Articles

Friday, 14 April 2017 20:06

Dutch court upholds mayor’s Eritrean conference ban

Written by DutchNews,nl

Opponents of the conference demonstrate on Thursday. Photo: Bram Saeys v HH

The decision by Veldhoven’s mayor to ban a conference by the only political party permitted in Eritrea was upheld by a court in Den Bosch on Friday afternoon.

The organisers of the conference went to court to have the ban against their meeting at a conference centre in Veldhoven lifted.

Mayor Jack Mikkers said on Thursday evening he would not allow the meeting to go ahead, after police arrested over 100 demonstrators who had gathered outside the conference centre where the gathering was due to be held.

The 128 people arrested were all released from custody on Friday morning and the public prosecution department has yet to decide if any of them should face charges, broadcaster NOS said.

The People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, the only political party permitted in Eritrea, had planned to hold its annual youth European conference in the Netherlands this weekend.

Despite the ban, local broadcaster Omroep Brabant said the meeting had started on Friday afternoon. According to the conference Facebook page, some 500 people are in attendance.

However, a spokeswoman for the conference centre told the broadcaster that an alternative programme of music is taking place instead.

Provocation

Many Eritrean refugees in the Netherlands regard the conference as an act of provocation, Tilburg University professor Mirjam van Reisen told NOS earlier this week. ‘The government wants to show the Eritrean community that it still rules in the Netherlands,’ she said.

Eritrea has been condemned by the UN for crimes against humanity and the UN estimates hundreds of thousands of Eritreans have fled the country in recent years.

Dutch government ministers said earlier this week they were unhappy about the meeting being held on Dutch soil but that there were no grounds to ban it in advance.

Source=http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/04/eritrean-conference-organisers-appeal-ban-in-dutch-court/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

Friday, 14 April 2017 19:14

Do the Eritrean Opposition Political Organizations own the struggle from Dictatorship to Democracy in Eritrea?

Written by Fesseha Nair

Part 2

By Fesseha Nair

Assessing and reassessing these conferences, dialogues, seminars and workshops that have been held in Ethiopia in the past 20 years are important requirements as experiences of bringing together the stakeholders. The aim of the meetings held in Ethiopia to unite the forces for democratic change in Eritrea to go forward and renew energy to those who really struggle for democratic change in Eritrea. They were instruments but not ends in themselves.

This article is part 2 of the article titled, " Do the Eritrean Opposition Political Organizations own the struggle from Dictatorship to Democracy in Eritrea?"

This article will delve on addressing the real causes of conflict in the Eritrean political life. The kind of conflict inside the Eritrean Opposition is a deep -rooted conflict based on identities This deep-rooted conflict has never got the right solution from the very beginning of Eritrean political struggle for self-determination and later during the armed liberation struggle and now at this time of struggle from dictatorship to democracy.

Eritrean leaders have inherited violent and destructive conflict management and this authoritarian and totalitarian culture of excluding, ignoring or attempting to eliminate others has never brought peace inside and outside Eritrea.

Developing a national awareness requires objectivity, tolerance of cultural difference and knowledge of the diverse Eritrean people's history and their struggle for independence and freedom. Tolerance is understanding cultural differences inside Eritreans and accepting and working with them. No culture is better or worse. The discussions going on in the social media are harming the Eritrean diversity. The arguments by some elements have no historical traces but oral defamations by some retarded individuals. Arguments such as Muslims cannot lead or such persons from lowland or other places in Eritrea cannot lead or come to leadership is not objective and realistic.

Leadership or management skills have no relationship with your religion or ethnicity.

Such arguments simply coming from those who in desperation living in the western world are not from the reality and objectivity of living together does not mean that you must have the same culture and religion. Human beings live together by respecting each others diversity at national and global level. Let us tell these irredentists that the Eritrean Independence and territorial integrity is irreversible. Eritrean people has lived together in peace before the birth of Eritrean nationhood even before the world's nations were formed.

The Eritrean conflict is deep-rooted conflict and deep-rooted conflict demand deep-rooted conflict management. What we need is not leaders but leadership- management who have the knowledge of managing conflicts whether they are internal or external.

What we see inside the Eritrean Opposition leaders as incapable of solving their internal conflict reminds us that still they lack the skills of managing conflicts. What can we the grass-roots do in order to help them come together. What we need is open mind and heart and discuss the issues of conflict in the Eritrean political arena.

What we see and experience in the opposition camp is the same campaign that was during the political struggle of the 1941-1952 between the pro-independence of Eritrea and union with Ethiopia. There are two elements often combined in the Eritrean conflict. One is identity. What is now going is a mobilization of the people in their communal identity groups based on race, religion, culture, language and so on. The other is distribution of sharing the political , economic social and cultural resources. It is the unjust combination of these two that are the main causes of the Eritrean conflict. We failed to build an "shared Eritrean identity" in the past, and now at the present. The leaders have been manipulating and exploiting these elements of identity for their narrow benefits, this is the main issue of conflict we as the victims of such politics must give a lesson to such leaders to change their destructive attitude of conflict management and search new tools for conflict management suitable to our case in Eritrea. We must say now enough is enough no more walls of hate and disintegration but building bridges for peace and harmony to win the dictatorship inside Eritrea and transfer the power to its owner the Eritrean people.

Tools for conflict management in the opposition camp

The Eritrean internal conflict is identity-driven and emotionally charged mobilized to violence instead of building trust and harmony. It has gone far beyond its borders. Several examples can be given since the Eritrean nationhood.

Foreign Saviours

Here I would like to quote from Gene Sharps studies on foreign reliance:

" Some foreign states will act against a dictatorship only to gain their own economic, political, or military control over the country"

Neighbouring governments with their own interests can escalate such internal conflicts for destabilization or stabilization. Such beyond border connections have been experienced in many nations of the world and resulted with destruction and cleansing of people.

In such political situation it is difficult to identify the parties in conflict how much they independent from reliance on foreign country. The situation of the Eritrean Political organizations is more confused as some facts are being seen by the sponsor country, kin state operating in support of one group against the majority, such intervention can reduce the possibility of the conflicting parties to resolve their conflicts. It makes the conflict management process prone to abuse and disruption.

Freezing such deep-rooted conflicts or leave them latent is not sustainable solution. What we need is a new range of flexible and adoptable tools that can take consideration of the interests that helps us solve the identity-related conflict. The aim of this article is to concentrate on developing the resources and materials by assisting the construction of the process of negotiation and its outcome. Designing good conflict management based on the democratic values is criteria to come together and negotiate. Democracy itself is not a panacea itself but if we in the opposition camp believe in democratic principles we must first resolve our internal conflicts peacefully without external intervention. We must own the process. An imposed solution cannot resolve our internal conflict, such imposed or coerced conflict management failed in the post world war and even after the post cold war era.

In this article I would like to propose that negotiation is the only possibility and in this case we must assist the Opposition forces

- enter the process of negotiating a political settlement by helping them generate creative scenarios for progress towards an acceptable outcome.

- provide them with a wide range of political options both for designing the most appropriate negotiations process for them and selecting the democratic structure suitable to our situation

- assisting them in developing solutions which are acceptable and appropriate with our situation

- provide information on the range of varied approaches to building sustainable democracy inside the Opposition camp to gain the people's trust and legitimacy.

In conclusion, I would like to remind all the internal and external stakeholders both success or failure to peace building in Eritrea should first owned by us before siding with external kin or neighbouring governments. Let us keep it inside the border instead crossing borders that never benefits the Eritreans or its neighbours.

References:

1. Gene Sharp, " From Dictatorship to democracy" A Conceptual Framework for Liberation.

2. International Institute For Democracy and Electoral Assistance IDEA, " Dialogue for Democratic Development, Policy Options."

3. IDEA, " Dialogue in Pursuit of Development."

4. IDEA, Democracy and Deep- Rooted Conflict, Policy Options

Friday, 14 April 2017 18:33

Confusion surrounds Eritrean conference in Netherlands

Written by Martin Plaut

Date: 14/04/2017Author: Martin Plaut1 Comment

Is the Eritrean ruling party holding a four day conference in the Dutch town of Veldhoven or not?

Yesterday, protests by Eritrean refugees living in the Netherlands resulted in the mayor banning the event.

But there is now contradictory information about whether the meeting – organised by the young with the Eritrea’s sole authorised political party (the YPFDJ) – is going ahead.

A spokesman for the NH Hotel Group, Jeroen Schaling, says it is not.

“We are co-operating with the authorities following the mayor’s order and with the conference organisers to resolve the situation,” he said. He said there were many Eritreans inside the hotel, but that following the ban the meeting did not continue.

But other sources suggest it is taking place, despite the mayor’s instructions.

Maria Burger, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said it is their understanding that the conference is still under way.

Pictures have emerged on social media suggesting that this is indeed the case.

Dutch protest 6

Dutch protest 7

The YPFDJ is taking the matter to court, with an urgent application to have the injunction lifted.

The hearing will take place at 2.00 pm this afternoon. The mayor of Veldhoven, Jack Mikkers, will be in court to defend his decision.

Below is the background to this developing story.

Martin

A carefully planned European wide conference was organised by the Eritrean government’s only authorised political party. The mayor of the town of Veldhoven, where the conference was to be held, said security and public order could not be guaranteed, and ordered that it be halted.

The conference, called by the youth wing of Eritrea’s ruling party – the YPFDJ – was the 13^th such pan-European event, designed to drum up support for the Eritrean regime.

But determined there was picketing by Eritrean refugees who had made their homes in the Netherlands to try to prevent the gathering from taking place.

In a series of protests members of the opposition chanted slogans and sat down in the road.

Politie grijpt in bij betoging Eritreeërs This was the report of these events by the Volkskrant – one of the Netherland’s main newspapers.

“The mayor of Veldhoven, Jack Mikkers, has banned the meeting of the youth movement of the Eritrean regime. The reason given were “two incidents” involving opponents of the conference. Security and public order, according to the mayor, public prosecutor and police could not be guaranteed.

This fear of the government that the conference, which was due to last until Sunday, might provoke unrest had come true. Dozens of protesters gathered on Thursday to protest against the meeting. They gathered at conference center Koningshof where Yermane Gebreab, a confidant of President Isaias Afewerki, was due to speak.

Some demonstrators threw himself in front of a car in which an Eritrean diplomat would arrive. The police intervene after protesters received blows. The demonstrators then left. But some refused and there were about forty arrests. They were taken by bus to the police bureau in Eindhoven. How many of them were held, is not known.

Kubrom Dafla Hosabay, former secretary of state in Eritrea, who fled to the Netherlands in 2010 because he no longer felt safe, organised the protest. He too was arrested. “We have been arrested, but I do not know why. We are registered and all our belongings are taken,” he said from the police station in Eindhoven.”

Of some skirmishes at the rally Hosabay said he knew nothing. He described the cancellation of the conference as a ‘success’. ‘The municipality has cancelled the conference, which is a good thing, its what we wanted.'”

Warnings and official concern

There had been plenty of warning of the danger that this conference presented. There were allegations that members of the YPFDJ were going house to house in the Eritrean refugee community demanding support for the Veldhoven event.

As the Volkskrant put it: “’We know where you live … Such expression is often regarded in the Netherlands as a threat and under certain circumstances, a criminal offense. Difficult to prove, but serious and certainly undesirable. Therefore, the commotion that has arisen over the coming of Yemane Gebreab – a senior Eritrean official, direct from Eritrea’s dictatorial President Isaias Afewerki, is not difficult to understand.”

Dutch government put out a statement on Tuesday, expressing its concern.

The Eritrean embassy in Brussels has informed the Dutch authorities by diplomatic note that Mr. Gebreab, an employee of the Eritrean President, wants to come to the Netherlands to speak to Eritrean youth at a youth conference. The government is concerned about the Human rights situation in Eritrea. The Cabinet is uncomfortable with the visit of Gebreab for this reason, because the high Eritrean official will speak to Eritreans that have left their country. The visit of Gebreab will therefore not be facilitated and will be treated as a private visit. This means that he will not be received by the Dutch government or high officials here. Because Mr. Gebreab already has a Schengen-visa the government has not been confronted with the question whether a visa should or should not be issued.

Many Dutch MPs and most of the country’s political parties called for the conference to be called off. But still the PFDJ pressed on, insisting that Yemane Gebreab should speak. The Eritrean diaspora was left with little alternative but to take to the streets to halt the regime’s propaganda.

Not the first setback for the Eritrean president

This is the latest in a series of reversals for President Isaias.

In June 2016 thousands of Eritreans from across Europe came to support the UN Commission of Inquiry report being presented to the UN in Geneva. Although the regime’s supporters were also present, they were dramatically outnumbered by those supporting the Commission’s findings that the Eritrean government was responsible for “crimes against humanity.”

Selam Kidane, one of the organisers of the protests had travelled from the UK to demand justice. “We sincerely hope that the world will see how bad things are in Eritrea and how determined Eritreans are to ensure accountability,” she said.

Then in October last year Yemane Gebreab was prevented from attending a meeting arranged by the Atlantic Council. The State Department had invoked an executive order, signed by President Obama, which listed Yemane as among those who were being sanctioned.

The Eritrean government was furious, denouncing this as “a denial of the right of assembly.”

Source=https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/confusion-surrounds-eritrean-conference-in-netherlands/

Friday, 14 April 2017 18:21

Eritrea: regime’s youth brigade threatens diaspora

Written by Martin Plaut

by Martin Plaut

Eri blood The YPFDJ - the youth wing of Eritrea's ruling party - is planning to hold a European wide conference in the Netherlands from the 13th to 17th of April.

The local Eritrean community is worried - previous YPFDJ rallies have been marked by violence and intimidation.

The regime has deployed thugs from 'Eri-blood' to attack dissenters in the past.

An appeal has been launched to appeal for the Dutch authorities to halt the gathering [see below]

Martin

An Appeal to The Dutch-Eritrean Community

Action to Foil the YPFDJ European Conference in Holland

Source:Facebook

From next Thu, 13/4 to Sun 17/.4/17, the Isaias regime has organized a European wide conference for Youth-Pfdj, its daughter organization. The Dutch authorities, including the media, are wary of this conference because it has elements inviting antagonism, that pose danger to peace and order of the Dutch public.

This is a call to all Dutch-Eritreans, whether or not, we are citizens, residents, and refugees, to use our rights, to formally register, with the police, a declaration (‘aangifte’) that the Ypfdj, poses danger to our personal safety. Because what should worry us, also worries Dutch authorities, including several parliament members (2de Kamer), and the security. Issues about the Ypfdj may cause harm to Eritreans and the Dutch.

1. That Ypfdj thugs are going door-to-door, forcing Eritreans to pay money for this conference and for 2%.

2. That they are issuing false “receipts” without legal details, means they are hiding their actions from public.

3. That they are putting on a black list and intimidating those Eritreans that refuse to pay;

4. That the infamous “Eri-Blood” gang, which is feared to be armed, is capable of physically harming anyone;

5. That a Dutch court, established last year, that Ypfdj, as a possible ‘intelligence arm” of Isaias; the public speech of Yemane G/Ab, at Ypfdj conference in Germany, being the major evidence of it.

6. That all of this has been organized, in December 2016, by high ranking officials of the regime.

Etc., etc., because of all the above, is this Ypfdj conference, is a threat to, us, Dutch-Eritreans.

That is why, we should, go and declare this facts to the police. We are being threatened by phone and in person as “traitors”. The reasons are laid down above. Let us exercise this right of ours immediately, but in any case, before the conference commences. Let us support the effort of the Dutch authorities by coming out to register officially our fear of the situation.

Your brother, Kubrom Dafla Hosabay,

Nb. if for any reason, the police refuse to receive your declaration (“aangifte”), please let us know as we have, legal help by our side. Contact: +31-6-8534-1768, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Best Regards

Paulos Michael

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