http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/News/Eritrea-denies-UN-allegation-of-indefinite-national-service-20150611
Eritrea denies UN allegation of indefinite national service
2015-06-11 22:00
New York - Eritrea on Thursday denied that it subjects its citizens to
indefinite national service or kills people trying to flee the
country, two of the most serious allegations among the findings of a
year-long United Nations investigation.
The 484-page UN Commission of Inquiry report, published earlier this
week, said the government of Eritrea may have committed crimes against
humanity, including extrajudicial killings, widespread torture, sexual
slavery and enforced labour.
The Eritrean Foreign Ministry later dismissed the UN findings as
"indecent hyperbole," but did not address specific allegations.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Asmara's UN Ambassador Girma
Asmerom rejected the idea that people in the country's national
military and civil service could become virtual slaves.
National service is supposed to last 18 months, but the commission
spoke to one witness who fled after 17 years.
Witnesses reported people being executed for trying to avoid being
drafted into service as recently as 2013, it said. Asmerom said such
allegations were not true.
"There is no such thing as indefinite national service," Asmerom said,
adding that this specific allegation was one of several "lies" in the
commission's report.
But he acknowledged that citizens are conscripted to work in the
national service.
"There is deployment," he said, because of the "indefinite occupation"
of Eritrean territory by Ethiopia. Asmerom added that people were paid
an allowance and not forced to participate indefinitely.
A war between Ethiopia and Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 killed more than
70 000, analysts say.
'Where did they get this?'
Eritrea wants Ethiopia to pull its troops out from disputed territory
before normalising ties, citing a decision by a boundary commission at
The Hague which awarded the village of Badme to Eritrea in 2002.
Ethiopia says the row over border demarcation can only be resolved
through a negotiated settlement.
Asmerom also denied that people trying to flee the country were shot dead.
"That is another lie," he said. "There is a shoot-to-kill policy?
Where did they get this?"
"When I read that, I normally laugh," he added. "It is a sound bite.
These kind of sound bites have been going on for the last 10 years
because the goal is regime change."
He also defended Asmara's decision not to co-operate with the
commission, saying it was biased and had found Eritrea guilty before
looking at evidence.
He noted that Eritrea had co-operated with "neutral" British and Dutch
officials on national reports, but not the United Nations.
Reuters
Received on Thu Jun 11 2015 - 20:50:48 EDT