መርሓባ በጻሕቲ ኣዝማሪኖ

Updated with Video They emerge from a house in a remote desert village in the North Sinai, their long, thin legs barely able to carry them. That they can stand at all is a miracle. It is just a few days since the two young men escaped months of torture at the hands of human traffickers and their physical and emotional frailty is palpable. Twenty-two-year-old Tesfalem and 21-year-old Frezgi were held in two separate torture camps in the Sinai - Frezgi for 15 months and Tesfalem for seven months. To see their bodies is to witness the most gruesome abuse: Frezgi's back is covered with irregular, raised scars - wounds caused when melted plastic is dripped onto bare skin. Tesfalem's feet have been burned with cigarettes and anxiety now visibly vibrates through his painfully thin body. These are injuries I will see again and again as I meet more Eritreans who have survived the torture camps of the Sinai.

Despite Somalia's current challenges, the Eritrean people still need your support. However I am very confident that your country will continue to show strong leadership on this issue and others, and for that you have my praise and admiration along with that of Eritreans around the world. Your support for the Eritrean people, for the fundamental rights of the Persons with Albinism, and for others, will not be forgotten.

Elsa Chyrum, Director of Human Rights Concern Eritrea, said, "We are glad that we have come this far in raising the dire human rights situation in Eritrea. We welcome the Special Rapporteur's report which has confirmed what has been reported by Eritrean and international human rights organisations for years. We are also pleased with the adoption of the new resolution to extend the mandate, and the opportunity given to the Special Rapporteur to present her report in New York at the General Assembly, and therefore to put more pressure on the Eritrean government.

"We thank all the delegations that played a positive role in ensuring that this resolution was adopted by the HRC and that the Eritrean people's suffering is highlighted."

A Conference under the theme “Time for Change: Saving Eritrea’s Future” was held in Washington D.C. during the period May 24-25, 2013.

This conference, organized by Eritreans who came from all over the United States and Canada, was attended by about 2000 Eritrean-Americans, Eritrean-Canadians, and friends of Eritrea. This conference was held on the sidelines of the Washington D.C. demonstration, which has been sufficiently covered but on which we would like to dwell briefly.

Of all the things Eritrean that happened at the UN Human Rights Council last week young Abbie Seyoum’s unremitting quest for the whereabouts of her father whom she lost to the cruel dungeons in Eritrea was perhaps the most powerful.

If he had any humanity left in him, Abassador Tesfamichel Gerahtu (himself the father of young girls not much older than Abbie) would be haunted by the echoes of her voice reverberating ‘where is my father?’… but I don’t hold any hopes for that as by this point in my life I am convinced that the dangerous cocktail of evilness that he and his colleagues are dabbling in has any room for humane emotional reaction to the most natural question of a mere child … one whose only memory of a father is contained in a video footage of him playing with her toddler self… the more successful a pfdj one becomes the less of a human being they become too…

GENEVA (5 June 2013) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Eritrea, Sheila B. Keetharuth, today reiterated her call on the international community to keep monitoring the human rights situation in Eritrea and to protect and support those fleeing the country, in particular the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children.

“I urge the international community to keep Eritrea under close scrutiny until meaningful change is evident,” Ms. Keetharuth said during the presentation of her first report to the UN Human Rights Council. “It will be important to increase efforts to constructively engage with Eritrea and neighbouring countries to improve the situation of human rights in the country.”