Eritrean Women's Group puts the record straight
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November 18, 2012
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Eritrean Women's Group presenting in Giessen, Germany
Eritrean Information and Discussion Meeting with German politicians and
other nationalities residing in the City of Giessen and region based on the
truth of Eritrean historical, political and cultural background.
The German city of Giessen became the stage of confrontation between
Eritreans defending their nation and Eritreans accusing their nation of
human rights violations, illegal detention, torture and forced military
conscription of child soldiers in the past two years. Tensions ran high
especially, during the annual multicultural Eritrean Festival in Giessen,
which opponents describe as a propaganda event sponsored by the Eritrean
Government. Unusual for Eritreans, once even police had to step in and make
arrests after fist-throwing brawls.
To put the record straight and inform the visibly irritated German public in
Giessen, the Eritrean Women's Association of Giessen staged an information
session about Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. The event was attended by 100
visitors including city councilors and municipal political parties in a
small hall of the local convention center.
During the presentation, the women explained about the country's customs,
culture, religion, traditions and the aspirations and daily life of the 5.3
million inhabitants of Eritrea. One of the speaker stressed the importance
of the cultural festival in Giessen to the Eritrean Diaspora community,
which flocks every year from all over Germany to the festival. The event
attracts around 600 Eritrean visitors, who want to share their common
historic culture and celebrate their little proud nation each year.
Eritrean speakers highlighted the festival would represent a multicultural
event open for everyone, Germans and Eritreans alike, aiming to build
bridges among people and serve the city as a symbol for tolerance and
cultural education.
Although, not everyone in the room shared this view, the overwhelming
applause indicated that the opponents were clearly in the minority that
night.
Nonetheless, already the first question on the length of military service in
Eritrea lead to a heated debate. The first answer was six months, then after
further discussion one party came up with 14 years of service, at the end it
turned out to be that six month are only the period of initial military
training.
One member of the audience pointed out that a shorter period of service
would be impossible "due to constant threat of war caused by neighboring
Ethiopia", the borders must be secured, he added.
Some of the questions, such as to why there is a high number of organized
Eritreans in the German Diaspora, were diplomatically evaded. On the other
hand, very clear statements were made regarding the occurrences in Giessen
over the last two years.
"The city council and some of the local politicians have made big mistakes
and partly ran a "smear campaign" against the Eritrean community and the
cultural festival", said one representative of the Eritrean Women's
Association.
She further noted that no other city in the world had experienced such a
heavy police presence for a cultural festival, caused by violent
troublemakers from abroad, despite the Eritrean community's peaceful
intention to display their culture and celebrate their festival in peace.
Received on Sun Nov 18 2012 - 21:00:53 EST
