Mereja Forum

[Awash]

Eritrean President Accused of Crimes Against Humanity in Sweden

By Samuel Gebre October 22, 2020 (not 1885) 5:00 AM EDT

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and seven other senior officials have been accused of crimes against humanity by a press freedom group for detaining a Swedish journalist, Dawit Isaak, for almost two decades.

Reporters Without Borders filed the complaint in Sweden and is calling for a “serious criminal investigation” into the torture, abduction and enforced disappearance of Isaak, who was arrested in 2001 when he returned to the Horn of African nation to run a newspaper. He holds dual Eritrean and Swedish nationality.

The move is “too preposterous and ludicrous to merit response,” Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea’s minister of information, said in a phone message.

Afwerki has been president of Eritrea since the country secured independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The country has no free press, and ranks 178th out of 180 countries on a World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, ahead of only North Korea and Turkmenistan.

“Justice in Eritrea will not progress as long as these persons are able to act with complete impunity and no attempt is made to convict them by the countries that can,” lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, one of the complaint’s signatories, said in a statement on Wednesday

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomb ... -in-sweden

[eden]

This received huge coverage in Addis as well. I think we should get justice inside Eritrea, not in other countries. Sovereignty is important

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[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Few historic events have been as closely associated with European empire building and the colonization of Africa as the Berlin conference on West Africa of 1884–85. Time after time it is reproduced in post-colonial discourses, and referred to as the epitome of Europe’s political, economic and cultural domination of Africa.

The quote above comes from the homepage of the Sweden’s inter-national development agency (Sida). It is just one example of how the Berlin conference is made to symbolize colonization, European exploitation and global injustices in the past. However, what few Swedes know – and probably even fewer people in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo – is that Sweden participated in the conference and fully embraced the agreements made there. While King Leopold may have led a colonial enterprise of unmatched brutishness, all the Scandinavian countries gave him their blessing back in 1885. Of the Europeans participating in Leopold’s exploitative machinery in the Congo, Swedes were the third most numerous. The many Swedish missionaries in the Congo depended on Leopold’s harsh administration. Some even bought slaves to keep at the mission stations.

[Degnet]

This received huge coverage in Addis as well. I think we should get justice inside Eritrea, not in other countries. Sovereignty is important

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Tigrians need to do the same against those in Mekelle.Bezaeba Erirea Eritrawian yezarebelu TPLF zeydegefe keneber aykelen zeblewo gega eyu,entezey degifka wala hanti right yeblekan.In the country of the blind,one eyed man is the king eyu negeru.

[Temt]

Few historic events have been as closely associated with European empire building and the colonization of Africa as the Berlin conference on West Africa of 1884–85. Time after time it is reproduced in post-colonial discourses, and referred to as the epitome of Europe’s political, economic and cultural domination of Africa.

The quote above comes from the homepage of the Sweden’s inter-national development agency (Sida). It is just one example of how the Berlin conference is made to symbolize colonization, European exploitation and global injustices in the past. However, what few Swedes know – and probably even fewer people in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo – is that Sweden participated in the conference and fully embraced the agreements made there. While King Leopold may have led a colonial enterprise of unmatched brutishness, all the Scandinavian countries gave him their blessing back in 1885. Of the Europeans participating in Leopold’s exploitative machinery in the Congo, Swedes were the third most numerous. The many Swedish missionaries in the Congo depended on Leopold’s harsh administration. Some even bought slaves to keep at the mission stations.

There come the IMFs, WTOs to the rescue of the goog magoogs nigas who have been shamelessly subservient to the whites! LOL!

[Awash]

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

One good thing about being an agame is that, you can change your nationality based on which country has got a beef with Eritrea. For example, Sweden salivating over the massive mineral and oil deposits in Eritrea has made many agames overnight Swedish nationals, changing their staples food's name from Tihlo to Swedish meatballs to feel good about their new-found Swedish nationality.

[Fed_Up]

One good thing about being an agame is that you can change your nationality based on which country has got a beef with Eritrea. For example, Sweden salivating over the massive mineral and oil deposits in Eritrea has made many agames overnight Swedish nationals, changing their staples food's name from Tihlo to Swedish meatballs to feel good about their new Swedish nationality.

So true

[Zmeselo]

These kinds of police reports have been lodged twice previously, in 2015 & 17. The police went to the Swedish foreign office with what to do with it, & the response they recieved was there's nothing that can be done; the person being a dual citizenship holder. And in International law, at least on paper, one nationality is not better than another.

Sweden is completely off Eritrea's radar, normally. Only when the Swedish diaspora needs organizing or be given a lecture on a certain issue in their yearly festivities, then some Minister is sent to attend. That, they can live without, until Sweden behaves.

[Awash]

According to Statistics Sweden, as of 2019, there are a total 45,734 Eritrea-born immigrants living in Sweden. Of those, 39,728 are citizens of Eritrea (22,705 men, 17,023 women). In 2016, there were also 19 registered remigrations from Sweden to Eritrea.

God bless Sweden. Where would my brothers & sisters be without the liberty and freedom of Sweden.


Swedish politician

[Awash]

[Wedi]

This man is criminal. He must be brought to justice and hanged alive!!

[Zmeselo]

My people? Self confessed Ethiopian, since when are Eritreans- Ethiopian?

Now go ahead, & hate him back!

[quindibu]

Who are the accusers?


"Atrocities were mostly committed against adults -- women were kidnapped and men were killed. Children, on the other hand, were often indirect victims of the system of terror, not of hanging,” Pierre-Luc Plasman, author of Leopold II, Potentat congolais (Leopold II, Tyrant of the Congo) said in an email.

“Violence during village attacks was brutal and immediate, not staged (like in the photograph).”

From 1885 to 1908, the country now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was known as the Congo Free State. Under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium, private companies were given free rein to extract the country’s rich natural resources. Colonialists committed well-documented atrocities against the Congolese people during this period, including the murder of labourers who failed to meet their production quotas for goods such as rubber and ivory.





https://factcheck.afp.com/does-photo-re ... hild-congo

[Zmeselo]

I feel your pain!...............NOT!

This man is criminal. He must be brought to justice and hanged alive!!

[kerenite]

This is sad news lol,

It means we won't see our beloved monkey and his other 5 Co here in europe.

Oromay.. chaw..

It was long overdue but better late than never.

[pushkin]

In a region where war, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, trafficking, corruption, land grabbing are symptoms of an Africa that has not liberated itself from the destructive external neo-colonial forces. Eritrea is a threat of a good example against the neoliberal domination of Africa and is being punished by a UN apparatus, that never has done anything to help Eritrea to become an independent nation. Almost all lies have been revealed, especially to the west, since they (west) tried to ignore and not to recognize their own mistakes and crime against us Eritreans. Even the ongoing EU faked and garbage reports will be challenged by the wave of reality on the ground. The current ultimate crime against humanity in the case of Eritrea is the strategy of undermining and destroying the efforts of Eritrea to build a society committed to peace and social security. Eritrea is a sovereign nation that can not be threatened by spy organizations whose interest is only to exploit its natural resources. Just like their previous successors, they will definitely fail

[lil kogne]

Asswash aka awetash and her cohorts got some shiit to run with for a few days . lol. She has been quiet and subdued for a while cause her chigray kilil and the dedebit leaders has been in a bind financially, economically and security wise for Abey has denied them their kilil budget and the locust has being doing a number on their beleaguered insignificant kilil. Now The Asswash , wey-ane booty licker got some air to breathe for a while talking about the Swede government accusations hoping to do something about ErI what the Agames tried and failed miserably. Self confessed Agame , why not help your poor countrymen by sending whistles ( Fishka) in order to fight the locust invasion . lol.

[Temt]

In a region where war, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, trafficking, corruption, land grabbing are symptoms of an Africa that has not liberated itself from the destructive external neo-colonial forces. Eritrea is a threat of a good example against the neoliberal domination of Africa and is being punished by a UN apparatus, that never has done anything to help Eritrea to become an independent nation. Almost all lies have been revealed, especially to the west, since they (west) tried to ignore and not to recognize their own mistakes and crime against us Eritreans. Even the ongoing EU faked and garbage reports will be challenged by the wave of reality on the ground. The current ultimate crime against humanity in the case of Eritrea is the strategy of undermining and destroying the efforts of Eritrea to build a society committed to peace and social security. Eritrea is a sovereign nation that can not be threatened by spy organizations whose interest is only to exploit its natural resources. Just like their previous successors, they will definitely fail

Indeed "fail" they shall be as they have done many times before. It is one thing to accuse a nation that trembles when its master sneezes, but it is totally another and useless when such irresponsible hypocrisy is aimed at Eritrea, a country that never gives a hoot to neocolonialists no matter under what hues and color they may come. Just remember you are dealing with nonother than Eritrea, the land of the brave and proud, not the goog magoog "leaders" you routinely bully around.

[Zmeselo]

Eritrea: ‘Swedish Citizenship Does Not Confer any Special Privileges’

27 Nov 2017

‘Dawit Isaak’s alleged crimes are not his journalism, or his views – but his association with the G-15 opposition group’


Minister Yemane G. Meskel: “The substantive question is simple: regardless of the fact that Dawit Isaak is both Swedish and Eritrean, … crime has been committed in Eritrea and the state in which the crime was committed must deal with it.”

BY MARTIN SCHIBBYE | BLANK SPOT *

https://www.blankspot.se/eritreas-infor ... ivilegier/

(* Software translation from Swidish)

New signs of life from Asmara. In an interview with Martin Schibbye, the Eritrean Minister of Information believes that a solution to the issue of Dawit Isaak must also provide a solution for all those arrested in 2001.

At the top of a mountain overlooking the capital Asmara, is the Eritrea Department of Information. The building is located on a cliff, that symbolically hovers over the city.

Since 2001, the Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has been locked up without either prosecution or judgement. Something that prompted the UN to accuse Eritrea of crimes against humanity.

The Information Minister Yemame Gebremeskel is accustomed to talking about the case and is also one of those who can influence his fate.

But he thinks, the case has been given too much proportions.

Reducing the historical relationship between our countries to a misunderstanding about Dawit Isaak is unfortunate and unfair,

says the information minister in his office.


In front of the Ministry of Information, large water tanks are being built to solve the shortage of water in the capital.

The substantive question is simple: regardless of the fact that Dawit is both Swedish and Eritrean, he believes that his crime has been committed in Eritrea and then the state in which the crime was committed must deal with it.

Dawit Isaak’s alleged crimes are, according to the minister, not his journalism, or his views – but that he was part of the opposition group G-15.

He was in a group that we accuse of treason, so it is not possible to separate him from the group.

Q : I think the outside world would be very positive if you only show a sign of life from him, a hairline? Or did anyone meet him?

The problem is this: why is this a case, that Sweden is pushing so hard that it almost risks the whole of EU cooperation with Eritrea? He is one of 15 people whom we charge for something serious, so why should Dawit be separated out of that group? We look at his case, as we look at the other Eritreans who were arrested 2001.

Q : But if you look ahead – is there a solution in the future for the group? Any time frame for a trial?

It is not I, who can answer that. I can only talk about it in abstract terms and point out that we cannot apply discrimination or specialize him just because he is also Swedish, when it’s a whole group it’s about. So what do you do then?

Q : Yes, what do you do?

He is treated like the other Eritreans, that he has a Swedish citizenship gives no special privileges.


Martin Schibbye has just returned from Eritrea and is working on a new, longer series of reports from the country. The above statements are part of further interviews with the ministers that addressed several issues and will be published in the future.