Mr. Younis Hossein Omer, a Director at Eritrea�s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has resigned from his post.   In a resignation letter dated October 21, 2002, the former diplomat describes his duties as trying �to cover-up and/or justify serious human rights abuses by the government against former comrades and fellow citizens� and, by resigning, he asserts that he wishes to �disassociate myself from the crimes perpetuated on the Eritrean peoples by the government and the PFDJ.�

Mr. Younis Hossein Omer background includes serving as a member of the Executive Committee of Eritrea�s student union in Sudan and, following several assignments, directorship within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A copy of the resignation letter follows:

To: H.E. Mr. Ali Said Abdella,
       Minister of Foreign Affairs
       The State of Eritrea
       Asmara

Subject:: Resignation

Dear Minister,

It is with deep sadness and despair that I have decided to resign from my post as Director of Your Excellency's office. The general context of my resignation is related to the most recent unfortunate developments in our country and must be obvious to Your Excellency as they are obvious to whoever has a bit of personal dignity and political honesty in our country today.

I decline to work against the basics of my moral and political beliefs of standing for democracy and the respect of basic human rights for our people. I decline to contribute to our government's efforts directed towards turning Eritrea into a huge and horrible prison for whoever wakes up with the beautiful dream of a democratic government and respect of basic human rights. It betrays my national conscience and integrity to work as a "Diplomat" whose main tasks are to cover-up and/or justify serious human rights abuses by the government against former comrades and fellow citizens.

Under such unfortunate situation that our country delved into, I obeyed my moral stand, personal diginity and national duty and decided to discontinue serving the process of disfranchising the statehood of Eritrea.

Effective this date, I disassociate myself from the crimes perpetuated on the Eritrean peoples by the government and the PFDJ.

Respectfully yours,

Younis Hossein Omer