It is against this dismal human rights record that Ethiopia is today falsely accusing Eritrea of perpetrating "violations of human rights" of Ethiopians living in Eritrea including detaining them in "concentration camps and slave labor"! These preposterous allegations are inspired by three motives:

1. . Ethiopia's unwillingness to receive its own nationals;

2. Its desire to torpedo the peace process through unfounded excuses; and

3. . Its desire to portray the Government of Eritrea as an equal violator of human rights as itself and thereby whitewash its crimes.

The facts are otherwise clear. Eritrea did not initiate, and has not followed in the footsteps of Ethiopia, a dangerous and shortsighted policy of ethnic cleansing. It is a matter of record that Ethiopia took responsible measures, including through a Parliamentary Bill and public campaigns, to stem the inflammation of ethnic hatred and to ensure the respect of the rights of Ethiopians residing in Eritrea.

The massive population dislocation induced by Ethiopia's invasion has however compelled Eritrea to make arrangements for the voluntary repatriation of Ethiopians with the collaboration of the ICRC. The overwhelming majority of these Ethiopians had fled their residences in Eritrean villages and towns in the face of the targeting of civilians by the Ethiopian Armed Forces. Obviously, there were also those who were not in possession of valid residence or work permits.

Eritrea has scrupulously adhered to the letter and spirit of human rights and humanitarian laws and strictly followed the procedures that govern repatriation. No property was confiscated; no house was expropriated; no bank account was frozen. There was no torture, degrading treatment, or any other form of abuse. It is to be understood that Eritrea has the right under human rights and humanitarian law to repatriate any Ethiopians with no valid papers in view of the fact that the Ethiopian Government unilaterally revoked the bilateral agreement which exempted each other's nationals from the standard requirements of legal residence.

Eritrea's responsible policy and record of the treatment of Ethiopians living in Eritrea has met the approval of credible human rights organizations and agencies. This policy will continue especially as both sides have signed an agreement on cessation of hostilities. On the other hand, it must be recognized that Ethiopia has an obligation to receive its own nationals, those who want to go back voluntarily as well as those who may have to be repatriated because they do not possess the necessary legal documents.

Eritrea will continue to make sure that the process of repatriation will be conducted in a manner that ensures the safety and dignity of those affected. To this end, it has sought, and will continue to seek, the active involvement of the ICRC in the process through the provision of logistical support and escort. This has been made impossible in the past few weeks because the Ethiopian government refused to cooperate thereby blocking ICRC involvement for monitoring the process.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 21 August 2000

The Government of Eritrea has recently initiated the voluntary repatriation of Ethiopian citizens living in Eritrea. This was induced by the massive population dislocation that occurred due to Ethiopia's war of invasion. Ethiopians dislocated by the war could not subsist in makeshift camps for an extended period of times. These constituted the majority of those being repatriated on a voluntary basis, although there were also a small number who had to be sent home because they lacked the legal status for residence. The ICRC was briefed of this situation and requested to monitor the process as well as to provide logistical support for its expedition.

The repatriation process was hampered from the beginning by the Ethiopian regime which refused to, as international law requires, receive its own nationals. After falsely accusing Eritrea of "holding Ethiopian nationals in detention camps," the Ethiopian regime offered flimsy excuses for its refusal to accept the return of its citizens. Initially Ethiopia stated that it can receive only a maximum of 500 of its nationals at a time even though it has on numerous occasions abandoned thousands of ethnic Eritreans on unannounced border locations. When this arbitrary restriction was overcome through the intervention of the ICRC, the Ethiopian authorities raised, in order to suspend the planned repatriation, the excuse that an "alternative route" had to be employed. This obstruction came at the last minute when the ICRC had completed all transport arrangements for about 2,000 Ethiopians stranded in Sheeb.

Ethiopia's rejection of the ICRC-sanctioned Kisad Iqa/Mereb route as "hazardous" was both spurious and cynical. The fact is the route happens to be the same route through which Ethiopia deported Eritrean civilians, penniless and without any assistance, during the same period that the repatriation of Ethiopians was scheduled to take place.

The Government of Eritrea waited for two weeks in the hope that the ICRC would persuade Ethiopia to accept its own nationals. It even proposed to the ICRC to arrange for either an airlift or transit through a third country. When these options were not taken up, the Government of Eritrea arranged for the repatriation of the Ethiopians through the safest routes of Tserona and Kisad Iqa.

The international community is well aware that Ethiopia has:

1. Deported about 75,000 ethnic Eritreans in a most inhumane manner;

2. Confiscated their assets and properties;

3. Separated families, deporting some while detaining others for later deportation;

4. Broken up mixed marriages by deporting the ethnic Eritrean spouses;

5. Prevented the voluntary repatriation of ethnic Eritreans while holding up or forcing out to third countries those of military age (over 5,000 have been forced to flee to Kenya alone) ;

6. Uprooted entire ethnic Eritrean communities from villages which they built and developed over generations in western Tigray (39 villages and 15,000 people). Moreover, the Ethiopian regime continues its incarceration of about 2,000 Eritreans in the Dedessa concentration camp where a dozen, including three university exchange students, have died under torture. There is also the grave issue of over 1,000 missing Eritrean civilians still unaccounted for.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 16 August 2000

Three Ethiopian security officers apprehended the driver of the Eritrean Embassy in Addis Ababa on 10 August 2000 without any legal or criminal charges. The driver is currently being detained by the Ethiopian security force which refuses to disclose the whereabouts of the embassy staff member.

This action is in contravention of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in particular Articles 26, Freedom of Movement, and 37.3, Functional Immunity of Service Staff with Nationality of the Sending State.

The immunity of the Eritrean diplomatic mission has been violated on previous occasions as well, including the expulsion of the Eritrean Ambassador to Ethiopian on 10 February 1999 and the illegal search of the embassy premises immediately afterwards.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 11 August 2000

The government of Ethiopia for the third time has refused to accept the return of its nationals residing in Eritrea. Upon the request of Ethiopians living in Eritrea, the ICRC and the government of Eritrea began a voluntary repatriation mission in June 2000. The program was running smoothly until the government in Addis Ababa resorted to obstructions and tactics and presented incomprehensible delays to the mission, causing it to shut down completely.

In particular, the suspension of the mission has been brought about because of Ethiopia's demand to change the safest route for the repatriation, the Adi Quala-Kisad Ika-Rama road. By doing so, the safety of the returnees is being compromised by the Ethiopian authorities for the purpose of pursuing other objectives.

The government of Eritrea has fully cooperated with the ICRC to ensure the safety of Ethiopians in their travels from Eritrea. Without the same commitment from Addis Ababa, the well being of these people on the receiving end is not being assured.

This recent obstruction to the repatriation mission is just one setback in a pattern of events put forth by the Ethiopian government to hinder the program's continuation. Because of this negligent act, the rights of 1,200 Ethiopians to return to their homes are being betrayed by their own government.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara, 9 August 2000

Madam Chairperson,

The Eritrean delegation has, during the last two (2) years, made several submissions before the Sub-Commission and Commission. Each of the submissions was bleaker than the previous submission.

This year will be an exception in two respects: the dimension of the violations and the meticulous planning of destruction and commitment of atrocities. If the systematic violation of rights had continued unabated since the beginning of the conflict, it was to attain such a senseless level of cruelty and brutishness after the eruption of conflict and the occupation of Eritrean territory in May 2000 that it is difficult not to echo Lloyd George's memorable words of disgust: "When is war not a war? When it is carried out by methods of barbarism."

During these evil days of occupation, the behavior of the invading forces fell much below the minimum of civilized behavior when they, even after the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement, willfully, wantonly and methodically:

1. launched indiscriminate attacks on purely civilian targets fully knowing that such tank, artillery and aerial bombing will cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians and destruction to civilian objects;

2. rounded up the populations of towns and villages and beat and tortured civilians;

3. imprisoned large numbers of civilians;

4. raped under-age girls and elderly women;

5. killed the young men and women whom they could not physically or morally coerce to join the quisling group which they had brought with them in the hope of installing it in power;

6. attacked and destroyed plants which were indispensable to the survival of the civilian population including water supplies and electricity;

7. destroyed hospitals, clinics and shelters;

8. destroyed economic infrastructure like bridges, roads, industrial plants, etc., as well as hotels, garages, shops, private homes and public buildings;

9. destroyed farmlands and drove much of the livestock to Tigray while leaving dead what they could not take;

10. destroyed and damaged churches, mosques, martyrs' cemeteries and other sacred burial places;

11. looted, destroyed or damaged cultural property like centuries-old Bibles, Qurans and other religious books and icons;

12. engaged in ethnic cleansing by forcibly evicting Eritreans from occupied territory and transferring their own people to these areas;

13. looted and pillaged almost all moveable goods, public and private, which could not in any way be determined by the necessities of war, and invited large hordes of Tigreans to join them in their theft;

14. forcibly conscripted children under the age of fifteen (15) and human land mine sweepers (Fenji Regatchoch) ;

15. displaced close to one million (or one third) of the Eritrean population which fled before, or were driven out of their homes by, the invading horde.

These grave breaches against international humanitarian law, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against peace, some of which have been recorded in the video tape that we distributed yesterday to be part of this statement, are being carefully documented for posterity and can be made available for review by any interested party.

These crimes have been witnessed not only by members of international civil society but also several chief executives and senior officials of the United Nations system including Carol Bellamy, the Director-General of UNICEF, and Carolyn McAskie, Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance who condemns the rape against Eritrean women as "a weapon of war" and "sexual torture" which must be met with "general outcry."

Madam Chairperson,

Countries are emboldened to commit such heinous crimes and to violate human rights with impunity because they are reasonably certain that the international community will not take any meaningful action against them. There is no doubt that any timely action could have made them think twice before committing such crimes over and over again. This Sub-Commission has been mandated, inter alia, to bring to the attention of the Commission any situations which, in its view, manifest a pattern of gross violations of human rights in accordance with paragraph 6 of Commission Resolution XXIII. In view of the evidence brought before this Sub-Commission during the last two (2) years not only by Eritrean delegations but also by NGOs, and now by senior executives of the UN, it behooves this Sub-Commission to be seized with the matter, to investigate and, if it cannot take appropriate action itself, make recommendations to the Commission. It does not send the right message, especially to victims, if at this point the UN human rights mechanisms, including this Sub-Commission, were to be the only relevant UN institutions that have yet to react to such human rights violations and tragedy.

I thank you.

Consulate of the State of Eritrea, Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva, 3 August 2000