http://www.eritrean-smart.org/content/eritreas-reply-coie-accusations-29th-session-unhrc-geneva
Eritrea's Reply to COIE Accusations at the 29th Session of UNHRC in Geneva
*Statement by Ambassador Tesfamichael Gerahtu*
Geneva
June 23, 2015
Mr. President,
This august body is discussing today the report of the Commission of
Inquiry on Eritrea.
Allow me, in this context, to convey to Your Excellencies the
indignation of the people and Government of Eritrea whose heroic
history, civilized traditions and norms, and, purposeful development
efforts anchored on social justice, are sullied and denigrated with
gratuitous and unprecedented irresponsibility by an entity established
by this assembly.
As it may be recalled, Eritrea had protested vigorously when the
Commission and its predecessor were first established. Eritrea did so
because it had the premonition, for reasons that I will elaborate below,
that these entities would not conduct their entrusted tasks with the
requisite professionalism, objectivity and impartiality. Because Eritrea
knew full well that these purported reasons were not the real purposes
and objectives for which the Commission and its predecessor were formed
in the first place.
We have already communicated to Your Excellencies a brief exposition on
Eritrea's views regarding the procedural flaws, factual errors, and
political conclusions and recommendations contained in the Report. I
shall not, therefore, repeat Eritrea's response here. Let me focus, in
the brief time allotted to me, on the most salient features of the whole
undertaking and its overarching political backdrop.
1. Eritrea remains under UN Sanctions that were imposed on it in 2009
and 2011, respectively. There is growing consensus these days,
including in the capitals of the principal sponsors and architects
of the resolutions, that the punitive measures meted against Eritrea
were based on hearsay and trumped-up charges. But the fact is the
sanctions have exacted huge economic and developmental costs to a
small and young nation. And despite current regrets and
second-thoughts, they remain in force due to procedural hurdles,
diplomatic inertia and continued hostility by some principal players
and powers. In the event, another grave travesty of justice; another
unpardonable transgression against the people of Eritrea will be
committed if this august body were to endorse at this Session the
Commission's Report in a perfunctory manner only to acknowledge,
belatedly some years down the road, that the Inquiry was flawed and
inappropriate in the first place.
2. The evidence strongly suggests that this entire episode was
conceived from the outset to serve as a substitute and fall-back
option to the UNSC imposed sanctions in order to continuously harass
Eritrea for ulterior political motives. The fact that the original
resolutions calling for the establishment of these bodies were
sponsored by countries that are either in conflict with Eritrea or
that have no formal ties and presence in Eritrea but were
nonetheless prodded to do the bidding of the principal,
behind-the-scenes, architects is, in itself, indicative of the
political and conspiratorial dimensions and attributes of the
process underway.
3. Notwithstanding, the impediments and ongoing violations of the
Principles, an expanded paradigm encompassing cooperation with the
OHCHR, consultation to initiate work with thematic mandates holders
and treaty bodies, bilateral engagement with states and missions
accredited to Eritrea and abroad, and cooperation with the UN
Country team have been initiated and concrete steps have also been
taken. In a recent visit of the OHCHR technical assistance in
strengthening Justice system, access to clean water and sanitation,
and assisting peoples with disabilities have been identified.
4. Eritrea has reasons to believe that the Commission has deliberately
short-changed its investigative mission to bolster preconceived,
politically motivated, conclusions and recommendations. Indeed, the
Commission acknowledges that it has culled its Report from
interviews of 550 Eritrean asylum-seekers and written submission of
other 160 Eritrean citizens abroad. In the first place, this cannot
be an appropriate sample - Eritreans in the Diaspora are close to
one million - to infer sweeping indictment of a sovereign nation and
its government. More importantly, the Commission's highly subjective
standards of proof and validation -- which it describes as
"reasonable grounds to believe" -- is ill-suited to ascertain
potentially fallacious testimonies of asylum-seekers or well-known
individuals who espouse different, even subversive, political
agendas. In fact, the Commission routinely disregarded various
reports by UN agencies in Eritrea; testimonies and submissions by
reputable foreign business companies that operate in Eritrea;
corporate ethical audits carried out by independent and reputable
foreign agencies; as well as, testimonies and submissions by
Eritrean communities. We know of courageous individuals who
approached the Commission to disavow the typical, false asylum
testimonies they had filed in their new country of domicile, at the
risk of facing legal charges of perjury. But all these evidences
were neither assessed nor cited and acknowledged in its Report.
5. The Commission has wickedly tried to justify its lop-sided approach
under the pretext that it was not allowed to visit the country. The
Government of Eritrea has declined to interact with the Commission
not because it has something to hide but because of deeply-held
convictions of principle. Because it has consistently objected to
the whole, politicized, and unwarranted process of creating a
Commission of Inquiry as yet another instrument in the tool box of
harassment that Eritrea's arch-enemies have woven. In any case, this
cannot be reason enough for the Commission to work in cahoots with
Ethiopia and Djibouti and recycle, wholesale, worn-out
disinformation routinely disseminated by entities that bear ill-will
against Eritrea.
6. The Commission's unabashed bias is too transparent for sensible
people not to notice. June 20th, commemorated on the weekend, is
Martyr's Day in Eritrea. Eritrea's relatively small population have
paid more than 60,000 precious lives of freedom fighters in the
30-year war of liberation. Eritrea was also compelled to pay 20,000
more lives in the border war. Yet the Commission callously dismisses
the existential threats that Eritrea has and is still facing. It
recommends, with amazing imprudence and insensitivity, for the
international community and the United Nations to "assist Eritrea
and Ethiopia to solve the border issue through diplomatic means".
Obviously, the Commission is either ignorant, or does not care to
note, that the border issue has long been settled through an
international arbitral process on the basis of a UN-guaranteed
Algiers Peace Agreement. The Commission does not apparently know, or
it wishes to ignore, that the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission
had deposited, in November 2007, the exact coordinates of the
boundary at the UN Cartographic Office. The Commission does not
know, or deliberately wishes to gloss over, that the United Nations
itself is keenly aware that Ethiopia remains in flagrant violation
of international law although it has not taken appropriate steps of
enforcement due to US blockade.
7. The Commission's Report on the GOE's purported human rights
violations is simply astounding. An ancient and civilized people
with expansive Customary Laws encoded as early as 1492 are dubbed as
a country "without laws and ruled by fear". A secular country whose
every village is dotted with churches and mosques, and, a pious
people who have been Christians and Moslems since the 4th and the
7th century respectively are dubbed as "religiously persecuted"
simply because the laws of the country regulate new, foreign-funded,
faiths. A country which has relatively few, mostly one-diplomat
staffed, foreign embassies is dubbed as an "intrusive State with
ubiquitous presence to spy on and threaten" its almost one million
citizens in the Diaspora. The Commission is oblivious that mass
migration in Eritrea started in the 1960s and that the Diaspora were
and are the backbone of the liberation struggle and
post-independence development drive. I could go on and on....
8. To draw another parallel with the Somalia-Eritrea Monitoring Group,
a crucial drawback that crippled the SEMG's objective work was the
compromising political association of some of its members with some
countries. As you may know, one of the SEMG's officials was
dismissed recently when it was ascertained that he was openly
advocating "regime change" in a confidential letter he had written
to a former official of the GOE. Unfortunately. Eritrea has reasons
to believe that some officials of the Commission belong to the same
league. The personal political persuasions and affiliations of
Commission members are not of interest to Eritrea. But it is another
matter if this has to do with the way domestic politics and
governance are conducted in Eritrea. In the event, Eritrea wishes to
draw attention to this august body that the Commission has members
within its ranks that espouse sinister political agendas against
Eritrea due to their close and unorthodox association with
subversive groups.
9. In conclusion, let me emphasize the following. The bleak narrative
on human rights in Eritrea that the Commission has portrayed is
widely at variance with the prevailing reality in the country. Yes
there are shortcomings and I have no intention to claim that
everything is rosy in my country. In any case, these have been and
are being addressed within the UPR process. Eritrea is indeed a
young nation that is facing numerous problems; a big part of which
has to do with externally-induced, existential, challenges. The
statutory, 18-month duration, of National Service had been extended
because of Ethiopia's belligerent appetites, postures and designs.
But Eritrea has reverted to expansive demobilization when and if
conditions permit and is currently exerting efforts to ensure
educational and employment opportunities for those who fulfill their
national service obligations. The fact is, in spite of all these
challenges, Eritrea's institutions are evolving at a reasonable and
healthy pace. Its economy is progressing steadily and ready for
take-off after much hard work. Along this note, the Government has
promulgated new Civil, Penal, Civil Procedure, and Criminal
Procedure Codes. To ignore all these realities and falsely indict
Eritrea to advance the political agenda of certain powers will thus
constitute a huge travesty of justice that cannot be excused under
any pretext. And this would constitute a third injustice for the
people of Eritrea whose decolonization rights were, we must recall,
compromised in 1947 by a politically biased UN Commission.
I thank you
Received on Wed Jun 24 2015 - 06:06:32 EDT