Government of Eritrea and the Commission of Inquiry

[spider_facebook id=”4″] The mouthpiece of the Government of Eritrea, shabait.com, has published a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release to complain about the timing of the release of the report by the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (CoIE.)  The statement goes on to describe such a release, whose timing it considers “credible information” as an “unlawful act.”  This is, to say least, a bizarre reaction.

Firstly, it’s standard practice for Commission of Inquiry to release a draft of its report to all stakeholders–including the mandate holder–and the media.  This was done by the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea, as well the Commission of Inquiry on Syria.   To describe a routine activity, accepted as standard operating procedure by all UN bodies is either ill-informed or, more likely, “playing the ref”: to complain about the referee so incessantly that, out of sheer exhaustion, the referee gives the complainant the benefit of doubt.

Secondly, given that the Government of Eritrea finds itself accused of lawlessness, it is surreal for it to accuse the body investigating it of committing an “unlawful act.”  In 2015, the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea wrote in its findings that the Government of Eritrea is guilty of grave crimes including: surveillance of population; restricting freedom of moment, opinion, expression, assembly, association, religion and belief; rule by fear including arbitrary detention and deprivation of life; torture, ill-treatment and punishment as well as indefinite conscription and forced labor.  The UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) found the Commission’s findings of “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” so compelling that it mandated it to determine if these crimes rise to the level of crimes against humanity.

One would hope that a government facing such grave charges would treat them with the gravity they deserve.   However, if past is prelude, the Government of Eritrea will make no serious attempts to modify its behavior and its only defense will be to attempt to undermine the authority of the body which has a UN-mandate to report its findings.  Right now, its sole strategy appears to be to “whip” Eritreans in the Diaspora to write petitions of support–the same Eritreans that the CoIE, in its 2015 report, found to be under surveillance and coerced.

In any event, the Human Rights Council is scheduled to hold its 32nd session in Geneva between June 13 and July 1, 2016.  Finding a government guilty of “crimes against humanity” is not just a legal act but a political act so we will wait to see the outcome.  What is clear is that in the 12 months since the last report, the government hasn’t eased up on all the crimes it was charged with and has, indeed, added to it now: violations of right to property are more extreme now that the government has confiscated the people’s money and is doling it out in allowances.