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Sudan Tribune

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Eritrea’s Afar rebels call to bring officials to international justice

By Tesfa-alem Tekle

May 24, 2009 (MEKELLE, Ethiopia) — The rebel Red Sea Afar Democratic Organization (RSADO) on Saturday accused the Eritrean President Issayas Afeworki and his generals of “Genocidal policy” against the ethic-Afar minorities and called upon the international community to swiftly act to bring them to international justice.

On Friday, the rebel RSADO has revealed a list of 500 Eritrean Afar citizens which the group claimed were murdered by Eritrean army generals, as what it said was part of the ongoing large scale killings against the Afar people.

“Serious violations of International humanitarian law is what we are referring to” RSADO’s chairman Ibrahim haroun told Sudan Tribune.

“The Eritrean atrocious rule, more than ever has intensified a genocidal policy known as ‘Ethnic cleansing’ against the Afar people,” he stressed.

A 28-page document, prepared by the rebel movement, shows details of victim’s name, age, sex, area murdered, past occupation and reason that led to victims murder.

List of victim’s age ranges between a child as young as 5-year old to a man as old as 90-year old.

The rebel group accused the international community of failing to discharge its responsibility to prevent the ongoing tragedy in the tiny red sea nation.

“Deaf ears were the only response we got so far for the outcry of Eritrean Afar” Yasin Mohamed, information and communication head of the group says adding “this is an official state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.”

“While this is the reality, the international community yet again has sat on its co-tails while innocent and helpless Eritrean Afars and Eritreans in general are being brutally murdered on daily bases,” Yasin further said.

“On Behalf of these innocent Eritreans we call on the international human right organizations, the International Criminal Court, the UN Security Council, world governments, concerned bodies to immediately act to bring those accountable to justice,” the organization called.

The Red Sea Afars are now flocking to neighboring countries in large numbers escaping the repression by the Eritrean government. They are not all registered there are an estimated 30 thousand Eritrean Afars in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is now the main “safe haven” for the Red Sea Afar refugees mainly because they feel greatly at home along with their fellow Ethiopian Afars.

Currently, the Afar refugees are residing in two camps which are recently established in Ethiopia’s Berahle and Aysaita areas in the hot barren Afar region.

These Two camps are placed at an extremely unfavorable hot location where, temperature is as high as 42 degree centigrade. This being one harsh factor, the Afar refugees in these two camps doesn’t get international standards of aid and many of them are malnourished and in bad health condition that threatens their life.

Last week, the rebel group, RSADO, in its people’s conference which it held in the Afar region’s Semera town made a call up on the international community to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afar refugees.

At the conference, the group has also addressed a number of issues which it said constitute now a threat to the day-to-day life of the refugees.

Accordingly, the unnecessary and delayed screening which in some cases take up to one year are hindering refugees from getting food aid and other basic necessities in those camps;

There is no legal body that facilitates entry of refuges in those camps. As a result, refuges are facing challenges. In camps like Elida’ar, Erebti, and Dalol, Red Sea Afar refugees are starving to a great extent and there are no UNHCR offices in those camps to facilitate the food aid.

In Berahle and Aysaita camps, refugees get as low as 15kg of barley, 45kg of bean, and 1 ½ liter of edible oil, which are hardly enough to sustain life. Except for those, they are not receiving any life-saving nutrients, the rebel document says.

What is worse, the group said is the above mentioned rations come irregularly, and come as late as every three months and this is forcing refugees to starve and leave the camps in search of food aid.

Many refugees especially children are suffering from lack of essential nutrients and basic medical supplies. Significant number of children and women are also suffering to death because of the above mentioned fact, the rebel group said.

Red Sea Afars are denied of the right to go to other countries, which is granted to other Eritrean refugees.

Many Red Sea Afars who escaped with their lives but without their ID are not considered as refugees (are not given the refugee status). So, they are not treated as refugees.

While other Red Sea Afars who have IDs are not treated as refugees for the lame reason that they are Ethiopians not Eritreans.

The group has also described ways prisoners are tortured for interrogation

Prisoners are held in atrocious conditions, damp underground cells, overcrowded and sweltering shipping containers, secret security sections of official police stations or prisons and suffer all kinds of inhumane tortures, the rebels said.

Yasin Mohamed ,RSADO’s communications and information head claimed that prisoners suffer what Eritrean agents call it ‘Helicopter style’, a way of torturing a prisoner by tying both legs and hands altogether behind at his back and the prisoner lays on chest for an electric torture.

In a communiqué after the 2 day conference last week, the rebel group has also called for an immediate action from the international community to stop atrocities being carried out against the Afars in particular and to all innocent Eritreans in general.

RSADO, established 10 years ago, is a political organization that struggles for the self determination of the Eritrean Afar people. The group believes that military action is the only and best option to overthrow the president Issayas Afeworki-ledEritrean regime.

In recent years the group has scaled up its military struggle against the rule and killed hundreds of Eritrean soldiers, including high ranking military officials.

(ST)

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