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Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 05:42

Zombie,
Do you remember the one who sent your family back to your country of origin 20 years ago, or the one that's cooking your family alive today?

World Report 2019: Eritrea | Human Rights Watch

www.hrw.org

After decades of near total diplomatic isolation, 2018 was a year of significant change in Eritrea’s relationship with its neighbors. In July, the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia signed a five-point declaration to usher in “a new era of peace and friendship,” formally ending a border war that began 20 years earlier.  A month later, Eritrea and Somalia resumed diplomatic relations after 15 years, and Djibouti and Eritrea did the same shortly after. In November, the United Nations Security Council lifted its nine-year arms embargo against Eritrea. Despite these changes, there was no sign of Eritrea ending its severe repression of basic rights.

For two decades, President Isaias Afewerki used the absence of peace with Ethiopia to justify authoritarianism. Forced conscription into “national service” was prolonged indefinitely despite a decree limiting service to 18 months. Political opponents—anyone who questions Isaias’ rule—are jailed infinitely without trial, often incommunicado.  Independent media is prohibited, and journalists imprisoned. Political parties and nongovernmental organizations are also prohibited; elections, a legislature, and an independent judiciary are all not permitted because Isais argued they would weaken Eritrea’s defenses. Some religious groups are forbidden altogether, and others strictly regulated by government appointees. Implementation of a constitution approved by a constituent assembly in 1997, before the war, was deferred indefinitely.

The change in rapport with Ethiopia ended Isais’ many excuses for repressive policies but not, so far, the harshness of his rule. Two weeks before the Eritrea-Ethiopia declaration, the United Nations Human Rights Council lamented the government’s “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” committed “in a climate of generalized impunity.”  Among the abuses were “arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence and forced labor,” as described in the latest report of the council’s special rapporteur on Eritrea. Symptomatic of the government’s approach to critics was its foreign minister’s diatribe that the rapporteur was “morally bankrupt” and “willfully distort[ed] reality” to further a “wicked agenda.” 

By year’s end, conditions had not changed. Nevertheless, in October, the UN General Assembly elected Eritrea to the Human Rights Council.

Indefinite Military Service and Forced Labor

The rights of all Eritrean citizens remain severely restricted, but younger generations conscripted into national service are especially impacted.  A UN commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea in 2016 characterized national service as “enslavement.” And despite its agreement with Ethiopia, the government has not released any long-term national service conscripts. 

All 18-year-olds are conscripted into national service. They serve indefinitely, some as long as 18 years.  National service is not the sole reason thousands, including unaccompanied children, flee Eritrea each month but it remains a primary factor. Almost 15 percent of the population has fled since the 1998 war. After the Eritrea-Ethiopia border opened, the number of fleeing Eritreans, especially unaccompanied minors, increased significantly, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Conscripts have long been subject to inhuman and degrading punishment, including torture, without recourse. Although pay was increased in recent years, it remains nominal and insufficient to support a family, especially as such increases are offset by higher deductions for food. 

Eritrea’s information minister acknowledged in a 2018 interview that fewer than one-fifth of conscripts have military roles. The rest are farm laborers, teachers, construction workers, civil servants, lower-level judges, and other civilian laborers. Conscripts assigned to government-owned construction firms work on building infrastructure at foreign-owned mineral mines.

Right to Education

The Eritrean government uses the high school system to forcibly channel thousands of young people into national service, requiring them to spend their final year at the abusive Sawa military camp. Instead of developing a pool of well-trained and voluntary secondary school teachers, the government relies on national service conscripts, with little to no choice in their assignment and no end to their deployment in sight.

Decades of forced conscription have created a teaching corps lacking qualifications and motivation, severely impacting young Eritreans’ right to education. Because of inadequate pay and indefinite service, teachers are often absent from classes and many emigrate. Students are unmotivated by poor teaching and their belief that education has little benefit in the face of a future of endless forced national service.

Freedom of Speech, Expression, and Association

The government has not allowed the private press—destroyed in 2001 when 10 journalists were arrested and detained without trial indefinitely—to resume operations, nor has it permitted nongovernmental organizations.

The government neither released nor improved the conditions of its most prominent prisoners, government officials and reporters arrested in 2001 and incarcerated incommunicado ever since. Because of government secrecy and the absence of independent monitoring, it is impossible to determine how many political prisoners remain behind bars.   

In March, the government released the body of the 90-year-old honorary president of a private Islamic school in Asmara, Al Diaa, jailed in October 2017 for protesting a planned government takeover of the school.  Thousands, including minors, were arrested as they marched through Asmara to attend his funeral. Most were released during the next three months, but some school leaders remain imprisoned at the time of writing. 

Former finance minister and critic of the president, Berhane Abrehe, was arrested in September and his location remains unknown. Berhane had authored a book that detailed problems with Isais’s rule and calling on young people to rise against his regime. The government arrested Berhane’s wife, Almaz Habtemariam, in February and she has been held incommunicado ever since.  

Freedom of Religion

The government refuses to recognize all but four religious groups: Sunni Islam, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical (Lutheran) churches. Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Antonios, deposed by the government in 2007, remains under house arrest.

Security personnel continue to raid private homes where devotees of unrecognized religions meet for communal prayer. Repudiation of their religion is typically the price of release. In March, a newly married couple was arrested at a wedding-related ceremony.

Fifty-three Jehovah’s Witnesses remain in detention, including three arrested and sent to the Sawa military training camp in 1994. Prison conditions improved somewhat for them in 2017 when they were all transferred to the Mai Serwa prison. For a brief time there, they were allowed visitors for the first time since being incarcerated; in late 2018, however, visits were again barred.

Refugees

Eritrean refugees faced the prospect of repatriation from some countries in light of improved relations with Ethiopia. While Ethiopia shut down Eritrean opposition outlets, it took no steps to expel the 164,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia.

Israel calls Eritrean (and Sudanese) asylum seekers “infiltrators” and continually subjects them to harsh measures to pressure them to leave Israel “voluntarily.” In January, Israeli authorities said they would indefinitely detain thousands if they refused to leave for Rwanda or Uganda. In March, the Israeli High Court ruled the policy unlawful after the third-countries said they would refuse anyone deported from Israel. Israel’s justice minister warned repatriation would be likely if Eritrea “canceled” national service.

In September 2017, the United States announce it would repatriate about 700 Eritreans who were denied asylum. Some of them fled to Canada. One committed suicide at the Cairo airport while being repatriated.

In July, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court ruled that conditions in Eritrean national service were not so severe as to make deportation unlawful. The ruling came despite a 2017 report by the European Asylum Support Office that Eritreans returned involuntarily risked punishment, including imprisonment in inhumane conditions, forced labor, and torture.

Key International Actors

Eritrea’s resumption of diplomatic relations with Ethiopia and Somalia led both countries to support lifting the UN arms embargo, originally instituted in response to Eritrean support of Al-Shabab and Eritrea’s aggression against Djibouti.  Djibouti later concurred with lifting sanctions, but reluctantly, because the border with Eritrea remains unsettled and Eritrea has not accounted for missing Djibouti prisoners-of-war. 

The United Arab Emirates, which played a role in back-channel negotiations between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and which rents a military base near Eritrea’s port of Assab that it uses in the Yemeni civil war, announced an agreement with Ethiopia to build an oil pipeline linking Assab with Ethiopia’s capital.  Russia in September announced plans to build a “logistics center” at an Eritrean port but gave no details about the project.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Ambassador Donald Yamamoto visited Eritrea in April. Despite the visit and the rapprochement with Ethiopia, Eritrea continued to detain three Eritrean staff of the United States Embassy imprisoned since 2001.

Chinese firms maintain significant investments in Eritrea’s mining sector. The mines are required to use government-owned construction firms for infrastructure development and thereby indirectly profit from conscript labor. One mine, at Bisha, was long majority-owned by Canada’s Nevsun Mining. In September, Nevsun agreed to a buyout by China’s Zijin Mining Group Company. The sale cleared regulatory hurdles in Canada and China in November.

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 05:46

Eritrea Chapter - 2019 Annual Report
https://www.uscirf.gov/reports-briefs/a ... ual-report

Awash
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Joined: 07 Aug 2010, 00:35

Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 05:54

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea (A/HRC/41/53

4 June–12 July 2019

Situation of human rights in Eritrea
https://reliefweb.int/report/eritrea/re ... a-ahrc4153

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 12:06

Eritrea NOT FREE 2/100

Overview

Eritrea is a militarized authoritarian state that has not held a national election since independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), headed by President Isaias Afwerki, is the sole political party. Arbitrary detention is commonplace, and citizens are required to perform national service, often for their entire working lives. The government shut down all independent media in 2001...

Read more: https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/ ... ritrea.png

Sadacha Macca
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Sadacha Macca » 29 Oct 2019, 12:33

Asmara looks nice. Wouldn't mind vacationing there. I hope there's people there who speak english and my broken amharic that I'm trying to improve upon.

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 12:43

How Rwanda aka Singapore plans to achieve 100% electrification by 2024
https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2019/ ... n-by-2024/

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 29 Oct 2019, 14:46

Go ahead, make my day. :mrgreen: :lol: :lol:
Sadacha Macca wrote:
29 Oct 2019, 12:33
Asmara looks nice. Wouldn't mind vacationing there. I hope there's people there who speak english and my broken amharic that I'm trying to improve upon.

Awash
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Posts: 30273
Joined: 07 Aug 2010, 00:35

Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 30 Oct 2019, 03:45

Did you know Rwanda has its own human rights commission?
Rights commission calls for decongestion of prisons

By Nasra Bishumba October 30, 2019 :P


Female inmates attend classes

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called on the government to decongest the country’s correctional facilities, an issue that it says continues to impede the rights of the prisoners.

This was contained in a report by the commission on the state of human rights in the country where it tackled different indicators on sections of Rwandans in different categories.

The report looked at specific rights including right to education, health, justice and freedoms of expression, media freedom, access to information and expression and freedom of assembly and religion.

Presenting the 2018/2019 annual report, the commission’s Chairperson; Madeleine Nirere told lawmakers that her team had visited the country’s 14 prisons in the country and the most prevalent issue they found was congestion.

Some inmates were found with nowhere to sleep.

In total, there are 70,152 prisoners in all the country’s correctional facilities.

“In Rwamagana prison, some inmates have nowhere to sleep and in other cases, many people have to share beddings. In Musanze prison, some have nowhere to sleep and end up sleeping under beds and in corridors due to lack of enough space,” she said.

The commission also found that in the women’s wing in Musanze prison, the issue of congestion was causing aeration issues, something that is deemed risky since it is home to young children who are in with their mothers.

Meanwhile, the commission faulted government institutions for slow progress in implementing the recommendations made over the previous years.

The commission says that as many as 598 recommendations made in the fiscal year 2016/17, representing 39.14 per cent, were yet to be implemented.

About this year’s report

In 2018/2019, the Commission received and investigated 1,328 human rights cases. Of these 473 (35.62 percent) were new while 855 (64.38 percent) were carried forward from the previous year.

Of these, investigations into 1,081 cases (81.40 percent) were completed and forwarded to necessary institutions. 864 (79.93 percent) were solved while 217 (20.07 percent) are pending.

Of the cases received, 338 (25.45 percent) are property related, 280 (21.08 percent), are justice related, 236 (17.77 percent) are related to defilement, 125 (9.41 percent) are related to education, custody related ones are 56 (4.22 percent) and the right to being written in birth certificate books were 53 (3.99 percent).
https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/rights- ... on-prisons

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 30 Oct 2019, 05:53

Watch "#Jstudio ኣብ ቤት ማእሰርቲ ሓልሓለ ዝተረሸኑ ዜጋታትን ኣብ ልዕሊ ህጻናትን ኣቦታትን ዝግበር ዘሎ ግፍዕታትን፡" on YouTube

Awash
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 30 Oct 2019, 12:10

Rwanda Makes Gains In Going Cashless

by Staff WriterOctober 30, 2019

Billions of money are being exchanged electronically among Rwandans at a highly growing rate despite challenges of behavior change.

Rwanda’s Central Bank (BNR) has today launched another phase of the digital payment awareness campaign which it says will be much wider than the one in 2017.

“The cashless journey has been progressive, with digital financial services increasing over time. Over the last eight years, the value of e-payments to GDP increased from 0.3% in 2011 to 34.6% in 2019,” John Rwangombwa the Central Bank Governor said at the launch Wednesday.

Earlier figures by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) showed that Mobile phone subscriptions had reached 9,665,544 in October 2018. The Agency said that about Rwf10.7 billion was transacted electronically last year.

He said it is complex to change people’s behaviour in a day, but with commitment and collaboration from the people seated in this room and other stakeholders, he is very certain it is doable.

According to the statistics Rwangombwa provided, digital loans have increased in volume by 270%, from 99,027 loans worth 1.9billion in 2017, to a volume of 367,103 loans in June 2019 worth 14.2 billion.

He notes that this has doubled the number of individuals accessing loans through formal financial services in just one year.

For example, the Governor revealed that as of June 2019, traditional Points of Sale machines using cards had increased to 3,046, compared to 2,801 in 2018 and 227 in 2011.

More efforts have also been seen in the push for the use of digital financial services which through the introduction of micro digital savings and digital loans.

The government of Rwanda last year approved a Payment System Strategy (2018-2024) aimed at further developing systems and structures that will help realise cashless economy.

“We have challenges affecting the digital payment in Rwanda. We are therefore calling for collaboration between the public and private sector to promote better access, adoption, and usage of digital financial services and products,” Rwangombwa said.

In support of this chasless economy agenda, MTN says it has invested in 30,000 agents across the country, who are expected to educate consumers who don’t have access to television or radio.

Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants according to RURA is leveled at 81.39% (2018).

Kuasmeda
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Kuasmeda » 30 Oct 2019, 12:27

Super scavenger
Awash wrote:
30 Oct 2019, 12:10
Rwanda Makes Gains In Going Cashless

by Staff WriterOctober 30, 2019

Billions of money are being exchanged electronically among Rwandans at a highly growing rate despite challenges of behavior change.

Rwanda’s Central Bank (BNR) has today launched another phase of the digital payment awareness campaign which it says will be much wider than the one in 2017.

“The cashless journey has been progressive, with digital financial services increasing over time. Over the last eight years, the value of e-payments to GDP increased from 0.3% in 2011 to 34.6% in 2019,” John Rwangombwa the Central Bank Governor said at the launch Wednesday.

Earlier figures by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) showed that Mobile phone subscriptions had reached 9,665,544 in October 2018. The Agency said that about Rwf10.7 billion was transacted electronically last year.

He said it is complex to change people’s behaviour in a day, but with commitment and collaboration from the people seated in this room and other stakeholders, he is very certain it is doable.

According to the statistics Rwangombwa provided, digital loans have increased in volume by 270%, from 99,027 loans worth 1.9billion in 2017, to a volume of 367,103 loans in June 2019 worth 14.2 billion.

He notes that this has doubled the number of individuals accessing loans through formal financial services in just one year.

For example, the Governor revealed that as of June 2019, traditional Points of Sale machines using cards had increased to 3,046, compared to 2,801 in 2018 and 227 in 2011.

More efforts have also been seen in the push for the use of digital financial services which through the introduction of micro digital savings and digital loans.

The government of Rwanda last year approved a Payment System Strategy (2018-2024) aimed at further developing systems and structures that will help realise cashless economy.

“We have challenges affecting the digital payment in Rwanda. We are therefore calling for collaboration between the public and private sector to promote better access, adoption, and usage of digital financial services and products,” Rwangombwa said.

In support of this chasless economy agenda, MTN says it has invested in 30,000 agents across the country, who are expected to educate consumers who don’t have access to television or radio.

Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants according to RURA is leveled at 81.39% (2018).

Awash
Senior Member+
Posts: 30273
Joined: 07 Aug 2010, 00:35

Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 30 Oct 2019, 14:12

Kuasmeda wrote:
30 Oct 2019, 12:27
Super scavenger
Awash wrote:
30 Oct 2019, 12:10
Rwanda Makes Gains In Going Cashless

by Staff WriterOctober 30, 2019

Billions of money are being exchanged electronically among Rwandans at a highly growing rate despite challenges of behavior change.

Rwanda’s Central Bank (BNR) has today launched another phase of the digital payment awareness campaign which it says will be much wider than the one in 2017.

“The cashless journey has been progressive, with digital financial services increasing over time. Over the last eight years, the value of e-payments to GDP increased from 0.3% in 2011 to 34.6% in 2019,” John Rwangombwa the Central Bank Governor said at the launch Wednesday.

Earlier figures by Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency (RURA) showed that Mobile phone subscriptions had reached 9,665,544 in October 2018. The Agency said that about Rwf10.7 billion was transacted electronically last year.

He said it is complex to change people’s behaviour in a day, but with commitment and collaboration from the people seated in this room and other stakeholders, he is very certain it is doable.

According to the statistics Rwangombwa provided, digital loans have increased in volume by 270%, from 99,027 loans worth 1.9billion in 2017, to a volume of 367,103 loans in June 2019 worth 14.2 billion.

He notes that this has doubled the number of individuals accessing loans through formal financial services in just one year.

For example, the Governor revealed that as of June 2019, traditional Points of Sale machines using cards had increased to 3,046, compared to 2,801 in 2018 and 227 in 2011.

More efforts have also been seen in the push for the use of digital financial services which through the introduction of micro digital savings and digital loans.

The government of Rwanda last year approved a Payment System Strategy (2018-2024) aimed at further developing systems and structures that will help realise cashless economy.

“We have challenges affecting the digital payment in Rwanda. We are therefore calling for collaboration between the public and private sector to promote better access, adoption, and usage of digital financial services and products,” Rwangombwa said.

In support of this chasless economy agenda, MTN says it has invested in 30,000 agents across the country, who are expected to educate consumers who don’t have access to television or radio.

Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants according to RURA is leveled at 81.39% (2018).

Somaliman
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Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Somaliman » 07 Nov 2019, 16:37

Zmeselo wrote:
29 Oct 2019, 00:27
Somaliman brother, I advise you to let go. You'll never get a straight answer, from this willfully blind son of a whòre.

The worst part?

He has convinced himself that there's no one smarter than himself and that playing psychological hide & seek, will somehow, disqualify the truth.

He personally told me for instance, that the weyane deported his family from Ethiopia but now, he conveniently "has forgotten" who you're talking about.

How does that work? Either he doesn't truly give a shít about his family but the most likely scenario is that he has no deported family members, because he's very far from being an Eritrean.

I suggest you leave this- walking lie- to go to hell where he belongs like we all have decided to do, so he can talk to himself cos nobody here- like you said- gives a shít what he posts.



Brother Zmeselo,

I wasn't trying to reason with this idiot at all, but was just taking the pis.s out of him.

I totally agree with you; he can go to hell; thus, I'm not going to respond to his diarrhoea of the mouth any longer!

This scumbag has nothing to do with Eritrea, and I'm 1000% sure. This is no one else other than the usual farting Tigrayan donkey H Thomas, aka Abigael, who has been squatting on this forum 24/7 for over 10 consecutive years now, either praising the cult of all evil (tplf), or trying to find fault with Eritrea, in vain. He’s a tplf’s crimes apologist. I interacted with him tremendously in the past that I easily recognise his writing and his usual words - as he parrots the exact same thing all the time.

Awash
Senior Member+
Posts: 30273
Joined: 07 Aug 2010, 00:35

Re: Peaceful & safe, Asmara.

Post by Awash » 07 Nov 2019, 21:47

Rwanda ranked Africa’s top emerging travel destination


By Collins Mwai. November 07, 2019

Rwanda has been ranked as the top Africa destination to travel to in 2020 and among the top 30 globally by a ranking, Travel Lemming which recognizes trending destinations...
https://www.newtimes.co.rw/news/rwanda- ... estination

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