Pres.Isaias in Egypt, Oromos arrested, Human rights abusee
Eritrean News Agency (erina@eol.com.er)
Mon, 27 Jul 1998 11:31:16 -0700 (MST)
Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)
Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)
ERINA Update
Monday, July 27, 1998
1. President Isaias Afwerki arrived in Egypt today to discuss bilateral
economic and trade relations. Earlier he held talks with the Libyan
leader Colonel Muammar Al-Kaddafi in Tripoli on bilateral relations and
regional issues.
2. Ethiopian officials have arrested scores of Oromo nationals, sources
inside the country disclosed. The arrests came at a time when the
Ethiopian government is waging propaganda campaigns against the Oromo
Liberation Front (OLF) and Al-Itihad (Western Somali Liberation
Movement). The government has been forcing people to pronounce
condemnations against OLF and Al-Itihad. Earlier at the start of the
Eritrean-Ethiopian conflict, Ethiopian officials organized forced
demonstrations against the Eritrean government. Ethiopia charged OLF and
Al-Itihad of conspiring with Eritrea against the Addis Ababa government.
The OLF fought side by side with the TPLF against Mengistu's regime and
worked in the transitional government in Ethiopia until 1992 when the
two fronts severed relations.
3. In a press release of July 24, the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign
Affairs reiterated the government's unswerving policy that a person
lawfully residing in the country has the right to stay in and to leave
Eritrea freely. The statement came after the Ethiopian government's
allegation that Eritrean officials refused to grant 177 Ethiopians
staying inside the compound of the Ethiopian embassy in Asmara
permission to leave Eritrea for Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government has
been engaged in an inflammatory campaign of disinformation since the
conflict began in May. The Addis Ababa government earlier accused
Eritrea of expelling eighty Ethiopian teachers, who had been stranded in
the port city of Asseb, although the teachers left of their free will
and received transport and other provisions from the Eritrean
government.
4. The Eritrean government expressed its dismay at the silence of the
international community in the face of continuous Ethiopian human rights
abuses, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release stated Friday.
Noting that "quiet diplomacy" has not deterred the Addis Ababa
government from violating the rights of Eritreans living in Ethiopia,
the statement called for public condemnation of these Ethiopian acts.
The international press has been continually picking up allegations and
lies fabricated by Ethiopia's "Morale Boosting Department" without
verifying their validity, the release added. The statement disclosed
reports of fresh and widespread arrests of Eritreans in preparation for
a third wave of deportation. More than 11,000 Eritreans have been
deported from Ethiopia, and another 1,000 Eritreans, including eighty
university students, are in detention.
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