Consulate of the State of Eritrea, Geneva, Switzerland Statement by Dr. Amare Tekle,
Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs Advisor, on Agenda Item 2, Fifty Second Session,
UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,
Geneva, 3 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:

* 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;
* rounded up the populations of towns and villages and beat and tortured civilians;
* imprisoned large numbers of civilians;
* raped under-age girls and elderly women;
* 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;
* attacked and destroyed plants which were indispensable to the survival of the civilian population including water supplies and electricity;
* destroyed hospitals, clinics and shelters;
* destroyed economic infrastructure like bridges, roads, industrial plants, etc., as well as hotels, garages, shops, private homes and public buildings;
* destroyed farmlands and drove much of the livestock to Tigray while leaving dead what they could not take;
* destroyed and damaged churches, mosques, martyrs' cemeteries and other sacred burial places;
* looted, destroyed or damaged cultural property like centuries-old Bibles, Qurans and other religious books and icons;
* engaged in ethnic cleansing by forcibly evicting Eritreans from occupied territory and transferring their own people to these areas;
* 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;
* forcibly conscripted children under the age of fifteen (15) and human land mine sweepers (Fenji Regatchoch);
* 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.