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[THEN ] September 19, 2001: Two agencies, RSF - Reporters Without Borders and CPJ – Committee to Protect Journalist protested the closure of Eritrea's private papers. RSF asked the President to lift the suspension and to publication of newspapers. Said CPJ’s Ann Cooper: “...believes that the newspapers were suspended in an effort to stifle public criticism of the Eritrean government. The licensing issue is clearly a pretext to justify this action and only confirms our view that licensing print media obstructs the exercise of press freedom." [NOW] September 20, 2002: CPJ "confirmed today" that the arrested journalists actually number 18. Said Ann Cooper: "The continued information blackout in Eritrea is outrageous, as is the government's elimination of all private media in the country. We strongly urge the government to release these journalists immediately and allow them to resume their work of reporting the news." RSF thinks the issue is beyond appealing to the "President" and took the extraordinary step of occupying the Eritrean Embassy in Paris, France. Said RSF: "It is unacceptable that, with complete impunity, a government can deprive a whole people of their right to be informed." [THEN] September 20, 2001: Amnesty International expressed concern on the arrest of the 11 Reformers and its fear that around 60 of their supporters may have been arrested as well. The human rights group urged: "All those who have been arrested should be brought to court promptly, charged with a recognizably criminal offence or released. Any trial should be held in accordance with international human rights standards and without recourse to the death penalty.” [NOW] September 18, 2002: Amnesty International issued a 22-page dossier documenting that, in addition to the well-known arrests of 11 government officials and 18 reporters, at least 18 more citizens have been arrested; 20 journalists have fled. It names names of people arrested/disappeared since 1991. It classifies those arrested after September 11 as "prisoners of conscience" and "political prisoners" and thus, worthy of immediate and unconditional release. [THEN] September 21, 2001: HRW - Human Rights Watch called on President Isaias Afwerki to “ immediately free recently detained political dissidents, allow the return of university students to their classes, and lift the ban it decreed as of Wednesday on privately owned newspapers. HRW’s quoted Mr. Suliman Baldo, a Senior Researcher of its Africa Division as saying “The government is trying to stamp out all criticism of its disastrous war policies. The situation is growing sharply worse." [NOW] HRW 2002 Eritrea Report: After chronicling all the well known abuses of citizens and what HRW called Eritreans' "shrinking liberties", the human rights watchdog group reported that "The accusations leveled at the Group of 15 members were sufficiently grave to fall within the jurisdiction of a secret Special Court established by presidential decree in 1996although at the time of writing charges had not been brought. The court's membership consisted of three military senior officers without legal training who reported directly to the Ministry of Defense. Defendants had no right to counsel or to appeal. In January 2001, the president issued a decree creating a Special Committee of Investigation to investigate "crimes against the state" as a complement to the Special Court. Among its members were the minister of justice and the head of the Eritrean intelligence service. [THEN] September 28 - 30, 2001: Mr. Antonio Bandini’s, Italy’s Ambassador to Eritrea, as well as EU’s Ambassador to Eritrea, was given a 72-hour deadline to leave the country. Mr. Bandini had presented the Eritrean government with EU’s “demarche”—a document expressing grave expression at Eritrea’s political direction. The Eritrean government stated that the reason for the expulsion is Mr. Bandini’s engagement in activities that “were not compatible” with his diplomatic duties. [NOW] September 22, 2002: After a year without representation in Eritrea, Italy named Mr. Emmanuelle Pignatelli as the new Italian ambassador to Eritrea. "Vindicated!" said the supporters of the government of Eritrea. Mr. Pignatelli's background within the Italian Foreign Ministry office is that of a strong advocate of human rights and is likely to monitor the Eritrea's abuse of its citizen and, along with the EU Ambassadors, report it to his government.
[THEN] September 30, 2001: Ambassador Tesfay "Chegae" Ghirmazion, Eritrea’s representative to the EU, submitted his resignation by reporting: "I have chosen to disassociate myself from a system that has increasingly become intolerant to divergent views and resorts to illegal ways of silencing its people." After his resignation, the Eritrean government accused him of leaving “his job without prior notification to the government or giving any reason as regards his action.” [NOW] September 6, 2002: Abdella Adem, Eritrea's Ambassador to Sudan, resigned his post. According to the government, "Abdella told his colleagues in the Eritrean Embassy in Khartoum that he was driving to Eritrea but then boarded a plane to Europe." Well, at least that is what Shaebia.org reported on September 6, 2002. Good luck trying to find the news now: Shaebia.org has removed it on the theory that if Shaebia doesn't report something, or if it changes its mind on what it reported, then the incident didn't happen. Never mind that the news report has been picked up by the world. In the end, that is the message: you can either believe the world or believe the government. To believe the government is, by definition, to disbelieve the world. This is why every government supporter finds it necessary to declare war on the world: on journalists, on human rights organizations, on churches, on mosques, on.....
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