Monday, May 16, 2011

EveryOne Group's reply to Human Rights Concern Eritrea

Rome, May 16th, 2011. The association Human Rights Concern Eritrea has published and distributed an open letter in which it heavily criticizes a recent operation conducted by EveryOne Group, in which we alerted the United Nations and the European Union about a development in the tragedy that involved a vessel with 335 displaced Eritreans and Ethiopians on board. The boat had sailed from Tripoli on March 22nd and been shipwrecked in Libyan waters. According to the Eritrean priest, don Zerai Mussie, the corpses of some of the refugees on board were washed up riddled with bullets.
This news was reported to Zerai by witnesses in Libya. The fate of the other refugees is still a mystery, but it is likely that many perished in the tragedy. Recently, however, EveryOne has received reports from people who claim to be relatives of survivors of this shipwreck. They informed our activists that they had news of a possible rescue of a number of survivors by the Libyan authorities. The Eritreans were later taken to a detention center. At the same time EveryOne Group received a letter from an Eritrean citizen who lives in the U.S., with news that would confirm this possibility. EveryOne immediately sent a letter off to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the EU Commissioner for Human Rights and key UN and EU humanitarian agencies. The letter gave the sender's name and a phone number, which according to the author of the letter belongs to one of the survivors who is now in prison. EveryOne then published an article on the case, taking care, however, to omit the name of the Eritrean who communicated the news to our activists and the telephone number of the refugees believed to be detained in Libya.
At the request of Human Rights Concern Eritrea, and as a kindness towards the humanitarian workers based in the United Kingdom, EveryOne Group provided the association and Agenzia Habeshia (which had also made the same request) with the information deleted in the article. In this way EveryOne hoped to restore good relations with Human Rights Concern, despite being in disagreement with the association after it had previously published news of Israel's so-called abuses against migrant Eritreans, abuses the Jewish state had not committed (http : / / www.hrc-eritrea.org/article.php?id=56). Indeed, these allegations were in danger of straining relations with the Israeli authorities concerning the protection it afforded Eritrean refugees. Relief operations carried out by Israel in favour of Eritrean and sub-Saharan refugees are confirmed both by Medici per i Diritti Umani (Doctors for Human Rights) and the director of Radio Azzurra, Antonio Di Rosario. After the report by Human Rights Concern, another NGO published false information, which was even more serious, claiming that some Eritrean refugees imprisoned in Sinai had had their kidneys removed in illegal Israeli clinics, and not (as has been demonstrated) in laboratories run by organized crime in Egypt. We believe it is essential that humanitarian organizations state and publish only the truth and not be led by aversions towards other peoples and nations, and in particular towards the State of Israel, which in recent years has offered humanitarian protection to as many as 20,000 Eritrean refugees. We are convinced that our efforts to make known the humanitarian support and solidarity offered by Israel to sub-Saharan migrants - and our denial of the false information published on the subject - may have inspired this "open letter" and this rather unfriendly attitude from some Eritrean activists towards our group. EveryOne Group, however, puts the human being at the forefront of all its activities, and not the person’s religion or the political faction he belongs to. For our activists the persecuted Christian and persecuted Muslim have equal dignity and rights, and the same goes for human beings from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast etc. This is the spirit in which we operate, and our collaborative attitude towards all other activists stems from a desire to build - together with other NGOs who share the same humanitarian spirit - a network of associations and human rights defenders who work in the field of migration from sub-Saharan Africa. It is a difficult project, also because of the many divisions, the constant disputes and mutual suspicion that hinder the humanitarian work of many of these NGOs. However,  we consider this project an extremely important one, and because of this we are tolerant in the face of hostility, as long as we can verify the good intentions of the humanitarian NGOs with whom we share our information. If this proves impossible, we will be forced to disclose the information needed for the carrying out of humanitarian assistance only to the agencies of the UN, EU and the NGOs with whom we have established a relationship of trust and collaboration.

Sincerely, Everyone Group

Related link, the "open letter" by Elsa Chyrum - Human Rights Concern Eritrea:
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