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Now police reports imprisoned journalist Dawit Isaak three lawyers Eritrea’s top management

– President Esayas Afewerki, justice minister, defense minister, foreign minister and presidential advisor.

They are reported for crimes against humanity, torture and enforced disappearance.

– We want to put pressure on those who are personally liable for Dawit’s incarceration, says Jonathan Lundqvist, President of Reporters Without Borders.

Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak, imprisoned in September 2001 and has been in prison for almost 13 years without trial or judgment.

According to Reporters Without Borders has seven of the journalists arrested while Isaak died in Eritrean prisons. Now the lawyers Jesús Alcalá, Percy Bratt and Prisca Orsonneau, which is Reporters Without Borders legal coordinator in Paris, decided to notify the police the country’s top management.

Can be examined by a Swedish court

– The people we now report are all in the Eritrean leadership bears full responsibility for Dawit Isaak, imprisoned. Therefore we want the Swedish police are investigating the matter and will take them in for questioning if they come to Sweden, says lawyer Percy Bratt.

The new right of crimes against humanity in Sweden has not been tried before. Now may be the first time. The law applies from 1 July. The law means that the Swedish court may examine crimes against humanity regardless of who committed them or where they are committed. Police report means that the Swedish authorities to take action against the notified people when they come to Sweden.

That Mess Eritrean festival. Do not calm down the protests around the big international event Eritrea Bologna Festival to be held in Bologna 4 to 6 July 2014. Accomplice error of form and substance councilor welfare of Bologna, Amelia Frascaroli, that a few months ago the approval granted to the event, forgetting the many complaints of the international organizations that have recognized the authoritarian system in place in Eritrea which limits the political freedom of the press, and has informally suspended elections for 20 years (unofficial estimates recorded 10 thousand political prisoners and 360 dungeons ed.) ”The historical and cultural confusion in Italy is so great, is among the parties that the institutions,” says the fattoquotidiano.it Dania Avallone Coordination of Democratic Eritrea, ”not even on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be noted the dictatorial system of the Eritrean government of Isaias Afewerki.”

The Avallone, biologist, from ’93 to 2001 to work for the ministry of marine resources Eritrean – ”with local minimum wage,” says – Principals will participate in the non-violent and counter-information that the association Asper held in Bologna in conjunction with the Festival ”organized – as they say the protesters – directly from the regime in Asmara to make propaganda.” More than ten thousand people are expected to Parco Nord in Bologna on the weekend to follow the four stages of the event offending with live music, meetings and celebrations, officially, the 40th anniversary of the Eritrean festival that was held in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna in 1974. other times and other roles and historical meanings: beyond the Eritrean war of Independence against the neighboring Ethiopians, here’s devotion to the leader Isaias Afewerki, the protagonist of the articulated and long socialist revolution in his country during the eighties and the 1993 undisputed leader of government no longer inconsistent. ”We tried not to make this festival – said Siid Negash always Coordination of Democratic Erirtrea – now with our presence outside North Park with a garrison for the entire duration of the event and with a public seminar on the chairs of the Cinema Under the stars in Piazza Maggiore in the afternoon of July 5, we want to say to our countrymen peacefully that you may be out by the regime and express what you think.

With us, there will also be consuls and ambassadors who have long since abandoned the scheme, which unfortunately will be held in Bologna. ”Yes, because the mess has a certain lightness combined with historical and political welfare Frascaroli the commissioner, former Sel now the Democratic Party: ”We thought it was a normal local festival of the Eritrean community in Bologna, for it had given the green light”; even if the embarrassment was immediately turned into dissociation, at least symbolically, ”Now no longer have the patronage and even aid economic or logistical.” Difficult for the junta Merola retrace their steps in view of the massive machine logistics put in place by the organization of FestivalBolognaEritrea that between the performance of dozens of artists coming directly from the country of the Horn of Africa, will also have a direct bearing on the TV Asmara and President Isaias Afewerki. ”Saturday afternoon in the square show the video of the journalist Fabrizio Gatti where we talk about everything going wrong with Eritrea,” it said Avallone, ”Italy has awakened the case just in front of dozens of Eritrean refugees died at sea in Lampedusa. ”The appearance, however, that the Italian political parties do not understand – she explains – ”is the dramatic situation of the members of the so-called ’diaspora’ of Eritrea. Let’s talk about two million people across Europe and in Italy for two types of migration: wealthy families came from Eritrea via many years ago with young graduates who organize events like those of Bologna and recent refugee children and young people with nothing, angry and traumatized . In addition there is the formal support of the embassy that in the document sent to the Ministry of the Interior has defined a gang of troublemakers terrorists. ”

By: il Fatto Emilia Romalia

Australia has joined international condemnation of the African nation of Eritrea for alleged human rights violations.

(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)

Australia has joined international condemnation of the African nation of Eritrea for alleged human rights violations.

A report to the UN’s Human Rights Council has found thousands of civilians are fleeing Eritrea every month because of the actions of their government.

It’s calling on the Eritrean government to take bold steps to address human rights abuses, to stop the outflow of refugees.

Dragana Mrkaja reports.

In her latest report to the Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur for Eritrea, Sheila Keetharuth, has again listed a series of serious concerns.

She says one of the main reasons people are fleeing from Eritrea is the system of compulsory military service, introduced after the war against Ethiopia that led to independence in 1991.

Ms Keetharuth says in many cases, national service has become a form of indefinite forced labour.

”Initially, the majority of Eritreans embraced the idea of an 18 month long national service, to support the development and reconstruction of the country after the independence struggle. Many Eritreans returned from abroad to serve the country. However, in the meantime, the authorities have transformed the national service into a system by which they force people to work for the State for lengthy periods, sometimes until retirement age, without adequate remuneration.”

Ms Keetharuth is also critical of secret detention centres which she says are used for those who refuse to undergo military service, as well as political prisoners, journalists, returned asylum seekers, and members of some religious groups.

The Special Rapporteur says there’s a disconnect between the goals of individual Eritreans and the expectations their government is forcing upon them.

She says it’s time for the international community to force the government to abide by international human rights standards.

”I call on the Council and on the international community to address the recurrent human rights violations in Eritrea, spawning a monthly exodus of 2,000 to neighbouring Ethiopia alone and almost 2,000 to Sudan in May 2014. The mass flight of Eritreans, young and old, would subside if the cycle of impunity for persistent human rights violations were to be broken.”

Australian UN representative Ruth Stone expressed shock over the findings of Ms Keetharuth’s latest report.

”Australia remains deeply concerned by the widespread and systematic human rights violations raised in the Special Rapporteur’s report, including extra judicial killings, torture, infringement of freedom of movement, expression and opinion, sexual and gender-based violence, violations of children’s rights, harsh and life threatening prison conditions and incommunicado detention.”

The Special Rapporteur says her report is based on credible sources, even though she’s been refused permission to visit Eritrea.

Sheila Keetharuth says she’s also had limited access to Eritrean refugees in some countries.

”Access to Eritrean refugees and migrants on the territories of neighbouring countries to collect first-hand information has also not been very forthcoming. I therefore appeal to the 14 member states that have not responded or that responded negatively to my visit request to grant me access to facilitate the delivery of the mandate that the Human Rights Council entrusted to me.”

However, Eritrean representative Tesfamicael Gerahtu has rejected the Special Rapporteur’s findings.

He says it’s just the latest evidence of what he describes as an agenda against Eritrea.

”We do not want to go into the detail of responding to this highly sensational and seemingly appealing statement, as we have done so many times in responding to the various issues that have been raised. ”

Mr Gerahtu says the Eritrean people have been fighting for decades against occupation of their territory, and is already facing a series of UN sanctions.

He says the government is doing all it can to address human rights concerns.

”Politically motivated allegations disguised as human rights issues have also constituted another front, posing challenges to my country. Eritrea readily acknowledges, like all other countries, that it faces human rights challenge that the government constantly fights and seeks to address. The categorisation applied of clause violation of human rights in Eritrea is, however, totally unacceptable.”

Eritrea wasn’t alone in the Human Rights Council, with the representative of Sudan warning against double standards and politicisation.

Sudan said the Eritrean government had shown it was making efforts to protect human rights.

Nevertheless, the majority of countries that spoke on the issue were supportive of the Special Rapporteur and her findings.

Australian representative Ruth Stone urged Eritrean officials to work with Ms Keetharuth to resolve the concerns she’s raised.

”Australia encourages Eritrea to improve its engagement with the Special Rapporteur in order to arrive at long lasting human rights solutions that comply with international standards.”

Australia is home to about 3000 people from Eritrea – most of them refugees.

Hundreds of asylum seekers evicted Colombians established by the woods near the community of Nitzan Negev in violent confrontations with the police. UNHCR expressed concern about the operation of power. ”Action indicates desperation”

Hundreds of asylum seekers were evacuated yesterday (Sunday) in violent clashes with police, erected tents in the woods near the community of Nitzan. The police took some force to the bus, and reported that some of the asylum seekers were throwing stones at police. At the end of the evacuation asylum seekers were taken to prison in the Negev crescents. Shortly thereafter, declared that asylum seekers begin hunger strike.

Protesters called on UNHCR to intervene in the situation and ensure the provision of rights as asylum seekers. ”Cops here use a lot of force and violence,” said one asylum seekers Walla News during the evacuation. ”Now they take a woman by force, the situation here is not good. They played for two buses and now they continue to take us by force. ”

UNHCR yesterday released an unusual statement, which expressed concern the use of force against asylum seekers. ”UNHCR calls on the government and especially the Minister of Interior, Minister of Public Security and the Minister of Defense to avoid using force, and make an effort to create a dialogue with the protesting asylum seekers” stated, ”this asylum seekers adopted indicates hopelessness and despair they feel as a result of separation from the community and their transfer to the sands for an indefinite period.”

Commission also called on the government to revisit its policy toward asylum seekers, improve their conditions at the facility sands, although devices are defined as open, but according operates and is managed detention facility, any person entitled to international protection should not be held in the coercion, as well as check their asylum request within reasonable period of time.

On Friday left about 700 asylum seekers from the facility ”sands” in the Negev where they stayed, protest march towards the border with Egypt to protest the conditions of their maintenance. Way IDF forces arrested them claiming that if they keep the border are threatened. They refused to return to the facility stay even though the law requires them to do so, and took two nights in the woods near the community of Nitzan. ”We do not intend to return to the facility, to Blue,” they said at the time march. ”the place is a prison, you are not free, there is no health care, and we can not return to this facility.”

GENEVA, Friday

The UN’s top human rights body launched an investigation on Friday into widespread abuses in Eritrea, including extrajudicial executions, torture and forced military conscription that can last decades.

“The human rights crisis in Eritrea has been forgotten for too long and the scale of violations is unparalleled, putting the country among the worst human rights situations worldwide,” Somalia’s representative to the UN in Geneva, Yusuf Mohamed Ismail Bari-Bari, told the council.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution tabled by Somalia and France establishing a one-year special commission of inquiry into the situation in the autocratic Horn of Africa state.

China, Pakistan, Venezuela and Russia refused to join the consensus, but the resolution passed without a vote, calling for the creation of a three-member investigation team to probe “all alleged violations of human rights in Eritrea.”

RESOLUTION SLAMMED

The team will include the UN’s current monitor on the rights situation in the country, Sheila Keetharuth, and is set to present its findings to the 47-member council during its February-March session next year.

Eritrea’s representative on the council, Teestamicael Gehrahtu, slammed the resolution which he said was made up of “fabrications, wrong perceptions and baseless assumptions” used to create the illusion of a “fake crisis.”

He accused Eritrea’s arch-enemy Ethiopia of orchestrating the resolution in a bid to raise international pressure on his country.

Keetharuth told the council last week that brutal government repression and Eritrea’s system of open-ended conscription of all men and women at the age of 18 was driving nearly 4,000 Eritreans to flee the country every month.

She told reporters that many in Eritrea are forced to toil for hardly any pay in the military and other state jobs, including in ministries and schools, until retirement age.

MILITARY TRAINING CAMPS

Friday’s resolution equated the system with “forced labour.”

It said children are forced to complete their final year of school in military training camps, and deplored the “intimidation and detention of those suspected of evading national service in Eritrea and their family members.”

Friday’s resolution also strongly condemned other serious rights violations committed under the iron-grip rule of President Issaias Afeworki, including “cases of arbitrary and extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, the use of torture, arbitrary and incommunicado detention without recourse to justice, and detention in inhumane and degrading conditions.”

Eritrea is also ranked last in the world for press freedom by the rights group Reporters Without Borders.