DANKALIA STANDS WITH AKHRIYA : A CALL FOR UNITY TO STAND AGAINST TYRANNY AND PERSECUTIONS IN ERITREA SCHEDULED FOR | November 11, 2017 Ottawa, Canada
The most recent government crackdown on religious freedom began in a threat of closing down privately owned Al Diaa Islamic School and the arrest of an elderly sheikh and board member, Hajji Mussa Mohamed Nur along with the entire school board of trustees who still remain in detention.
On Monday, October 31st the residents of AKHRIYA, a neighborhood within Asmara, the capital of Eritrea took to the streets after Eritrean government’s excessive interference and suppression of their citizenship rights to exercise their religious belief.
This unlawful action by the g
overnment led to unprecedented street protests in a country where no freedom of press or assembly is allowed. Eritrea is one of Africa’s most reclusive and repressive state most often referred to as “the North Korea of Africa” by international Human rights observers.
Our organization (EANC) joins tens of thousands of pro-democracy, pro-change Eritrean Diaspora in condemning the violent actions by Eritrean government to suppress the human rights of our fellow citizens and especially stand alongside the heroic actions of Al Diaa School and the resistance movement of AKHRIYA who not only defied a crippling fear in the country but gave hope to tens of thousands more who fled persecutions due to various human rights violation in Eritrea.
We call on all civic and political movements in exile to join hands in defending …
- Religious and press freedoms in Eritrea
- Constitutional reform and the rule of law
- Restoration of indigenous rights and land rights
- Re-instate multicultural, multiethnic and multi religious equality among Eritreans
Please join us for in-depth discussion on how to mobilize a peaceful resistance and restore the dignity of Eritreans.
Place: Jack Purcell Community Center- Ottawa, Saturday, November 11th, Time: 6PM-9PM
For Further Information Contact us: 613-627 EANC (3273), Email: info@dankalia.org
United in the face of injustice in Eritrea!
References and supporting documents
Message of solidarity by Minster of Religion Revd Yohannes Ghebrihewet, Medhani-Alem Church, Manchester https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYPl0wmvoY4&feature=youtu.be
Message of solidarity from Christian minister https://youtu.be/aC11Aq1LfSA
Hajji Mussa Mohamed Nur Speech https://youtu.be/QZJ0mWg4esA
Crimes Against Humanity against Afar in Eritrea A/HRC/29/CRP.1 http://www.ohchr.org/Docu
ments/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIEritrea/A_HRC_29_CRP-1.pdf (Advance Version 5 June 2016)
Paras 1121-1124 deal with the Extrajudicial Murder of the Afar Ethnic group. At para 1121 the COI stated:
- …The Commission collected information that the Afar people have been subjected to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearance by the Eritrean Government since 2000. These killings have also triggered their displacement from their lands …
Paras 1157-65 deal with Afar land confiscations. At para 1171 the COI stated:
- The Commission also finds that land refo
- rm impacted pastoralist minorities such as Afars and Kunamas. The way resettlements of members of these communities are conducted by the authorities may be construed as an intentional act to dispossess them of their ancestral lands, their livelihoods and their cultures.
The Commission’s Report of 8 June 2016 UN Doc A/HRC/32/CRP.1 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoIEritrea/A_HRC_32_CRP.1_read-only.pdf, reached important conclusions at paras 292, 295-6:
- …the government of Eritrea engaged in a campaign of killings, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances targeting Afar and Kunama civilians, in particular during the period 1998-2001….
- The Commission also has reasonable grounds to believe that Eritrean officials have intentionally and severely deprived Eritrean Kunama and Afar of fundamental rights contrary to international law on ethnic grounds. The Commission has corroborated evidence that the Afar and Kunama were targeted, at a minimum, in the period between 1998 and 2001. It has also received uncorroborated information that both ethnic groups were persecuted during other periods as well, and that such persecution persists.
- Persecution on both religious and ethnic grounds has been an integral part of the Eritrean leadership’s plan to maintain its authority in a manner contrary to international law. Thus, the Commission finds that Eritrean officials have committed the crime of persecution, a crime against humanity, in a large-scale and routine manner since May 1991.(my emphasis)
These findings and conclusions are consistent with those of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, Sheila B. Keetharuth. In her 28 May 2013 Report, UN Doc A/HRC/23/53, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/140/99/PDF/G1314099.pdf?OpenElement the SR stated at para 77:
- The Afar are subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and rape, as well as the destruction of their traditional means of subsistence and livelihood, and businesses. They have also been forced into displacement from their traditional territory.