry for your Ugum who perished in the mediterranean and redsea. I do realize being Ugum is the nature of envy and cruelty, people who live with vendetta.

[tekeba]

Sawa is definitely the killer of the 1976 manifesto of Tigray Republic dream... Could you imagine what would have happened if there were no Sawa and without Warsay?? In my opinion, agames would be dancing today in Asmara and swimming in Massawa and Assab...The orchestrator of Sawa is definitely the Honorable PIA aka the killer of TPLF dream...

[Awash]

Listen to this wedi40 immigrant from Adigrat talking to the Real wedi'bat Eritrean. The same wedi komarit tyrant is destroying the lives of generations of Eritreans.

Deqi sebeyti

Asswash, You mother fucxxer you are not Eritrean. I never seen a humanbeing like you who gets happy with tragedy. please cry for your Ugum who perished in the mediterranean and redsea. I do realize being Ugum is the nature of envy and cruelty, people who live with vendetta.

[Awash]

Look at the Agame wedi komarit presiding over the North Korea of Africa aka Singapoor he created after 27 years of stupidity.

[Abere]

ደም የተገበረበት ባርነት ጎምርቶ ሲያፈራ እንድህ ነው - ያሳዝናል እንጅ ይኸስ አያስቅም። ኢትዮጵያ አንችን ክፉ የተመኙ የሁሉ የይሁዳን ሞት ይሞታሉ። ጠላቶችሽም ፈጥነውም ለአንቺ ይገዛሉ።

[Awash]

Watch "እምበር ዶ ብጥዕና ኣሎ እዪ?" on YouTube