⇒ Annexes to the Press Release of Eritrea’s Foreign Ministry

Press Release: Eritrea deplores US unlawful Acts

The US Administration has leveled unacceptable accusations against Eritrea
announcing associated measures that it will take against the Chief of Staff of
Eritrea’s Defense Forces under what it terms the “Global Magnitsky Act”.

The Government of Eritrea rejects, both in letter and spirit, the utterly baseless
allegations and blackmail directed against it.

This is not, indeed, the first time for the US Administration to float such
baseless smear campaigns against Eritrea. In his response of March 13 th , 2021
to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Eritrea’s Foreign Minister had
stated that “it is unfortunate that you have drawn certain conclusions on the
basis of unsubstantiated media disinformation. I am also dismayed by the tone
of your letter which seems to revert to unconstructive policies successive US
Administrations had pursued on Eritrea in the past thirty years. I do not wish to
go into acrimonious details in this letter but earnestly hope for timely
remedies”.

In the face of the repetitive and unwarranted accusations, Eritrea cannot remain
silent. In the circumstances, Eritrea calls on the US Administration to bring the
case to an independent adjudication if it indeed has facts to prove its false
allegations.

The Government of Eritrea also urges the UN Security Council to shoulder its
responsibility to deter and seek redress to repeated acts of flagrant violations of
international law and the sovereignty of peoples and nations by the United
States of America.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asmara
23 August 2021

*(The Diplomatic Note conveyed to Eritrea’s Foreign Ministry today through
the US Embassy in Asmara, and the communications between US Secretary of

State and Eritrea’s Foreign Minister of March 2021 will be made public as
part and parcel of this Press Release)

>> Press Release in PDF

Massive rally of Eritreans and Ethiopians underway on July 31, 2021 in Frankfurt -Germany. They call for peace and stability in horn of africa

UN Resident Coordinator in Eritrea Mrs Ama Sande meet MOI Yemane G.M.

“I was privileged to meet with the Hon. Minister for Information H.E Yemane G. Meskel. We had very fruitful discussions on strengthening the partnership between Government & the UN to deliver concrete results for the people of Eritrea”

Kenya’s Amakobe Sande is the new United Nations Resident Coordinator in Eritrea.

Under the role, Ms Sande will be expected to lead UN activities in Eritrea including ensuring the country is on the right path towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting Eritrea’s national response on Covid-19.

This morning I was privileged to meet with the Hon. Minister for Information H.E Yemane G. Meskel. We had very fruitful discussions on strengthening the partnership between Government & the UN to deliver concrete results for the people of #Eritrea#LNOB#SDGEritrea pic.twitter.com/RSDKo23QEE

— Ama Sande (@AmaSande) July 22, 2021

Mosana Debesay: First Black African Woman Cyclist at the Olympics

• Mosana, tell us something about yourself.

My name is Mosana Debesay. I was 14 when I first started riding a bicycle. I was in 8th grade then. One day a teacher popped into my class and announced that girls would be allowed to participate in cycling competitions. I used to participate in running races and soccer but it never worked out for me. So I took that chance and started cycling. There was another factor that pushed me to cycle. My four siblings are cyclists. Of course, my little brother started cycling after me, so my three older brothers influenced me. Whenever they won in a race and came back home with their medals, you have no idea how jealous I used to become. These feelings made me fall in love with cycling.

I remember when I was in high school I couldn’t concentrate on my schoolwork as I was busy thinking about training. I grew up training with a grassroots sports organization in Berik sub-zone. Then I officially rode the bicycle at a race organized by the cycling federation of the Central region in 2010 and finished second in the Eritrea Cycling Championship in 2011. I tested my ability in that race. In that same year, I went back to school to resume my studies which I had to quit for a while to compete at the championship. I completed a two-year course in accounting at a commercial school and went back to cycling in 2013. There were almost no teams recruiting female cyclists. However, in 2014, a team called Arag was formed and recruited female cyclists, and I became a member. I stayed with Arag until I joined the Italian team, Servetto Stradalli, in 2018. I signed with them for two years. Then I came back home from Italy in 2019 and joined Denden. In 2021, I signed with a Bike Aid professional cycling team.

• How did you feel when you won first place at the African Cycling Championship that was held in Bahirdar, Ethiopia, in 2019?

The excitement I felt back then can’t really be expressed in words. Let me take you back to 2016. In 2016, I went to compete at the African Championship. For anyone won the road race, there was an opportunity to participate in the Olympics. I failed to get that opportunity. I was so mad at myself and decided to make sure to get this opportunity after four years. I made a promise to myself and said this: “I have to win in the upcoming race, if not I won’t race again in the African Championship.” I really can’t forget that day because I was really heartbroken, but it also gave me the motivation to get to where I’m now. Then in September of that year we participated at the World Championship. It was the very first time Eritrea participated with three female cyclists. The fact that we participated there motivated us and it was good enough for us as it was our first time. In 2019, I won 1st place at the African Championship held in Bahirdar, Ethiopia, which opened the gate to the Olympics. That feeling erased the sadness I felt four years before. I wouldn’t allow them to take the spot anymore.

• Congratulations for getting the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, which you have been craving for. How do you feel to be the first female black African cyclist to compete at the Olympics?

Wow. Actually, I really worked very hard and I knew this day would come one day. Now that I’ve got the opportunity I will really work hard for it. Of course, I will be very happy to win there. Until now I have been competing representing either my country or the team I’m with. However, now, I know I’m representing the whole continent of Africa and that every African is going to support me, which is filling me with excitement.

• Mosana, you are a married woman. How do you maintain the balance between your married life and your career?

Knowing exactly what you want is by far one of the most important and powerful steps in life. So knowing what I really want and who I really want helped me a lot. As a matter of fact, my married life has never been an obstacle to my career. Of course, our tradition and life style is really not supportive to women, especially when they are sports women. You have to take care of your family and look after your kids. I did keep that in mind and figured out how to keep my career and married life side by side simply by negotiating with my partner and planning things out.

At first, when I got married no one expected me to continue cycling. The beautiful part of my life is that my husband can understand me so well. He knows what I like and what I hate. Not only that, he has always been my number one fan. Now, he is even willing to take part in cycling; he wants to be around me as a supporter or personal manager. We are a perfect match.

• As a senior cyclist, what would you like to say to the junior cyclists?

Well, I can’t say a lot because they have already become very competitive and ambitious, but there is one thing I don’t want to leave without saying. In cycling we all start with ambitions and we eventually start to get prizes and everything. That’s when many start to divert. Some start to feel so proud of their achievement that they don’t want to continue and strike bigger victories. They become complacent. That is not how it should be. The way we feel and think about things, including our beliefs and expectations about what is possible for us, determine everything we do and everything that happens to us. When we change the quality of our thinking, we change the quality of our life, sometimes instantly. So, they shouldn’t be stuck in the place they are. They have to strive for further and bigger achievements. That’s all I want to say to them.

• What should we expect from you?

This is the biggest race I have ever been to. So I will do my very best because this will be the pride for all Eritreans. I want to repay the people who have been supporting me till this very moment. My teachers who nurtured me back from 2008 till now, my parents, my people and the government. So, I will compete with all my might for these people.

• Thank you, Mosana. Good luck!!

Willpower is the driving force for actions that lead to success. Mosana Debesay, an Eritrean professional cyclist, has been able to get to the place she is now through her willpower. Born in 1993, Mosana started racing as a career in 2010 and last rode for the UCI Women’s team, Servetto Stradalli, in 2019. She is now going to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics road race as the first female black African in the event.

47 HRC Session – Eritrea’s Statement on Draft Resolution HRC_47_L.14 July 12, 2021

Once again, Eritrea is facing the usual ritual that characterized the unjust and unfair treatment by some western countries with the hard-line positions against Eritrea in the pretext of human rights. The futile political ill-intent remains vilification, isolation, and destabilization of the nation. Moreover, the politicized HRC resolutions and mechanisms served as a continuation of the external existential threats including the 2010-2019 unjust sanction driven by the same western countries imposed under the umbrella of the UN. At the time the resolutions and mechanisms also served as a continuation of conflict in the Horn of Africa.

The above unjust and unfair treatment defies UN human rights resolutions and international principles that underline the vitality of dignified engagement and international cooperation predicated on partnership. Eritrea’s experience is a testimony that the confrontational approach does not create any dividend in the promotion of human rights. It is unprecedented that the approach is draining the overstretched resources that could have been used in other pressing priorities of greater significance.

In the above situation of existential external threats for almost two decades, Eritrea remained resilient and despite challenges and problems, tangible progress has been achieved including on human rights. After the peace, security, and development declarations with Ethiopia and Somalia in 2019, with a wider implication in the revitalization of the horn of Africa regional peace, security, and development, Eritrea has developed a national development road map.

Despite the COVID pandemic situation and the renewed futile efforts of hostile dominant forces with unwarranted geopolitical agendas and interests to abort the newly emerging regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa, including in the pretext of the Tigray crisis, Eritrea’s development effort in some productive sectors and critical areas of comparative advantages is going on and the effect of the pandemic is being controlled. The crisis was instigated by the premeditated attacks of the defunct TPLF clique for regime change agenda in Ethiopia and invade Eritrea, to make a regime change and occupy sovereign Eritrean territories. It is incumbent upon the HRC to rectify its view on the crisis and stop its allegations on Eritrea.

Madam President

In essence, the draft resolution is based on the unacceptable and unproductive as well as already rejected Special Rapporteur report presented in the present session. Eritrea rejects the resolution aiming extension the mandate for a further one year and will not cooperate with the Special Rapporteur for the following reasons:-

1. violates the principles of sovereignty and disregards Eritrea’s national context, needs, and human betterment ideals
2. attempts to portray an unwarranted systemic human rights failure negating Eritrea’s ground reality and the attendant tangible progress as well as challenges
3. relies on the unacceptable human rights benchmarks that undermine Eritrea’s national context, ownership, priorities, and human betterment ideas and has not created any dividend in the last ten years and will not in the future.
4. is full of presumptuous qualifications and relies on unverified claims from dubious sources and others who have a long history of advocating for “regime change”
5. There is no consent of Eritrea on the mandate

Nevertheless, the effort to mainstream human rights in national development is being strengthened and expanded. In this regard, Eritrea is committed to expand and strengthen engagement and international cooperation among others through the UPR and with the OHCHR on its three priorities presented to the office for technical capacity building. Nevertheless, it again rejects the continuation of unfair and unjust country-specific mandate under the new draft resolution being considered in this 47th HRC session.

Madam President

In view of the above-stated position and the collective and shared responsibility that we all have to the ideals of humanity, human rights concerns ought to be addressed through genuine engagement and cooperation and decided by consensus. The situation is complicated by the protracted politicization of human rights creating polarization however dictates resort to voting. As such, consensus should not be a bunker to be utilized by certain western countries perpetuating political ill-intent in the pretext of human rights to subdue developing nations in particular.

In the above context, we call upon members of the Council with genuine positions in the promotion of human rights that befits the ideals of humanity to REJECT the draft resolution and send a strong message that business as usual is not the future. The need to establish a unity of thinking, practice, and organization against politicization that endangers the decisive importance of the HRC as a body that emerged as a result of the failed experience of its predecessor is still of decisive importance for consideration.

I thank you!