UN Council Angered at Eritrea over Border Force

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 (Reuters) - Security Council members voiced anger on Tuesday at moves by Eritrea to force a U.N. peacekeeping mission to leave its border with Ethiopia, but postponed a decision on how to respond. "The members of the council were unanimous in that the way the peacekeepers of UNMEE (the U.N. force) have been treated in Eritrea is totally unacceptable," South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, current council president, told reporters. The United Nations has almost completely withdrawn some 1,700 troops and military observers from a buffer zone along the border between the two Horn of Africa rivals after Asmara cut fuel supplies to the mission. Eritrea said countrywide shortages had prompted the move, but President Isaias Afwerki said last week the continued presence of U.N. peacekeepers on the Red Sea state's border with Ethiopia, scene of a 1998-200 war, was illegal.

The peacekeepers had been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) zone inside Eritrea. But Eritrea turned against UNMEE because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding Asmara chunks of Ethiopian-held territory. Kumalo conceded that Eritrea had genuine concerns. He said the council would return to the issue, probably next week. "We have to take time to really think this through," he said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report earlier this month that if the peacekeepers abandoned the 620-mile (1,000-km) border, a new war could break out, although both countries have said they do not plan to renew hostilities. Ban offered several options, including the permanent withdrawal of UNMEE, deploying a small observer mission in the border area, establishing liaison offices in Addis Ababa and Asmara or returning to the original full deployment. The last option, however, looks unlikely given Eritrea's refusal to discuss the issue. "The United Nations cannot really achieve a result if the two countries do not follow up on the commitment they made in 2000," when they agreed to host UNMEE, U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno, who briefed the council, told reporters. Most UNMEE troops have been sent home temporarily and less than 200 are now in Eritrea, with a few in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has offered to hold talks with Eritrea but Asmara says Addis Ababa must first withdraw from Eritrean territory. Both sides have amassed troops in recent months. U.S. envoy Alejandro Wolff said there was "a mood in the council of great, great dissatisfaction at the manner in which Eritrea has handled this," and accused the Eritreans of "shooting themselves in the foot." "In the long term Eritrea will pay a big price for this misjudgment," he told reporters, without elaborating. (Editing by Alan Elsner)
By Patrick Worsnip
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Catholic Church in Shock as State Expels Missionaries

ASMARA, ERITREA Nov 13:(CISA) -The Eritrean government has thrown the Catholic Church into tension by expelling 13 missionaries in unclear circumstances. Reliable sources have confirmed to CISA that the missionaries, including a Kenyan, were given 14 days to leave the country, beginning November 6. The expulsion, our sources say, is part of a wider plot by the Maoist dictatorship of President Isaias Afewerki to destroy the Catholic Church in the Horn of Africa nation.

The missionary news agency MISNA reports that the expulsion order was issued to four Comboni fathers (2 Mexicans, a Filipino and a Kenyan), 2 Comboni sisters, 2 Pavonian fathers, 2 Filipino Pius Teachers, 2 nuns of an unspecified congregation and a lay missionary. The lay missionary, an Italian national, was a volunteer working as secretary for the Bishop of Barentu, south-west of Eritrea. Two of the 13 missionaries, a Comboni father and sister, are already outside of Eritrea, but for personal reasons, according to MISNA. The reasons for the expulsion remain unclear. But sources told MISNA that two years ago the government gave notice to some missionary institutes to prepare local personnel ahead of a planned exit of foreigners from the nation.

Eritrea has one of the worst records of religious freedom violations in the world. More than 90 percent of its people belong to four recognized religions: Orthodox, Catholicism, Lutheran and Islam. Members of unrecognized churches are often detained and tortured. The annual International Religious Freedom Report issued by the United States of America this September says religious freedom worsened in 2006. The government severely restricted the freedom of religion for groups that it had not registered and infringed upon the independence of some registered groups.

Following a 2002 decree that religious groups must register, the government closed all religious facilities not belonging to the country's four principal faith groups. It continued to harass, arrest, and detain members of independent evangelical groups and sought greater control over the approved religious groups. The government also meddled with the Eritrean Orthodox Church by supplanting the patriarch in favour of its own candidate. It failed to register four religious groups that had applied in 2002, and it restricted religious meetings and arrested individuals during religious ceremonies, gatherings, and prayer meetings. According to media reports, many hundreds of religious detainees continue to be held without due process in harsh conditions that include extreme temperature fluctuations with limited or no access to family.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Mozlink’ for any or all of the articles/images placed here. The placing of an article does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
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