If you thought Eritrea joining the Human Rights Council would improve its government’s ability to package its lies better–never mind to stop lying, never mind to eliminate the reasons for its lies–you will be sorely disappointed. It is determined to pursue the path of giving political pacifiers (ፖለቲካ ቺቸቶ) to its own people and bald-faced lies to the international community.
Of course, it is unclear who the “you” is in the above paragraph. Certainly not Eritreans. Those who are opposed to the ruling clique have no expectations for it to drop a lifelong habit, particularly when dropping it leads to a road whose destination is accountability. Those who support it either don’t think it is lying or, if it is lying, that it is doing so for the sake of Eritrea.
The lies range from the brazen to the absurd:
(1) Whereas: everybody knows that Patriarch Antonios was forcibly removed from his position by the regime’s director of religious affairs for refusing to subordinate his Church to the Party; whereas Pope Shinoda (Alexandria, Egypt) has refused to accept the ascent of any other patriarch, the Eritrean regime says that his removal was the act of the Synod and all it is doing is accommodating him by providing him with medical care and lodging (house arrest.)
(2) Whereas: many exiled Eritrean youth from different parts of the country, Eritreans who have never met, have told torture stories too consistent–in their scope, details, banality and cruelty– to be made up, the Eritrean ruling clique says there is no torture in Eritrea;
(3) Whereas: since the resignation of Justice Teame from his position as president of the supreme court in 2000, it is common knowledge that the Eritrean court serves at the pleasure of the President’s Office, the delegation of the Eritrean ruling regime represented that the Court is independent;
(4) Whereas: the unofficial and unsanctioned prisons in Eritrea far outnumber the official ones, and that there is no due process as understood in Eritrea’s national laws and the international treaties it is signatory to, the representatives of the Eritrean regime claimed that prosecutors and judges conduct independent interviews of detainees;
(5) Whereas: securing “confessions” and “letters of apology” under extreme duress are in the DNA of the ruling regime and business as usual, the representatives of the Eritrean regime represented that evidence secured under torture and extreme interrogation is not admitted at a court of law;
(6) Whereas: a leaked letter from the Sawa commander to the President’s Office disclosed an unacceptably high underage students attending 12th grade at the Sawa High School (in the military compound), the Eritrean regime representatives disclosed that those numbers are insignificant;
(7) Whereas: there is a huge overlap between the Ministry of Defense and the Minstry of Education in Eritrea, with many of the 12th grade administrators being uniformed officers, the Eritrean regime represented that the two are completely separate entities;
(8) Whereas: the process of developing a homegrown constitution in Eritrea that was ratified by an 800+ constituent assembly in May 1997 was explained in great detail as a point of pride, the reasons for why it was not implemented (war) remain unpersuasive, and the reasons for killing it on May 24, 2015 (Eritrea’s independence day) remain insulting; and the reasons not given for why, in a 4 year period–the time it took to for the first constitution from proclamation (1994) to ratification (1997)–the Eritrean regime has not even announced the members of the drafting committee much less begin the groundwork of re-writing it and the delegates had no shame in disclosing that they have no timetable for when it will be done (or why it was necessary to redo it.)
(9) Whereas: given the above, the Eritrean regime’s constant reference to laws and procedures on penal and civil codes remain empty ones since it is impossible to have laws when the supreme law–a constitution–does not exit and will never exist.
(10) Whereas: the regime continues to deny its policy of reprisal, despite that the fact that it is so chronic even those who claim to speak on its behalf–including those it sends to defend it–are not allowed to have their entire family live aboard, as at least one offspring has to remain at home as collateral.
(11) Whereas all the reasons, rationales, excuses and subterfuges the Eritrean regime had for running a police state–state of war with Ethiopia–are gone and it has yet to reverse a single extreme policy: the indefinite conscription, the absence of due process, habeus corpus, refusal to release prisoners, refusal to abolish the hated “special court”, refusal to have a timeline for elections all remain firmly entrenched.
This is why the Eritrean people are rising up and saying “Enough!”Because to refuse to say “enough!” ( ይኣክል) is to be an accessory and a collaborator to the the lying, the cover-up, the abuse of power and stalling tactics of the Eritrean regime which have one single purpose: to extend its rule in perpetuity, without constitution, rule of law, or accountability. The “national security” card having exhausted itself, the people are saying “enough!”
