Writers Corner
Your eyes couldn’t protect me from their glower
Surely I should trust your eyes
I should trust your eyes…
Your eyes shouldn’t lie
Not to me, not today
But Mother: your
Compassionate
Ever watchful
Eyes lied
With their
Comfort
Rape and identity in Egypt
As heavyset Arab rapists
laid on top of her one by one,
all the little Eritrean lady felt was
the full weight
of her Habesha identity.
Under the Eritrean sky
The Night claims it has no say
on what takes place under its cover,
occupied as it is
holding off the daylight
from arriving too soon.
Deep down…he knew what scared him though…
Beauty, energy, vitality, hope and strength… these were the things that filled him with terror his whole being has lost its link to the source of these things that have become mere concepts to him… no… not concepts they were mere words completely disembodied of any meaning sensation or substance…they were less than words… they were symbols that people used to denote something that he might have known, could have known and would have known… if he weren’t here… if he wasn’t him… but he is him and he is here and now the very shadow of all these things filled him with terror… they reminded his body of all the things that it has been devoid of…he bowed to look at his own shadow… and immediately realised he made a big mistake…
As if there was more of me left to kill
They shot at me from the back in the desert
And they found what I had known all along
There really was nothing to kill
I had died long ago
When I was born with my blood in his hands
So when you hear the bullet shots in the desert
Rather when you hear of bullet shots in the desert
Don’t cry and don’t come to my funeral then
For I died long before I was shot
I died long before I was forced to flee
I died long before I shed blood at their war
that is the way it is; has always been
what tyrants do; under cover
as if the body is never their own
they always dupe the other; behind a banner
prone to commit an injustice
atrocity never seen
any act that restores that lost attention; they crave
to the grave
The one that they gathered to remember
Was my brother
The one that they killed as he tried to flee them
Was my brother
The one they have sentenced to a life of bondage
Is my bother
The one they refuse sanctuary to in their own country
Is my brother
The one they tortured to death in a cage
Because he prayed to a God they reject
Is my brother
They call one a ‘martyr’
The other an ‘absconder’
And the third a ‘nothing!’
I call them all a brother
Three generations
A mother lit three candles
for her three fallen sons.
Her toddler granddaughter tries hard
to blow them out,
as she wonders where the cake is.
Missing pages
What is most notable
about the Book of Martyrs
is not what it says
but what it doesn’t say:
what is all this sacrifice for?
Shaebia’s past
Despite doing everything wrong
if a family remains healthy and plumb
at a time of great famine,
count and recount its children:
it could have been eating its young!
You must not have any dreams whatsoever
Nor have any hope or aspirations
You will go to war on demand
Or dungeons unknown
Will denounce friends
Betray conscience
Have no faith
Principles
Or ethics
Deserted
Alone
Brevet
Into the pitch dankness she lit a lonely candle
And declared; there shall be peace
…one day…
She started humming that determined rhythm
Into her barely lit world
A low persistent voice… that didn’t ring
Or chime…
A quiet hum…
...hardly audible
That didn’t condemn
Or blame
Yet… without noise…
Without rhyme…
Without an actual song
Or a dance
She declared that there shall be peace
…one day…
And now I can’t hear excuses no more
A call has reached my shore
Of a thousand more plights
Unrecorded...untold...unheard
And I refuse to look the other way
For what good is my voice
If it doesn’t roar against injustice?
What good are my dreams
If they don’t make a difference?
And what good is a life
In this valley of death
If I refuse to hear the dejected...?
Their call has reached my shore
And woe unto me if I look the other way walk off
Page 3 of 5
Eritrea's human rights record has long faced international criticism. Located in the Horn of Africa, the country is home to five million people, but so closed to the outside world that individual stories tend to come almost exclusively from those who have fled.
Kidane Isaac was just 18 when he says Eritrean authorities arrested him for an unspecified crime. It's possible he was suspected of planning to desert military service. Thousands of Eritreans flee the country every month, many of them teenagers, to escape the
(London 17th May 2013) Release Eritrea is to extend its support to victims of trafficking through two projects in Egypt and Israel respectively. The projects which have been funded for three years starting this month will build on the work that was carried out over the last two years enabling local staff and volunteers to provide relevant services as identified by those already engaged in the field.
Read more...
EYSC (15-05-2013): The Eritrean Youth Solidarity for Change - Global Group - announced today the launch of its new television program, EYSC TV.
The television program, which will air twice a month beginning on Wednesday May 22nd at 7:33 PM Berlin time, covers over half a million households in the Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt areas in Germany and will be accessible world-wide at the same time via YouTube or via the distribution links of the TV studio. EYSC ensures interested viewers that it will publish the programme simultaneously to the TV broadcast on EYSC Facebook and in YouTube.
Date: 24 May 2013- Time: 2:00PM – 6:00PM -Venue: in Front of 10 Downing Street
The Coordinating Committee representing the different exiled opposition political and civil society organizations in London calls on all Eritreans and the friends of Eritrea to participate in the Pro-democracy Peaceful Demonstration.
It is with deep sadness that the Coordination Committee of the Eritrean National Democratic Forces (ENDF) learned the passing away on 12 May 2013 of compatriot Amare Gebremariam at the age of 70.
The late Amare Gebremariam was one of the founding members of ENDF which he served also for one year as its active vice-chairman actively supporting the ENDF chairman, Diplomat Humad Kullu.
From his perch in California, Sium tries to stay politically connected to his country. He marches when there's a local demonstration, contributes to refugee causes and posts on Facebook.
But there's always one thing missing. The people inside Eritrea don't dare to "like" his Facebook posts. And they never march in the streets themselves. For Eritrean activists living abroad, this silence can be frustrating.
So Sium had an idea: If we can't ask them to come out, what if we ask them to stay home?
Sharing her experience and expertise in the struggle against human trafficking in the region was Ms Meron Estifanos, Eritrean human rights activist and journalist with the diaspora based Radio Erena. In a moving presentation focusing on the narrative of a young victim of trafficking who died leaving her toddler son, in the hands of her abductors; Meron challenged every head of state present to respond to the plight of countless victims and address this shameful issue taking place in the region.
In his own presentation President Omer Hassan al-Bashir admitted that the concern is indeed a grave one that requires urgent attention. For his part president Paul Kagame also made a personal commitment to highlighting this concern at the UN Security Council, over the coming few months.
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We are happy to report that the Supreme Court accepted our appeal against a verdict issued in a lower instance court that rejected the Hotline for Migrant Workers' request to release an asylum seeker who survived the torture camps in Sinai from the Saharonim internment camp. The outrageous lower instance ruling by Judge Eliyahu Bitan stated that severe torture cannot be considered as an "exceptional humanitarian reason" for release under the Anti-Infiltration Law. All asylum seekers who have entered Israel since June 2012 have been jailed under this draconian law according to which asylum seekers can be released only in exceptional circumstances including "exceptional humanitarian" cases. ...
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April 18, 2013 (ADDIS ABABA) – The Eritrean government said this week that it supports Egypt’s stance over a colonial-era treaty that granted Egypt a right to utilise the lions share of Nile river’s water resources.
The Red Sea nation expressed its support in a message sent from the Eritrean president and delivered to Egypt’s president by Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs, Yemane Gebreab.
The Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has highly welcomed Eritrea’s position towards Egypt’s "historic rights" over the sharing of the water of the Nile River.
Allegations have surfaced this week against the government of Eritrea regarding their role in the in arming the rebels in the Central African Republic who recently overthrew Francois Bozize.
In an interview with ex-President Bozize recently ran in the media, the former CAR leader claimed that "the arms used by the Seleka rebels during their final assault on the presidential palace were purchased from Eritrea and transited through Chad with the permission of President Deby"
The Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week issued a strong denial.
(Photo: Seleka rebels believed to be armed by Eritrea)
Read more...
Banjul, 11 April 2013 – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Eritrea, Beedwantee Keetharuth, today regretted that the Eritrean Government continues to deny her access to assess the situation of human rights in the country, and announced she will undertake a mission to neighbouring countries to talk to Eritrean refugees.
“I have urged the Eritrean authorities to cooperate with my mandate, as required by the UN Human Rights Council,” Ms. Keetharuth said during the 53rd session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, The Gambia, where she held an ad-hoc meeting with the delegation of Eritrea in the margins of the event.
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