Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)
ERINA Update
Wednesday, July 8, 1998
1. Eritrea has called on the international community to take the necessary measures to bring to an end "Ethiopia's gross violation of the basic human rights of Eritrean citizens living in Ethiopia." In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Eritrea asked the international community to work for the unconditional release of Eritreans that are being illegally held in detention centers in Ethiopia. These number in the thousands, with close to a thousand in one concentration camp at Fiche, 100 kilometers northwest of Addis Ababa. They include sixty university students who went to Ethiopia on an exchange program and none of them poses any security threat. Eritrea has also called for the cessation of deportation of Eritreans and for the early reunion of the families of those who have already deported and "the protection of Eritrean property and means of livelihood in Ethiopia." Lastly, the Eritrean government called on the international community to "provide adequate assistance to Eritrean detainees, deportees and displaced persons." The Eritrean Refugees and Rehabilitation Commission (ERREC) has stated that the number of displaced is over 100,000. 2. An average of fifty Eritrean deportees are crossing the border into Eritrea in the Badme area daily. These are mainly farmers who have lived in villages across the border for decades. They were abruptly told to leave in this farming season. Meanwhile, another 190 Eritreans from different Ethiopian towns arrived in Asmara yesterday, July 7, 1998, after being deported by the Ethiopian authorities. Of these, a group of twenty-two women and girls were dumped at the Mareb border in southern Eritrea while the rest came through the Om Hager border in the southwestern tip of the country. To date, over 6,000 Eritreans have already been deported from Ethiopia.