Eritrean opposition pleads intl intervention

 afrol News  6 May – Voices among the exiled opposition of Eritrea increasingly call for a Libya-style foreign intervention in the country, saying the situation is even worse in Eritrea.

Tewelde Gebreselassie leads one of the Horn country’s more influential exiled opposition groups, the umbrella organisation Eritrean Democratic Alliance (EDA), and is committed to “use all the available means of struggle to topple the current Eritrean regime.”

According to Mr Tewelde, the international community now needs to intervene in Eritrea, as the human rights, political, social and economic situation in his home country is steadily “worsening”.

“Eritrea is nearing to be a failed state,” he said, and called on international and regional organisations to support the Eritrean people and opposing political parties who are struggling to oust “the dictatorial Issaias Afeworki’s regime and bring democracy to Eritreans.”

“We see the international community intervening in the current political situations in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, but – truly speaking – the worst situation is in Eritrea,” Mr Tewelde said.

The Eritrean Democratic Alliance, therefore was appealing to the international community and international, continental and regional organisation to look in to the case and “do the same in Eritrea,” he said.

While there is no organised protest movement within Eritrea, due to the strong repressive means of the Afeworki government, a growing number of Eritreans are fleeing the country. Many of those are organising their resistance to the Eritrean regime in neighbouring Ethiopia – the arch-enemy of the Afeworki regime.

According to Mr Tewelde, more than a million Eritrean refugees have fled to various parts of the world in fear of persecution by the Eritrean regime during the past tens years. There were also said to be 500 political prisoners, spiritual leaders and ministers detained by the regime, four ministers of whom had died, he added.

“Currently, Eritrea is a country with no press freedom and written constitution as well as without functioning education and health centres,” Mr Tewelde said.

“Eritrea is a country where human rights violations, repressions, imprisonments, killings and persecution take place. There is no country like Eritrea, which commits a naked crime against its citizen,” the EDA leader added.

source : afrol News

Short URL: https://english.farajat.net/?p=4487

Posted by farajat on May 9 2011 Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry