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Eritrea Under Fire for Righs Abuses at U.N. Review

(AFP) Geneva — Enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture were just a few of the violations Eritrea was accused of during a UN review of its human rights record Monday. Diplomats gathered at the U.N. Human

(AFP) Geneva — Enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture were just a few of the violations Eritrea was accused of during a UN review of its human rights record Monday.

Diplomats gathered at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva condemned the isolated and autocratic country’s brutal repression of basic rights, charging the lack of freedom was prompting a mass exodus.

The government of Eritrea’s “widespread violation of human rights and the lack of prospects for participatory democracy contribute to large numbers of Eritreans fleeing the country,” U.S. representative Peter Mulrean told the assembly.

He was echoing the concerns of many of the 70 state representatives who spoke at Eritrea’s so-called Universal Periodic Review, which all 193 U.N. countries must undergo every four years.

Chile and others urged the country to probe all reports of enforced disappearances, Denmark said it had done far too little to eliminate torture, while Estonia lamented the “disregard of freedom of expression.”

Tesfamichael Gerahtu, Eritrea’s ambassador to Britain, batted away the slew of charges, insisting that if anything was limiting human rights in Eritrea, it was the “unjustified sanctions” imposed on the country by the international community.

“To add insult to injury, Eritrea has been subjected to a litany of accusations of gross violations of human rights,… (that) are mainly motivated by sinister political agendas,” he told the council.

Reporters Without Borders has ranked it the worst country in the world for press freedom, but Gerahtu insisted “There is no media censorship in Eritrea.”

He said the 10 journalists and 11 opposition politicians arrested in a 2001 crackdown — many of whom have since died in custody while others are still being held in secrete locations “were not detained because they expressed their ideas, (but because of) treason.”

“I wish there had been a lie-detector device there. It was a mockery,” exiled Eritrean journalist and writer Dessale Berekhet Abraham told AFP after listening to the session.

The 38-year-old who now lives in Norway said he knew Gerahtu well — he was once his teacher at Eritrea’s Revolution School — and that he didn’t take the “lies” personally.

“What else could he say if he wants to go back to Eritrea?” he asked.

Gerahtu meanwhile called on the U.N. diplomats to focus on Eritrea’s progress in areas like reducing maternal and child mortality rates and in fighting HIV, as well as its 2007 law banning female genital mutilation.

And, he said, the country would hold its first free elections since it won independence from Ethiopia in 1993 and implement a 1997 constitution once the threats against its “national security” had dissipated.

“Eritrea’s security situation does not and never has justified the denial of basic human rights to its people,” the British representative said.

Only when the country has a democratically elected government and a constitution that ensures basic rights “will Eritreans stop fleeing,” he added.

The U.N. refugee agency has registered more than 300,000 Eritreans refugees in neighboring countries, with thousands fleeing every month, often under very dangerous conditions.

Eritreans, along with Somalis, accounted for most of the more than 300 migrants who perished in a boat tragedy off Italy’s Lampedusa last October.

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Review overview
52 COMMENTS
  • Rus February 5, 2014

    wedi Gerahtu you can not mislead us with your rubbish lies; as the brother Dessale Bereket (jornalist) said above,I wish there has been alie-deterctor device there; he is right you would have shaken or terified,even to see it; you are lieing to youself; you concience wil judge you. I think also you could have nightmares. come to your senses; wake-up.

  • Metkel February 5, 2014

    wedi Gerahtu,
    I am glad that I am not your relative. Shame to his family. ሓተላ.

  • haile February 6, 2014

    Listen ladys and gents wedi gerahtu is not a human think he is a material he say what isayas want hear he is not a lier his brain, heart, and so on they are safe in to the bank. But he is using ygdef mentality just forget about him and les go for ward to safe Eritrea from desister.

  • bk June 8, 2014

    Wedi Gerahtu you disgust me and you call yourself Eritrean shame shame !!!!!!!!!!!

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