Date: Sat, 4 Jul 2015 10:54:41 +0200
By Bereket Kidane,
JUST when you think the Kangaroo Court known as the UN couldn’t get any lower when it comes to its dealings with Eritrea, they go and forge documents submitted by Eritrea and then turn around and accuse Eritrea of forgery. The UN can apologize until the cows come home, but no Eritrean believes that it was an honest mistake. When you consider what Matt Bryden did with his reality distortions and his leaks to the media trying to railroad public opinion on Eritrea, what Dinesh Mahtani did advocating for regime change on a UN letter head, what Susan Rice did in fraudulently passing sanctions against Eritrea on baseless, fabrications without allowing the matter to be debated and denying Eritrea due process, it becomes crystal clear that Eritrea’s treatment at the UN is turning out to be like the Salem Witch Trials.
In 1692 Massachusetts, those who were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft included Salem residents who deviated in some way from Puritan religious, cultural, or economic norms just as Eritrea is being targeted for its independent political stance.
Mike Smith’s and Sheila Keetharuth’s Colin Powell WMD-style of baseless, fabricated charges are almost like traveling back in time to Salem, Mass during the witch trials with corrupt prosecutors, judges on the take, compromised witnesses and faked evidence. A very strong argument can be made that Eritrea is the victim of a similar witch-hunt at the United Nations, including the Security Council.
The world is being fed a frenzy of lies about Eritrea. Interviewing Eritrean refugees under Weyane’s control in Ethiopia who were coached by Tigrayan administrators of the refugee camps on what to tell the COI or asylum seekers in the West coached by Eritrean activists opposed to the government is not following correct guidelines regarding methodology, transparency, verified documentary evidence and independent verifiable sources. These asylum seekers coached by activists on how to win asylum cases are compromised witnesses to say the least. It can be easily demonstrated that the wild allegations present in the COI report would never hold up in any court.
It was clear from the outset that Mike Smith and Sheila Keetharuth were not going to be impartial arbiters because of their past associations with anti-Eritrea groups and the sanctions committee. Little wonder that the report is riddled with lies and libels. The whole report amounts to an anti-Eritrea manifesto. The report doesn’t even go into why Eritrea has to maintain an army to defend itself and makes no mention of the fact that sovereign Eritrean territory continues to be illegally occupied by Ethiopia.
The repetition of false accusations never makes them true, but if they are repeated long enough they can morph into “fact.” We’ve seen how bogus accusations like the “presence of WMDs” can be used to turn countries into hell on earth. African countries need to disassociate themselves from the COI’s report and support Eritrea’s political stance. Otherwise, they too will be targeted by the UNHRC if they ever adopt an independent political stance or the West feels like it needs a scapegoat.