And you've NEVER set foot in Eritrea, cos you're originally not from there but from Tigray. So, what makes you more qualified to talk about Eritrea?
Eritrea finally explains October 2017 Asmara protest in letter to U.N.
By Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban
https://www.africanews.com/2018/03/17/e ... ter-to-un/
17/03/2018
In late October 2017, there was a report of rare protests in the Eritrean capital Asmara, leading the United States to issue a security alert to citizens in the country.
The U.S. Embassy has received reports of gunfire at several locations in Asmara due to protests. The Embassy advises U.S. citizens to avoid the downtown area where protests appear to be more prevalent.
Streets in the downtown area may be closed, and police continue to maintain a significant presence,
the statement cautioned back then.
Subsequent reports indicated that the government had carried out mass arrests over the incident. At the time the trigger of the protest was said to be a resistance on the part of a community-funded school against government regulation.
According to the government, that account was wrong because the school in question was a public facility which the administrators were wrongly running with principles contrary to Eritrea’s secular principles.
The government’s response which comes almost four-and-half months since the incident was contained in a Foreign Affairs Ministry response to a communication from the U.N. Special rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief,
Ahmed Shaheed.
The relevant portions explaining the October 31, 2017 affairs are as follows:
On the early afternoon of 31 October 2017 around 100 youth (students from the Al Diaa Private School and others in the neighborhood) marched from Akheria, a neighborhood in the northern periphery of Asmara to the al-Khulafa’ ar-Rashidun Mosque in the center of the city.
After the prayers, the unruly group, who were chanting sectarian and inflammatory slogans all the way, proceeded to Liberation Avenue and the Ministry of Education. At this stage, they began to throw stones and to attack the Police.
In the circumstances, the Police fired warning shots into the air and dispersed the crowd before they could incur damage to lives and property.
The Police subsequently detained, for questioning, several people involved in illicit acts of vandalism as well as principal culprits behind the whole episode.
These are indeed normative measures that the police in any country would take to ensure public safety by, in part, dispersing and apprehending people who have willingly engaged themselves in offences including the public disturbance of an otherwise peaceful city.
Al Diaa is a private school that falls within the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. It is not an Islamic School, as your letter insinuates, affiliated in administrative and policy respects to the Muslim Faith in the country. (Indeed, it was first established in 1969 as “Berhan Elementary School” open to all inhabitants of the Akheria community without discrimination on the basis of religion or ethnicity).
In subsequent years, and especially after independence, Al Diaa School began to gradually introduce practices that were in breach of the country’s secular education policy.
Among other things: access to the school was restricted to followers of the Islamic faith only; it introduced segregation of classes on the basis of gender; it stopped teaching on Fridays; and it breached national school guidelines on dress code and school uniforms; and it hired foreign nationals without valid permits and approval of the Ministry of Education regarding their qualifications.
The Ministry of Education held a series of meetings, over several months, with all relevant stakeholders of the School, including the Parents Committee, to rectify the overall situation.
When consensus was broadly reached, the School principal rejected the agreement and advocated for confrontational approaches. The incident happened against this backdrop of events.
pushkin. wrote: ↑24 May 2020, 20:05
Well you have not been in Eritrea since 1993, therefore your opinion about "Eritrean people & their govt are one & the same" is completely disproved by this protest video
and the Reaction of PIA, PFDJ, and his junta to this protest is Arrest....you don't speak for Eritrean people and neither does PIA and PFDJ...
PIA/PFDJ are a foreign-sponsored occupying force in Eritrea nothing else!
PFDJ is NOT EPLF ...
EPLF was started by Eritreans other than PIA, since you don't know the history and are just a follower of PIA's revisionist history...you wouldn't know and no matter does your opinion count anyways.... without PIA, PFDJ will be shown for the Shell USELESS criminal entity that the group really is!
A Truly Elected Government of the People would allow Protest not because they are In Charge because they literally will depend on the People to continue to Exist as a Government otherwise a Violent Overthrow.
PFDJ and PIA is banking on the Patience of the Eritrean People and the Civility of the Eritrean People and taking advantage of this...
Just know, all a revolution takes to Start is ONE INDIVIDUAL setting the FLAME of Rebellion against your corrupt, Illegal Squatting Occupying regime!
GET THE FU.CK OUT OF ERITREA...!!!!!
Zmeselo wrote: ↑24 May 2020, 19:57
For me, the Eritrean people & their govt are one & the same. So, a congratulations message to one is a congratulatory message to the other one also.
pushkin. wrote: ↑24 May 2020, 19:24
No congratulations to the GOE but to the People of Eritrea...also read this, this is complete criticism of PIA and his junta (includes you clown)...Eritreans will continue to resist and fight against PIA and his junta...keep looking for anything "good" about "PIA"..PIA will schit on whatever you post...he looks down on you, you groveling sniveling stupid cult worshipper!
the journey toward individual liberty and human rights, including the freedom to follow one's religious beliefs, never ends. The important thing is to be committed to making progress.
Zmeselo wrote: ↑24 May 2020, 16:37
A Congratulatory Message from Chargé d'Affaires Steve Walker, U.S. Embassy Asmara
I would like to congratulate all of our
Eritrean friends on the occasion of Eritrea's Independence Day. 29 years ago, Eritrea gained its independence after a gruelling 30-year struggle. This amazing victory was due to, as Information Minister Yemane tweeted last Wednesday, Eritreans' "unflinching conviction on the just cause, unparalleled commitment & resilience against all odds; ingenuity & creativity ... and high organizational competence."
These qualities of "resilience and progress" have continued to manifest themselves in the years since independence. It is my privilege to be Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Asmara as Eritrea continues its national journey.
I am reminded of my country's journey. When the United States won its independence, the only people who could vote were land-owning white men. We have come a long way since then, and despite the significant progress we have made expanding equality and civil rights, our journey is far from over. Democracy is always a work in progress;
the journey toward individual liberty and human rights, including the freedom to follow one's religious beliefs, never ends. The important thing is to be committed to making progress.
Happy Eritrean Independence Day!
- Charge de Affaires Steve Walker, U.S. Embassy Asmara
