Eritrea Online / Dehai Homepage
1. A US-based human rights organization urged the Ethiopian government to release and to facilitate the safe return home of the 85 Eritrean exchange students it is keeping in detention. The Human Rights Watch Academic Freedom Committee, in an open letter to President Negasso Gidada, called the detention "fundamentally inconsistent with the principles underlying academic exchange worldwide," the organization's release stated Monday. The release quoted the organization's academic freedom specialist, Joseph Saunders, as saying that the Ethiopian officials' "security rationale cannot mask the injustice of the detentions." The release also noted that the Eritrean government allowed the return of 46 Ethiopian exchange students. University of Asmara President Wolde-Ab Yisak in a letter dated July 7 appealed to UNESCO, the International Association of Universities, and the Association of African Universities to obtain the release of the Eritrean exchange students.
2. An Ethiopian MP from the Somali ethnic group has fled Ethiopia and is seeking refuge in Britain, BBC reported today. Ahmed Abdelkerim, from the Ethiopian Somali Democratic League that supported the EPRDF government, said that many officials, including assistants to ministers, and journalists have been detained while others have been removed from their jobs.
3. Ethiopian ambassador to the UN, Dori Mohammed, rejected the news that direct talks would be held between Eritrean and Ethiopian officials in Burkina Faso to settle the border dispute, VOA reported. The ambassador did not, however, deny that the two sides might hold separate talks with the OAU mediators in Ouagadougou. Earlier, the Associated Press, quoting an African diplomat, had reported that direct talks between the two sides would be conducted in Burkina Faso's capital in the presence of the OAU secretary, Salem Ahmed Salem. In an interview with VOA, the Ethiopian ambassador reiterated his government's stand that there would be no direct talks between the two parties unless Eritrea unilaterally withdraws from the disputed areas.
An official at the Eritrean Foreign Affairs Ministry dismissed Ethiopia's alibi as ridiculous. The official said that Eritrea is interested in the substance, and not in the format, of the discussion. The format is also a prerogative of the OAU mediation team and cannot be imposed by the two parties.
Veronica Rentmeesters, Information Officer
Embassy of Eritrea to the US
1708 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009, USA TEL: 202 588 7587 FAX: 202 319 1304
E-M: veronicX@embassyeritrea.org