Eritrean opposition groups vow to struggle against “Rogue” regime
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
September 15, 2015 (TIGRAY, ETHIOPIA) – Eritrean armed opposition groups and Thousands of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia on Sunday vow to jointly launch armed struggle against repressive government in the Red Sea nation.
Tens of thousands Eritrean refugees’ attended the event which was held at refugee camps in the northern Tigray region near the Eritrean Border.
Prominent Eritrean singers who fled to Ethiopia to escape repression have staged show during the event which also attracted over 3000 members of the Diaspora including scholars.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune, organizers and participants accused Afeworki-led government and its ruling party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) of hijacking the struggle for freedom, Justice and democracy and imposing misery to the people.
They further accused the president of turning the tiny nation into a one-party state and into one of the most repressive nations in the world to systematically secure grip on power.
“President Issaias has stood against his people. He has turned the country into a pariah state whose citizens are being forced to flee in mass to escape atrocities” Tewolde Tesfazgi, one of the participants told Sudan Tribune.
29-year old Tesfazgi, who arrived at Adi-harush refugee camp nearly a year ago, said he was ready to join the armed struggle, stressing that military action was the only option to ensure the democratic rights of the Eritrean People.
He accused the president of failing to keep his words to reform the constitution despite previous promise.
In a joint statement the Eritrean participants pledged to oust the dictatorship and build a country that lives in harmony with its neighbours.
The Eritrean long struggle for independence officially started in September 1961 after the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Silase dissolved the federation established by the United Nations.
Eritrea won its independence from its Southern neighbour, Ethiopia, in 1991 after a referendum on self-determination.
Another participant who asked anonymity told Sudan Tribune that he fled to Ethiopia after government agents killed his older Brother.
“Few armed men came to our house in the middle of the night and took him away. After two months we heard he was dead.”
According to him the deceased was accused of spying for opposition groups operating in Ethiopia.
“I feel that the decades long struggle for freedom was for nothing,” he added, calling for all peace loving Eritreans to join their hands together in the struggle against “the tyrannical regime”.
The refugees expressed gratitude for the friendliness treatment that they are being provided in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia currently hosts an estimated 200,000 Eritrean refugees.
Eritrea had long been under fire by human right groups who accuse the reclusive nation of committing gross human rights violations including executions, imprisonment, disappearances, harassment and intimidation.
In June 2015, a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea unveiled gross human rights violations with some of these violations, possibly constituting crimes against humanity which could subject Eritrean officials to indictment at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to some of the report’s findings, extra-judicial killings, torture (including sexual torture), unlimited national service and forced labour are being aggressively continuing in breach to government’s promise for democracy made following independence.
Eritrea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dismissed the UN panel’s allegations as “unfounded and devoid of all merit” which aimed to undermine their country’s sovereignty and progress of the country.
(ST)