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NEWS and Events
EHDR-UK Requests to Meet with ex-President of Finland
June
29, 2003
EHDR-UK has requested
for a meeting with Mr M Ahtisaari, UN’s special envoy for the
humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa to talk about the real causes
of the current crisis. Mr
Ahtisaari, the ex-president of Finland and a renowned diplomat who is
accredited with bringing the Kosovo conflict to an end in 1999, is
handpicked by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Anan, to look into the
crisis in the region.
In the letter,
EHDR-UK expressed its firm belief that Mr Ahtisaari will capably look
into the real causes of the current crisis. It mentioned that Eritreans have become victims of an
unnecessary war which caused deaths by the tens of thousands, utter
economic devastation, political uncertainty, ill-health, flight of its
citizens and more, all contributing towards the current humanitarian
crisis. EHDR-UK also
mentioned that lack of rain played a causal part in the crisis.
Apart from draught,
EHDR-UK identified two major causes of the humanitarian crisis in
Eritrea: its poor human and citizens’ rights record, which in turn led to
its isolation from the international and donor community, and
mismanagement of the Eritrean productive labour force. The letter stated
that the human rights discrepancy has repeatedly been reported by major
human rights agencies such as Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch. ‘According to reports already published’, stated EHDR-UK,
‘dissidents, government critics, reform-seeking ex-government officials,
journalists, mediators, ex-liberation fighters and students are in jail
in numbers’. Moreover, ‘many governments and NGOs were made to feel
uneasy by the leadership’s lack of vision and compassion towards its own
citizens’.
‘The other cause of
crisis’, the letter contended, ‘is the mismanagement of the Eritrean
productive labour force’. It stated that citizens up to the age of forty,
through a politically motivated crusade, are chaotically tied up in the
armed forces. It also
emphasised that farmers who heavily depend on the energy and pairs of
ploughing hands of their young are denied the privilege of
self–sustenance. Parents do
indeed rely on the services, energy and extra income they acquire from
their offspring in Eritrea. ‘Unfortunately’, the letter concluded,
‘government has mismanaged the potential contribution of the Eritrean youth
to their own households’. It
is to be remembered that the war ended in 2000, and the over 200,000
youth have not been demobilised yet.
Eritreans for Human
and Democratic Rights - UK (EHDR-UK)
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