Eritrea appeals to UN in bid to prevent sanctions
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 – Eritrea’s president has asked for a personal hearing before the UN Security Council in a bid to head off new sanctions over alleged support for Somalia’s Islamist rebels, diplomats said. Rival
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 8 – Eritrea’s president has asked for a personal hearing before the UN Security Council in a bid to head off new sanctions over alleged support for Somalia’s Islamist rebels, diplomats said.
Rival Ethiopia has been calling for tougher action against Eritrea for several months after its neighbor was linked to a plot to bomb an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.
Kenya is now accusing Eritrea of arming Somali Islamist rebels and UN Security Council members Nigeria and Gabon have tabled a resolution calling for sanctions on Eritrea’s mining industry and remissions from abroad.
Eritrea’s President Issaias Afeworki has asked to speak to the 15-nation Security Council in New York in a move opposed by the United States.
Some Western nations oppose new sanctions, fearing such restrictions could harm the civilian population, diplomats said.
Afeworki has denied Kenya’s accusations that his country arms Shebab rebels in Somalia and that it was involved in a plot, outlined in a UN sanctions committee report, to bomb the summit in the Ethiopian capital in January.
The Security Council has not yet formally replied to the president, but diplomats said the United States and other council members feared that his presence at a meeting would only increase tensions.
“If Afeworki is at a meeting, then how could we stop the leaders of Ethiopia and other countries coming,” one Western diplomat said.
The United States has in the past spoken out in favor of new sanctions.
But envoys from other members of the council say action against mining — the mainstay of Eritrea’s tiny, crippled economy — would only harm the country’s five million people.
No date has yet been set for a meeting on Eritrea, but the six-nation Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, an East African regional bloc, is stepping up pressure for a decision, diplomats said.
The draft resolution calls on all states to “prohibit investment” in Eritrea’s key mining industry and ban the imports of gold and other resources from Eritrea, according to a copy of a draft resolution seen by AFP.
The action would also seek to ban the collection of a two percent tax on money sent home by Eritreans abroad.
In December 2009, the Security Council imposed an arms embargo, travel restrictions and asset freezes on Eritrean leaders for their alleged support to Shebab in the civil war against Somalia’s Western-backed transitional government.
Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said in a letter to the Security Council last week that giving Ethiopia and “other powers that harbor belligerent intentions” the right to inspect any cargo heading for Eritrea “is fraught with dangerous security implications.”
Action against the mining industry would “cripple future economic growth,” said the minister.
He went on to slam the travel ban against officials as a bid to “reinforce the image of a ‘pariah state’ that Eritrea’s enemies have been peddling.”
AFP
HGDEF November 9, 2011
I hope you will find some one else for you to say “After……….Next is isaias”. This “After Gaddafi next is Isaias” is taking you too long.
You said After Sadam next is Isaias, After Bin Ali Next is isaias, after mubarek next is isaias, After Gagbo next is isaias, After Abdella salah next is isaias, After Gadafi next is isaias……………………………
Selam November 9, 2011
Why I don’t believe in sanctions against Eritrea, because Sanctions are Bargaining chips. Simply put the Sanctions against the country will remain they don’t automatically become void with the removal of the current government. Which means Eritrea (after removal of the current government) still have to go to UNSC and history will only tell us what will happen….
simon haile November 9, 2011
Sanction or no sanction,
The Eritrean camel will keep advancing.
The alternative is up to everyone. You stand on the side of your own people, country and The Eritrean Army or stand in front of them. Period .
Thank you.
Isaias Is Not Eritrea November 9, 2011
So the camel will still advance, will the rest of the world are building spaceship and thinking about reaching and researching about space…but i forgot the camel will still advance…hooray im so happy that Eritrea uses a camel as a metaphor.
I believe most Eritreans stands behind its country, people and the army. It is just that we have a regime that has decided to stand alone detached from its people and its actions has reached a point where the people are in pain and hurting. Your inability to question your regimes actions, makes you a blind sheep that automatically points at others without asking yourself what could this regime have done to avoid being trapped the way it is being right now.
I have one last question, if I say to you “Isaias is Eritrea and Eritrea is Isaias” would you agree with me or not? Because thats how thoose few who still think Isaias is the best thing that happened to this world thinks.
Ohh by the way, in one Hitlers most famous speech they at the end all shouted…Hitler is Germany and Germany is Hitler.
Selam November 9, 2011
Simon ,
Please re-read my comments , (Own People + Country + Eritrean Army= Eritrea )
simon haile November 9, 2011
Selam
My earnest apology my comment was not for. I was just making General comment.
Thank you
simon haile November 9, 2011
“You”
Selam November 9, 2011
None taken dear
Kozami November 9, 2011
Thomas Keneally’s words couldn’t ring more true than today. It was only a couple of months ago that the ‘hidden famine ruse was peddled by those whom Keneally is addressing. I wonder whatever has happened to those ‘concerned’ ‘worried’ ‘dismayed’ about the ‘hidden famine’ that prompted them to write ‘petitions’ and regurgitate their evil wish on Eritreans? Their bubble was pricked when the UNHCR rep. in Ethiopia said he hasn’t seen of ‘starving’ Eritrean’s. Many of you came out incensed by your erstwhile enemy, “truth” But the Eritrea of our yesteryear is marching strong and united today as ever and Keneally’s prediction is on its last leg of proven wrong!
Zekhtam Eritrawi November 9, 2011
Kozami,
A credit should be in order as you take on all of us where the rest of your posse are nothing but a disservice to your otherwise eloquent discourses. Having said that however, more often I would wrestle with myself as I come across to your rebuttals where a decent guy like you can not possibly be on something where at times you seem to be drifting onto the world of hallucination and toeing on the event-horizon. How is it possible you claim to see Eritrea marching on the right track? Is it because you’ve seen young people striding on the streets of Asmara with iPhones, iPods, iPads? Sure enough, people are building vacation houses; people are hanging out in the top of the line bars and cafes; people are driving super duper cars. However, would that make Eritrea a nation doing just fine on her own? The glaring reality beneath the veneer says otherwise where people are barely living on a bread per person per day and twenty kilos of Mashela per family per month.
HGDF November 9, 2011
Hey weyane agents I found two more names for your “After………Isaias is Next” game. “After George the PM og Greece Isaias is next” “After silvio Berlusconi The PM of Italia Isaias is next” I will provide you with more if I find some. I don’t want you run out of names for your “After………Isaias is Next” game.
Zekhtam Eritrawi November 9, 2011
HGDF,
Halew-lew aytbel.
COMEBESHTATO November 9, 2011
HGDEF.mendef. hgdef you use the word agame too mutch you must be agame like your boss.
Gaul Medefera(rahel) November 10, 2011
oh Thanks God,My brother got a chance to learn on one of Ethiopian University, i have seen him yesterday talking to ETv.
he is one of these hundreds of my country students who have a got a chance to learn on Ethiopian university.
Thank you Ethiopia, for giving all these chance, hope we will do all the good things for Ethiopia after we destroy the hgdem mendef from our beloved country.
hgdef mendef.. everyone is now aware that even if you teach us how to hate our neighbors, we are not your camel, we know what is going on everywhere…
I wish you good luck to my brother and other Eritreans who have got this chance to learn on Ethiopian Universities.
We are brothers and sisters.. government has a limited time, but people are for ever…
simon haile November 10, 2011
I think you should go back to school. You need to work on your spelling and grammar. If you can book your self to ethiopan school.
Than you.
simon haile November 10, 2011
You said ” hope we will do all the good things for Ethiopia…”
What good things? Sale your country back to ethiopa. Over my dead body.
Thank you
Viable System November 10, 2011
Is it your job to spout out empty nationalistic rants? Instead view this as a critique towards the Eritrean regime, that an Eritrean had to escape to a neighbouring country to get oppurtunities he should have recevied in Eritrea.
What is sad about this regime is that it fought 30 years against a injust system that deprived Eritreans of political, safety and many more rights to implement the very same communist system that mengistu haile mariam had in place. And you wonder why the majority of Eritreans are against this regime, read a history book.
Is this post also going to be deleted by you the moderator?
HGDEF November 11, 2011
Rahel tell the rest of your brothers to go there.
PFDJ(Popular Front for Dictatorship and Jail) November 10, 2011
yeah
I have followed the news,it is nice to hear that,Hgdef close university then open military camp.
hgdefawians best hobbies are “Dankera,Gauyla and Military camps”
Sad Eritrean November 10, 2011
So our own villageidiot, Isaias Afwerki, has realised there´s a world outside Eritrea that can affect him. Why dont he sit at home and invite ERItv and say “its a joke” “where the evidence”. Because now the hooneymoon is over, they are now tired of the fool Isaias and they are going to squeeze him real hard, and offcourse it is the Eritrean population that´s going to suffer the most by this. Many Eritreans could see this coming, many have hoped that we would change the direction and work for the better, but alas with a villageidiot in charge we are headed for a disaster. If they are not removed we are headed for a new Somalia.
semere November 10, 2011
for simon haile.
why you are talking about spelling and Grammar; why don’t check yours first.
For example you write ethiopan but it should be Ethiopian and you write than you. a mistake is always with us. just don’t blame ppl for small mistake.
Semere November 10, 2011
Gaul Medefera (rahel)
Thank you for sharing a mature opinion. I want to affirm that we have to distinguish the enemies of the Essayas regime from the enemies of the Eritrean people. The Essayas regime wants us to hate its “enemies” and “love” its friends. We should refuse to surrender to the political manipulation of Hgdef and its followers. In 20 years what good did we reap? Eritrea has a long history and experience of international relations: nations across the Red Sea, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Britain and of late Ethiopia. We are among the few African nations with a vast and long foreign relations history. We want to keep it and adhere to our historical identity. Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, Yemen, etc., are not our enemies. Is there any other nation closer to us in terms of history, culture, language and intermarriage more than Ethiopia and Tigray? There may be temporary problems here and there, but we know that we can solve them with a bit of good will and tolerance. After the Second World War nations who were archenemies (like USA and Germany, e.g., became close friends). Why can’t this happen in the Horn of Africa? We shall not allow the Essayas regime to compromise our history and identity.