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This is a response to the fiction published in Shabait.com (the Eritrean government’s official website) and presented as `news’ on 1St of July 2008 http://www.shabait.com/staging/publish/article_008519.html . In the 'news', Shabait claimed that the deportees were accorded warm welcome (by the ruling party's Director of Organizational Affairs, Abdella Jabir); that they expressed remorse for trying to leave the country; and that they would soon join their families and workplace.
Although it is sadly true that at least 700-800 Eritreans have been deported (up to a 1,000 according to Amnesty International figures) it is by no means true that `warm hospitality’ would be accorded them, unless imprisonment, torture and execution can be described as such. As for expressing `satisfaction’, no other form of expression would be allowed since the truth is censored and distorted by the media controlled by government at all times. All of these unfortunate Eritrean deportees from Egypt would be too terrified (quite literally, because terror is used as a means of control) to express any other opinion.
When Eritreans were forced to return from Malta in 2002, the same old lies were trotted out by the government’s media, which is the only media allowed to operate without interference.
For example, Mehari, a father of five was taken to a stranger’s house by soldiers and journalists from the state television (Eri-TV), where he had to pretend to be the happy owner of the house who was reunited with his family (a group of strangers) and was forced to say how wrong he had been to try to leave his country; how bad life was in diaspora; and to ask for forgiveness. After this sham, he was taken back to Adi-Abeto Prison where he had been staying since his forced return to Eritrea and where routine beatings and torture and malnutrition were recommenced. After two months in Adi-Abeto Prison he was taken, with about two hundred other men, to the notorious Dahlak Island Prison where the same conditions prevailed for over two years. He eventually escaped to Sudan from where he was resettled by UNHCR in Australia where he now leads a normal and happy life--that is to say free of torture and persecution and allowed to work.
Mehari is just one of the many who tried to escape to a decent life in another country, but sadly one of the few who succeed--too few due to the collusion of countries such as Egypt, Libya and Malta who forced return to the living hell which is Eritrea today. Of course, the government will deny that any of this is true. So how do they explain that tens of thousands of Eritreans of all ages and genders are trying to leave? And what motive does the government ascribe to the Human Rights agencies if all of this were invented?
Amanuel, Abraham, Goitom and Yusuf are four others who underwent this fairy-tale process before being returned to their prisons. They all appeared on a programme whose title translates to `Double Death’. This programme is repeatedly shown on Eri-TV. It is no more genuine than the photographs used to illustrate the article in Shabait.com. If they are really dancing, it is dancing at gunpoint. The first picture is more realistic since, if you look closely, those are not trees, but soldiers in the background and nobody is dancing on the gravel in the middle of nowhere.
Why should a cross-border be illegal? Why should anybody wanting a life free from persecution in another country be criminalised?
Does Mr Abdella Jabir (Head of Organisational Affairs at the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice) believe that anyone in the international community believes that Solomon, Amanuel and others unwilling mouthpieces are speaking the truth about what happens when they are forced to return, or indeed, why they felt compelled to leave in the first place?
As a `so-called human rights champion` I offer the above observations on your so-called hospitality. I also wish to `indicate’ that I very much doubt that the majority of these refugees will join their respective families’ unless those families are in prison. As for `workplace`, if by this I am to understand an indefinite term serving in the army, then, yes, this is the best any of them have to look forward to.
Elizabeth Chyrum Human Rights Concern - Eritrea 06 July 2008
awate note:: if you want to know what really happens to Eritreans who are deported back to Eritrea; or Eritreans who are caught while trying to cross the border, or Eritreans who overstay their military leaves of abseses, read testimonials of escapees. A sample is provided below. As to those who have been deported by Egypt to Eritrea, in time, a percentage of them will manage to escape (or, if their parents have the means, be escorted out of Eritrea by corrupt colonels and generals) and they will tell their testimonials to human rights activists like Elsa Chyrum.And their testimonials will bear no resembelance to the one concocted by Shabait. They will sound like the ones below:
Testimony of Eritreans Deported From Malta, Jailed In Dahlak
By Provided by Elsa Chyrum (Translation by Awate.com)
http://www.awate.com/artman/publish/article_4190.shtml
Testimony: The Torment At Gedem Prison
By Anon (submitted by Elsa Chyrum; translated by Awate Team) http://www.awate.com/artman/publish/article_4515.shtml The Infamous Adi Abeito Prison: A Testimonial
By Events Monitor
http://www.awate.com/artman/publish/article_3747.shtml |
